Considerations of gender, ableism, power and women’s lived experiences of disability

How does your work reflect the intersections of heritage, disability, and gender?

My recent and current projects centre disability and gender.  On one of these projects, I have been fortunate to be working with a stellar team of disabled and non-disabled women to explore  how women with disabilities experience gender-based violence in the Caribbean.  Our work foregrounds considerations of gender, ableism, power and women’s lived experiences of disability in the region.  For me, these experiences cannot be adequately understood or analyzed without reflecting on African heritage. I understand our current socio-political, cultural, economic context –  the context that informs disability, gender and violence— as deeply informed by our historical and our present-day experiences of colonial processes. For Black women (and for women of other racialized identities in the Caribbean) this is distinctly shaped by the mass kidnap and enslavement of Africans, the emergent logics of race, disability, gender, class and their material effects, and the ongoing precarious geopolitical status of our territories.  Materializing justice for women with disabilities in our region requires addressing the implications of these conditions.

While these histories of violence, harm, and disenfranchisement must be acknowledged and accounted for, the acts of resistance, survival, hope are also interwoven.  These acts are individual and collective. I view disabled Black women’s narratives of surviving and ‘doing life’ while they face interpersonal and structural forms of gendered violence as expressions of this legacy re-inventing itself across generations. 

How do you practice self-care and resilience while working in spaces that often marginalize Black voices, perspectives, and/or needs?

As a Black woman, practicing self-care has and continues to be a challenging journey. Intentionally stepping back and stepping away when I need it has been difficult. I am still learning– and based on what I know of many of my Black friends and colleagues,  this is not unique to me. I do think that having a support system around that is honest, that cares about my holistic well-being, and shares my values has been important to encouraging me to work on defining and practicing self-care on my own terms. But full disclosure– this is still a work in progress!

What partnerships or collaborations have been most meaningful in advancing your work?

I have found the opportunity to work collaboratively to be such a gift.  There is such rich knowledge and experience in these spaces and I have learnt so much.  Working from the Caribbean, this has meant collaborating with partners in other territories in the region to build conversations and strategies,  establishing diasporic partnerships and working with collaborators to explore disability issues as they play out in our diverse contexts. It has also involved working alongside community-based organizations focused on diverse yet intersecting issues. The teams I am part of are comprised of disabled and non-disabled members, and individuals of varied racialized, gender, and sexual identities.  These collaborations have allowed us to  collectively reflect on how to operationalize decolonial principles focused on justice, not only  in the outcomes of our work, but also in our processes of collaboration. This has entailed reflecting on power, voice, and care as we work towards achieving equity in our praxis.