Reid My Mind

TR:
Hey everyone!
Before we begin the podcast, I have a quick request.

2024 makes 10 years of producing Reid My Mind Radio. I’d love to hear from listeners, long time or new, that have a particular relationship to a specific episode, topic raised or the podcast itself.

I’ve received some really cool emails over the years from listeners who shared how this podcast has affected their lives.

It would be really cool to hear the voices from the family and share them here on the podcast in some way.

If you have a memory or comment to share, or maybe you just want to wish the podcast happy anniversary, please, send me an audio memo from your phone or computer.

Email it to ReidMyMindRadio@gmail.com.
Or, call the ReidMyMindRadio Hotline at (570) 798-7343 that’s (570)79T Reid. (A silly obnoxious giggle) and leave a message.

It would really mean a lot to me. And I think it could make for a cool episode to capture the moment.

I appreciate you family!
Aight! Let’s get into it!

— Swoosh transition
— Clock ticking…

TR:
The clock no longer symbolizes the expiration of time.
As in,

— “Times Up!” (modulated yelling voice)

TR:
Rather, it represents the new day!

— Birds chirping

We kicked off the new with SoundScribe,
a promising young global majority led organization from the UK making creative, innovative.

Today, we’re headed to Massachusetts.

England to Massachusetts, a path traveled before that sort of began something new.

(Giggles)
Don’t worry, this time, it’s not about conquering, genocide, human bondage or any of that colonialism.
We’re moving forward with the idea of a world free of the ism’s and phobias.
If you’re joining for the first time, I strongly encourage you to go back and listen to the entire season,
but specifically, Times Up, which provides some more context for this episode.

I’m Thomas Reid, host and producer of this podcast.

It’s time to think differently about access.
It’s time for an Access Revolution!

— Reid My Mind Radio Intro

— Helicopter flying over and outdoor protest. Sounds of people chanting, whistling and commotion.

TR:
(A voice speaking to the crowd via PA system)
The Access Revolution will not only be captioned and described,
it will include ASL interpretation,
It will be free from physical barriers and
in general a welcoming space for all.
—

TR:
Thinking and acting differently about accessibility, requires all of us working together.

Sam:
I’m Sam Gould. I’m an Ashkenazi, Jewish woman with salt and pepper hair, five feet tall.

TR:
Among other things, Sam’s the president of Open Door Theater.

Sam:
Open Door Theater has a 40 year mission of being an accessible theater and a training theater. We train actors, and we train backstage folks, and front of the house folks and now ASL interpreters, audio describers, captioners. It’s a training ground for people.

TR:
Sam’s also co founder of Think Outside the Vox.

Sam:
Along with Christopher Robinson

(Sam & Christopher overlap saying “Christopher Robinson”)

Christopher:
Christopher Robinson, African American male. He him pronouns, and like to say that I’m an aspiring Morgan Freeman salt and pepper beard and curly licorice locks on the top.

TR:
An ASL Interpreter who found his way into performing arts.

Christopher:
In the mid 90s, I was working as a staff American Sign Language interpreter for a very influential deaf Executive Director, and because I was in proximity to that director, who was a theater performing arts lover and concert lover, I was in proximity to these art spaces. And then I became it. I was the beacon. Because where else you’re going to find a black male sign language interpreter in the profession, it’s really scarce. The last numbers we heard as of 2024 was that 11% of the entire profession of American Sign Language interpreters in the registry. Only 11% is African American, and that’s 2024 Never mind 1995 when nobody’s even counting.

TR:
Even as a Black ASL interpreter, Christopher isn’t of the culture.

Christopher:
I was placed in those spaces by well intentioned white deaf practitioners, white sign language interpreters to be the interpreter for these black shows that have black content. We approached how to tackle the text of blackness, but I wasn’t born and raised by Black Deaf people, and neither were the white interpreters I was working with, or the white sign language coaches that I was working with, so they had nothing to offer other than just putting me on a soap box in front of a stage and watching my Black hand sign.

TR:
We’re talking about the importance of representation, authenticity, cultural competency.

