A one panel cartoon in black ink with a plain white background featuring a cerebral palsy man holding a picket sign that reads “DIS – MONSTERIZE DISABILITY ” The man is looking straight forward standing on the sidewalk. At the right of the panel is written “DANIEL AARON HARRIS” in the far right bottom corner is written “ (C) 2021 Daniel Aaron Harris
Dis – Monsterize Disability
Monsterize is defined as
To make something or another into a monster or the appearance of
Or
To give another very bad reputation, demonize, vilify.
As a cerebral palsy man I have experienced monsterization along with a lot of people with disabilities. As an artist and children book author my mission is to change the narrative of people with disabilities are viewed and betrayed in media outlets. I chose “Dis instead of De” for a impactful a word play. Bobby Blue is a cerebral palsy character created by me to help people big and small see the value within the disability community.
Photo of Daniel Aaron: a white man siting in a chair in front of bookselves. He has brown hair with a beard. He has a serious expression. He is wearing a yellow t-shirt that says “Fallen Walls”. He has a tattoo of a lion on his left arm.
Daniel Aaron Harris as an artist, actor and author aims to change the narrative of disability. He lives in Memphis TN, where he runs a ministry called Fallen Walls. Daniel has written 7 children’s books and is currently working on his doctorate of ministry at Western Theological Seminary.
Website- www.fallenwalls901.org Facebook- Daniel Aaron Harris Instagram and Twitter- danielfw901 YouTube – Daniel Aaron Harris
Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered where you went? Because all you see is sadness, anger, emptiness or loneliness. A shell of a person who used to genuinely smile.
Have you ever been in the middle of a crowd or surrounded by family, yet felt so alone? A deep, soul-wrenching loneliness.
Have you ever woken up and wished you hadn’t? And, you wished you hadn’t with a passion so deep that it shakes you to the core; it terrifies you.
Have you ever felt so empty that you don’t even know if you’re alive? Like you’re a black hole that is eating every emotion, but you can’t feel anything.
Have you ever laid in bed wondering if your family, your children, would be happier without you? Because you feel like you are this giant burden that is dragging everyone around you down and nothing you do is right anyways.
Have you ever asked yourself why? Why me? Why is this happening? Why do I feel this way? What can’t I just snap out of it?
This is depression at its finest. It’s dark and light. It’s happy and sad. It’s crying one moment and being angry, so angry, the next. It’s putting on a smile to mask the pain. It’s playing with your children as if you hadn’t just been in the bathroom crying. It’s a Black Hole that sucks the life out of you until you don’t even know who you are anymore. It’s like drowning, you’re sinking into an ocean of pain and you can’t breathe and you can’t get to the surface.
And, you can’t explain it. Because you’re scared. You’re terrified that no one will understand. That they’ll judge you. They’ll think you’re crazy. But you’re so scared all of the time of what will come next. What if you don’t get better? What if it never ends?
This is Depression.
The Lonely Girl
Image Descriptions: The image on the left is a colorful painting featuring a mother and daughter, a bunny, flowers, and birds. The sky is purple, the air is orange, and the grass is green. There are three Daisies with white petals. Near the flowers, the mother and daughter silhouette appear to be walking away. The rabbit watches them go. The birds fly over the flowers. The piece on the left uses colored pencils to create an image called “The Lonely Girl” who is sitting on a swing hung from a single branch of the tree. There is a bird sitting on the branch looking down at the lonely girl. The ground is green and grassy with several flowers. The air is downcast colors of brown and blue.
My body doesn’t work – they say – to please the male gaze.
My body doesn’t work to cope with the 8h-per-day working schedule.
My body doesn’t work to be drafted, to give birth or to please whoever demands to be pleased.
My body is a dividing line between my light and the world.
But my body works to dance, badly and clumsily, under the rain when nobody is watching.
It works to punch, to save itself.
It works to grow fruits, to get muddy, to taste the wind.
My body works as a lair for non-normative pleasures.
While my sex is a hibernating winter, my nerves are a hieroglyph of orgasms randomly spread throughout the skin.
My body doesn’t serve any purpose, it doesn’t serve anybody because it is not built for serfdom.
No body is.
My body is built to enjoy witchcraft, to hug the others, to give birth to fantasies, to swallow life until it’s over.
My body serves ME. I am its purpose. It works to heal me. To heal with and for my people.
A purpose for which society, the same one that has always named and built us disabled, has never been able at all.
Title: TW. Ableism. Poet Name: Cénix C. Callejo.
Long story short, this poem was written in 2017, at a homeless day shelter, to remind myself that I –a violence survivor- as well as any person in any difficult or similar situation, was worthy and deserved the job I was denied, the home I wasn’t able to afford and the safety I wasn’t guaranteed with. I hope others can find comfort in it and it can help them to navigate their own paths whenever it gets tricky, and I also hope it can be a tiny contribution towards a much needed social change.
Bio: Cénix is a biologist and an environmental activist. They are a MSc in Biology, a Wildlife Rehabilitator and Environmental Educator Specialized in Grassroots Community Conservation, at different farmers and indigenous-led conservation projects. They have studied and volunteered/worked within the Environmental Field at Spain, UK, Greece, Peru and Ecuador.
Besides Wildlife Protection, Cénix has also been and is actively involved within several activism fields, regarding Mental Health, Disability, Survivorship, Homelessness and Transfeminism, amongst others.
After several episodes of male violence and mobbing linked to a severe work accident at their last job placement in 2019, they are currently being hosted at Spain, recovering while working and expanding their studies, seeking to expand their working opportunities in order to be able to fully afford again their own room and life expenses.
Photo:
[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: A frontal picture of Cénix, a white person with black curly hair to the shoulders, from head to knees. They are at a forest. Their right hand is grabbing a branch tree, their left arm is hanging. They are wearing grey sports trousers, a colourful shirt with flowers and a pink sweater. They are smiling and wearing black and white glasses. They are also wearing a red fanny pack with a pin of a yellow daffodil. There is a big rock behind them and green trees at the back.]
Where to read more: You can find more about their poetry (in Spanish) or contact them at their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Oniroteca/
This image shows a meter measuring the level of awareness from low, moderate, high, to maximum. The red dial appears to be moving quickly on maximum awareness.
March is disability awareness month in Indiana and Indiana Disability Justice realizes that awareness is a great first step to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Awareness is important because we need to acknowledge ableism and the discrimination that people with disabilities face so that we can reduce and eliminate them. The awareness that people with disabilities are just as human as anyone else is necessary in order to fully include people into our society, communities, workplaces, neighborhoods, and peer groups. Even though we need more than awareness, awareness is a factor in ending violence against people with disabilities. With all this in mind, IDJ will be publishing different kinds of artistic pieces that showcases the perspectives of disabled people. Some of these pieces will relate directly to disabilities. However, some of them will not have anything to do with disability. This is because some of our artists want to remind us that they are more than their disabilities. Please visit us often to grow your perspective!
Post credit: Jody Powers, IDJ Hub Coordinator and IDJ Leadership Action Team member and Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams, IDJ Co-Leader and IDJ Leadership Action Team member
