RRR x Gemaal op Zuid

Centering around dialogues of lived experiences, and texts of Disability Justice and Crip Theory, during the session we will collectively sense/work toward access, by gathering in ways comfortable to varied abilities. Gemaal op Zuid will offer a place where we can sit, lie down and rest our head for a moment, or stimm it out with pen and paper. Somewhere between the crip and the temporarily-abled, we will make space for varied ways of knowing. During the session, Sandra and Raffia will guide participants through forms of sharing that offer fluid entrances for reimagining our interdependent body-minds.

The event will host Dutch sign language interpreters for Deaf participants. An archive of the event will be accessible online after the event. Gemaal op Zuid is wheelchair accessible, with the exception of an in-house wheelchair accessible toilet. The nearest wheelchair accessible toilet is at 190m distance from the location. For folks requiring more detailed information on the venue or any access questions, please contact RRR via readingroomrotterdam@gmail.com.

Following the workshop, an Afterlife document was made to help share the session with those not able to join in-person. It is accessible here. 

Sandra Lange is a performance designer, independent researcher, writer and soon-to-be podcast host situated in the Netherlands. Her understanding of the interlocking systems of privilege and power has come about through involvement with (non-) academic contexts of art, activism and scholarship. The design of spaces, exchanges, and trainings is rooted in intersectionality, theories of complex embodiment, body-mind practices and crip cultural literacy. Lange is interested in building connections that amplify the knowledge of disabled and chronically ill folks, for example by offering friction as a tool to unpack ableism in institutional infrastructures. As a crip coach Lange shares knowledge about self-care, energy management and disability advocacy with people who newly identify as disabled and/or sick. In her research project she investigates the fluidity of a bodies’ ability and mobility in relation to time and pace by practicing radical slowness.

Raffia Li (TA/they/she), works with poetry melting in minor edges/senses, in forms of performances, videos or installations. In their research, they explore the physicality of languages as actions/rituals/sites, to sense the gaps/gates under the signs, disrupt the ableist hegemonic knowledge and norms bounded by the speaking/written words, nurture/hold the in-between meanings and remake the poetic space of relations. They tilt in slow dialoguing. Their art practice is deeply influenced by poetry, theatre of the oppressed, reading of Zhuangzi, their field research over shadow puppetry and their rituals in China, Thailand, Indonesia and India, their learning experience of being in a sign language art collective Shape of Language & their actions in the hutongs and streets, running a community art festival Mini Shadowplay Festival, diary/letter exchanges with friends, their MA study at Dutch Art Institute, observations of their dreaming state, and the river near Grandma 芹’s yard.