That of course applies to all forms of access.

Sam:
The accessibility landscape, and especially the AD landscape, was very checking the box.

It was very much either non existent or performed by the old guard of people who had been doing it for years.
So we came to the 80 party a little late. Our audio description was competent, but it certainly wasn’t culturally competent.

We started to hear from patrons in the open door space, but also in the community, blind patrons that wanted more.

TR:
Then there’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
The one thing that seems minor, but it’s really the compounding affect
the culmination of many things that just makes you say, times up!

We’re talking about access from all perspectives.

Christopher:
Well, what it came down to was, there was a theater company that wanted to do, and listen to the side of my Downton Abbey voice.
They wanted to do the right thing and the noble thing real intention, and get some sign language interpreters on the stage for this show. They wanted them to Shadow Mirror the hearing actors, so that any deaf person could go and see the show.
So they started doing their development research, and they started pricing out, well, how much is it going to be to get sign language interpreters on the stage? And the pricing points that they saw were for the context of legal Sign Language Interpreting work, medical sign language interpreter work in academic spaces, and that does not translate over into the art space.

TR:
Based on their estimates, the theater did some serious fundraising to pay sign language interpreters.

Christopher:
Fast forward through a conversation with me and a couple of deaf stakeholders that were involved. The development department of this theater company realized that if they do the anti ableist thing, which is, instead of hiring sign language interpreters, hire deaf actors. Now what you think about that? So they in the in the effort to be accessible, they were being ableist by not doing what their theater company was designed to do, which is to employ artists, and in this case, Deaf artists, to shadow non deaf artists on the stage. And where they needed the sign language interpreters was in the production room, in the rehearsal room.

TR:
That’s access for content creators as well as consumers.

Sam:
We were hearing from our blind patrons in the theater that
they were just grateful to have ad so they never actually asked for quality AD.
They weren’t feeling like they were getting the full picture of audio description in the theater when there were such great, diverse and cultural pieces going on

They were getting perfunctory dance steps, step together, step together, kick, kick.

They weren’t getting what the description was of, what the richness of and the vibrancy of the costuming, actors, characters, all of that. And they weren’t getting the sexually explicit content. Frankly, they were getting things sanitized to them, and that was making them feel infantilized.

TR:
Then there’s the perspective of Access providers.

Sam:
With respect to the AD space, we were hearing from a lot of recent trainees, and frankly, a lot of long term veterans that their training and their practices that there’s no place for race in audio description.

TR:
We’re talking about the “old guard” or the established “AD experts”
telling those who want to be inclusive and equitable that there’s no place in AD for that.

They are still out there.
They continue to practice their exclusion, but even worse,
they’re still training others.

Be advised, if your AD training isn’t including cultural competency, you may want to go elsewhere.

Sam:
from the few audio describers of color that we knew that were entering the field or in the field, they were actually being a little bit held back and corrected when they tried to put race. Into the space that was that was not welcoming race in the space. So that was, to us, an aha moment that was like, Okay, well, we know how to, from a theater open doors, but really kick them in and do something about this.

Christopher:
And Sam, I would add the ironic tragedy about that is that these colleagues of color were being put in these spaces for shows that have people of color and then stifled, not to mention that there’s color on the stage, yeah.

Why are you casting me to be in this space, only to not mention why you put me in the space, because there are some very specific choices and intentions on the stage in that space.

Sam:
Yeh, and also being left at home for the classic shows, which what?

Christopher:
Ohhh!

Sam:
There’s a deficit of audio describers in our region, and the audio describers of color were only being used for the shows that had color in them.

— Clock ticking

Christopher:
Then all the stories that Sam and I were experiencing just started bleeding together. And as they came together, Sam and I were able to see more egregious kind of violations of just out and out racism to colleagues who were doing this access work, ableism, doing this access work. So we needed to respond to the demand, but we also needed to take care of our people.

— Music Begins: A repetitive synth that feels like it’s foreshadowing something in the near future.

TR:
They began thinking more about the issues.
Thinking about ways to create a more inclusive space in live theater for their people.

