Back in November we held two events celebrating disabled women in the arts as part of Rise Liverpool’s female-focussed programme. Our annual Rushton lecture was back, this time with an all-female panel, and we ended the day with a raucous cabaret night hosted by the marvellous Midgitte Bardot! A fun, informative and thought-provoking experience, here are just some of the points raised, as well as questions we’re still asking ourselves…
1. 'In order to find your confidence, you need to find your squad.'
Kicking off our Rushton lecture by taking a page out of Taylor Swift’s book, theatre maker and Graeae Associate Director, Nickie Miles-Wildin took us through her career and the amazing #squad of disabled women who’ve helped her along the way. It was great to hear so many of the artists we’ve worked with on the list; Julie McNamara, Liz Carr, Jenny Sealey, Francesca Martinez, Jess Thom among others. A round of audience participation saw even more put forward, including Nadia Naharaja, Claire Cunningham, Jo Bannon, with the conversation continuing over on Twitter:
2. Leave the ladder down.
It was great to hear all the love in the room for our friends and featured artists, but no #SquadGoals are complete without being open to new members! We heard about “keeping the ladder that I’ve slowly stairlifted my way up down” for the next generation to scale, and so it was exciting to hear new names suggested from the floor.
3. Is this the greatest love story ever told?
Nickie told us about a romantic weekend in a woodland cabin, where she fell head over heels with a model… the social model – and they’re still going strong!
4. The Aww Factor
Chaired by Dr. Erin Pritchard, Nickie was joined by panellists Jackie Hagan, Bethany Murray and Tammy Reynolds (aka Midgitte Bardot), and together they coined a new term for being perceived as needing to be rescued. We agree that it sounds like a very interesting TV show!
4. Intersecting identities – ‘people forget what’s going on’
Belonging to various and intersecting marginalised groups, our panel spoke about pressures to choose just one to identify as. “I go there on the leg ticket and talk about class or I’m invited to something on the queer ticket... and I’ll go and I’ll talk about disability” is how Jackie Hagan described the constant need to remind audiences and programmers of this.
5. Nickie Miles-Wildin dreams about being chased down the street by giant marshmallows?
Discussing TV show ‘Glee’s’ suggestion that wheelchair users dream of being non-disabled street-dancers, Nickie shed some light on what she actually dreams about. Sounds terrifying!
6. Some things never change...
Being told ‘I’d never get work if I didn’t lose weight’, being objectified, sexualised and subjected to impossible beauty standards – the pressures faced by disabled and non-disabled women alike also made plenty of appearances.
7. Disability arts can learn a lot from popstars?
Having started out with a Taylor Swift reference, it seemed appropriate that our keynote address concluded with Nickie quoting Sister Sledge – “We are family, I’ve got all my sisters with me”.
8. A prosthetic leg makes for a surprisingly good pint glass.
Onto our cabaret night, and we have Jackie Hagan to thank for the revelation, though we aren’t planning to try it anytime soon.
Photo by Fiona Brehony
9. We're not very good at playing 'Celebrity Stumps'.
We think we got this one right though!
Photo by Brian Roberts
10. Katherine Araniello’s films are as iconic as ever.
It being Disability History Month, we took the opportunity to commemorate this visionary artist and filmmaker with a screening of some of her classics.
11. We should have brought a bigger tarpaulin.
There was quite the clean-up operation after Midgitte Bardot’s take on Bridget Jones, but it was totally worth it. Sorry to the Bluecoat!
Before...
After!
Photos by Brian Roberts
Check out the full videos of the Rushton lecture and panel discussion over on our YouTube channel, and don't forget to book for our upcoming DaDaFest Scratch night to catch more brilliant performances from disabled women, including Tammy Reynolds herself! 27 February at Unity Theatre.