Deaf and disabled performers, interpreters,
Blind AD consultants, disabled consumers…

They began thinking outside the vox!

— Music: The foreshadowing, revealed … a bass drum drop into a driving hip hop beat.

Christopher:
I love poetry. I love the abstractions. I live in that space.

So this idea is twofold. One is language based, and the other one is almost tactile, sensory, visual, the language or the notion of Vox or the voice. And we kind of think about the Latin and how V, O X, as a term is used in voice, Voice of the People, or the Vox.

Well, we want to think outside,

thinking about the voices that are not represented, the voices that are on the margin. So outside of the majority voice.

TR:
Ok, it’s tactile time with T.Reid.

Take your finger… c’mon, go ahead,
take your finger and trace the letter V in the air.

Christopher: :
When we think about the letter V, that depression into the valley and then upward movement out of the valley, that architecture of the V, we think a heart monitor, up down, up down. The humanity comes first. You can talk compliance all you want, but that’s not about the humanity.
Where is the human in this work that we’re doing?

TR:
The letter O.

Christopher: :
Our letter O is not spherical, is not a circle, it is box shaped.

We think about, what’s the frame? What is the frame of the work that the venue or the theater company, the arts company or the person? What’s their frame of reference, in terms of accessibility, we start where the person is at, what’s their world view. And then we have a conversation with you, beginning there.

TR:
And the x?

Christopher: :
We think of the word intersection. We think of a literal intersection, where all identities, experiences, lived experiences, professional experiences, where they intersect.

So we were at that frame box that’s the individual. Now we’re talking about the intersection of identities, assets, in terms of the business that’s an arts organization and the people within it. How can we create some value that circles back to that letter V to make a better human experience, we know that disability is a part of the spectrum of humanity, all in the art space. So that’s the poetry of think outside the vox and what it means to us and how we deploy it.

TR:
Think Outside the Vox is serving;
– the individual as in the audience members
– the professionals or artists and access providers or ASL interpreters and audio describers
– the business as in the arts organizations, theater companies or actual theatrical spaces.

Doing this effectively often requires additional advocacy.
What some might call Accessibility 101 or sensitivity training.

Christopher:
Things that our colleagues are exhausted, explaining to every venue again and again.

So we wanted to be available when called upon by our deaf, disabled and blind colleagues, to be able to go in and do some of that triage work.

TR in conversation with Think Outside the Vox: 23:03
So exactly what does that triage look like?

Christopher:
For ASL spaces and deaf spaces, often there’s a lot of email interchange and there’s a lot of jargon that theater companies email to sign language interpreters that are contractual and transactional, but when it’s working with our Deaf artists, they did not orient our Deaf Artists and our Deaf interpreters to working with the theater venues. So our hearing sign language interpreters were more oriented into the business transactions of the space than our deaf peers were. So when our deaf peers did not respond, or did not respond to the company or the venue the way the venue expected, then there was a lot of ableism and language and reply by email that was going toward the Deaf people such as

well. Are you sure you’re qualified to do this work?
How do I know that the translation is going to be accurate?

These people have lived experience, and their professionals look them up on LinkedIn, and you’ll see that they have more credentials than you. What they have not done is worked with you, and you provided no onboarding scenario for these colleagues who have expertise in accessibility, but you’re providing this orientation and onboarding suite of information and time to all your non disabled artists. HOST, administrators, technicians coming in, but you just want to plug and play the accessibility people as if you order in a pizza.

TR:
Christopher was clear to note that the Deaf artists and interpreters are perfectly capable of advocating for themselves,
but he recognizes the additional labor that they shouldn’t be responsible for taking on.

I find it quite similar to Blind professionals forced to take on extra work to resolve access issues around completing forms or working with inaccessible software.

Sam:
And also in the AD space, it looks like actually mindset change and cultural shift, because it was sort of revolutionary to include a blind expert on the AD team.

It’s rudimentary in the ASL space, there’s usually a director of artistic sign language when it’s being done, right? But our colleagues in the theater spaces were not even considering that they needed a blind expert consultant on the team.

TR:
I imagine perhaps, for some of those unfamiliar with disability,
it may be more persuasive to hear from other non disabled people championing the benefits of
hiring disabled professionals as opposed to hearing directly from disabled professionals themselves.

This additional work, is all extra uncompensated labor and time that can take a toll on your physical and emotional health.

Sam:
then also in the theater spaces, it’s very common to have what they call a primary and a secondary describer. So the primary describer is the action boots on the ground in the moment description, and then the secondary describer is doing the pre show.

The disparity in the pay scale, in those was significant. It was like a 1/3 2/3 pay scale versus the workload was not shared more evenly as well. So we’re trying to make a more equitable model, and, frankly, a better quality model for the AD.

Christopher:
frankly, that was going on in the ASL space. You know, American Sign Language has so much visibility, and I use that word very specifically, whereas the ad work is literally hidden in the back of the room in the dark. Nobody knows it’s happening unless you’re wearing a headset, right? Whereas the ASL space is literally front and center. But that gives us illusion that there’s progressive decision making in that space, but behind the scenes, the paperwork was just as inequitable where our Deaf colleagues were getting a fraction, a third or a fourth of the compensation for showing up doing the same work to assist American Sign Language interpreters like myself, who are not deaf to be able to sign accurately.
Now how much sense does that make if I’m a sign language interpreter with all the credentials of A to Z, I should be proficient in the language. Well, the reality is, most sign language interpreters do not come from a native first language, primary language competency in American Sign Language. That’s why we’re bringing in this deaf what might be the equivalent of a dialect coach or an ASL coach, to make sure that our language in the translation is aligned with what’s on stage.

And these folks are getting paid less, and the sign language interpreters who are not deaf, we’re getting, you know, courtroom level, medical level compensation in terms of rates, and our Deaf colleagues weren’t.

Sam:
We were just in the Kennedy Center Leadership Exchange in arts and disabilities, which is a great space to talk about best practices in Arts Access. And one of the things that we kept hearing that was really upsetting from some practitioners, from some access coordinators at large institutions, was one of the ways they save money is by giving their experts free tickets instead of paying them for their expertise.

Christopher:
Starbucks cards, coffee cards.

Sam:
that makes my blood boil.

TR:
That’s the recipe for making real change.
Step one, bring your blood to a boil.

Then add the rest of the ingredients.

Christopher:
I think Sam, you jumped on that domain name too. It’s not real, unless you have a domain.

TR:
In addition to that domain, ThinkOutsideTheVox.org,
became a 501c3 company in order to raise funds to do this work.

Sam:
So we said, we know how to train, and we need to reach out and find the best trainers in the area that we can.

Sam:
we figured if we wanted gig workers, we had to make it easy for them to learn this skill and to fund it for them and get the grant funding for it.

Sam:
And we’re very lucky in Massachusetts to have the Massachusetts Cultural Council be a partner and a funder and a supporter in a lot of Arts Access. areas.
And so we got an innovation grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

TR:
The training, which weaves in the importance of Blind centered, equitable and
culturally responsive access
throughout the syllabus is just the first step in a very intentional process.

You have to find the participants. Which is often considered difficult, until you think about where to look.

And you can’t understate the importance of the training being free.

Sam:
We reached into areas where we figured we would find great describers. So the Boston black Writers Association, the Asian American playwrights Association, actors of color in our region, BIPOC, AAPI, et cetera, blind consumers of audio description and blind artists, and also the local interpreter pool, because we figured that would dovetail nicely into the audio description work. And we put together our first cohort of trainees and started there.

TR:
The virtual training over multiple weeks, was just the first part.
A key component is what happens after the training.

Members of the cohort were immediately given paid opportunities to write and narrate AD in actual productions with other seasoned professionals.

Welcoming professionals.

Sam:
And then when we were able to run the class a second time, we used the first cohort to train the second group, because there were already 14 describers up and running and working and picking up a lot of the slack of audio description in Massachusetts, because we had a deficit of audio describers to begin with, never mind audio describers who are culturally competent.

TR in conversation with Think Outside the Vox: 35:43
What type of impact did this crew of 14 have on that deficit?

Sam:
with respect to the hard numbers of audio describers of color. Prior to our project, there was one and a half audio describers who were non white, and I say half because one of the audio describers of color went to do more voice over and radio work, and frankly, one blind expert in the field,

Sam:
Modestly speaking, we doubled the number of audio describers that were actively working in live theater.

We definitely increased the capacity of theaters to be able to offer audio description, because there just weren’t enough providers to go around.

TR:
It actually extends beyond audio description in live theater and naturally includes image description in museums as well.

That increase in work opportunities include ASL.

Christopher: :
We were working with a handful of interpreters of color for at least 20 different theater performing arts venues and their seasons.

TR:
A season equates to an average of 3 to 4 productions in the year.
That’s somewhere between 60 and 80 individual productions.

And then there’s the touring productions traveling an hour to an hour and a half away within the state.

Christopher: :
or they’ll cross the line into Rhode Island or Connecticut. The same pool of people are being dispatched there.

So the visibility, especially for the ASL interpreter and the ASL coach space with this handful, has made those venues who cross attend other ASL interpreter shows where there are these interpreters of color. Then they want to poach and grab those ASL interpreters and bring them to other spaces.

Christopher:
Literally, there were a handful of interpreters of color that were actively working in theater performing arts spaces. Now they’re closer to 11 that are working in those spaces. That includes individuals who are deaf.

Christopher: :
Now, generally, people might say, well, that’s not staggering.

there’s less about how many individuals we increased.
I think the numbers are in the demand.

TR:
The more TOV on boards new theaters, the greater the visibility which further increases the demand.

Meaning, the more people are aware and are able to understand and see the benefits of increasing equitable access, the more it is adopted.

The benefits include everyone involved.
* Benefits of AD Cohort

Sam:
From our first cohort of culturally competent audio describers, it increased the workload of the local blind expert, quadrupled her work once we started to teach the industry good practices, to make sure that they were including a blind professional in the audio description work that was like life changing and door opening for this one individual, but also for all the theaters.

One of our actors that was trained, he’s a great orator and writer, but he’s got a toddler at home, so he’s been struggling to keep the acting work and keep food on the table, and by doing the audio description, it’s more finite in time, and he’s able to make bills paid with his child at home. And so it really has been instrumental for the gig economy workers in our region.

TR:
Many of these gig workers fall into one or more marginalized groups.

Christopher: :
There are other colleagues that I’m working with in the sign language space that are able to turn down jobs not out of arrogance, but because the venue hasn’t done their due diligence.

TR:
The venues that weren’t doing the appropriate on boarding or paying equitably.

Today, with workers having more welcoming opportunities , they can now say;
Times UP!

“We’re not working with you until you fix this and show us the respect we deserve.

Christopher: :
it’s been a wake up call.
People come back and say, Hey, Chris Sam, can you help us find this person or that person? Because these other ones actually flat out, turned us down, and we’re able to ask, Well, why?

It’s a different kind of conversation than what it used to be, which was just a lot of our peers calling us and saying they’re causing us damage. They’re causing us trauma.

I think the scales have tipped in the other direction, which is a wonderful problem to have.
TR:
For those who don’t necessarily appreciate the anecdotal, TOV is collecting quantitative metrics as well.

Sam:
Certainly with Open Door Theater, we can take in exactly the metrics of who’s coming to the performances for what access service. But we’re starting to get and collect that information from other theaters, and we’re getting and collecting that information from the patrons who are attending the performances.

What worked, what didn’t work. And we’re also getting the information from our cohorts of audio describers as to what jobs they’re taking, what jobs they’re doing, and the feedback that they’re getting directly from the patrons in the space.

TR:
Keeping focus on the humanity in access continues to guide Sam and Christopher into their future plans for TOV.
Christopher:
When you’re an access provider who is plugged in, brought into content that’s very specific to the lived experience of the provider, whether it’s a August Wilson piece or Baldwin piece, or some of the more contemporary pieces that are black centric or BIPOC centric?

Well, you’re getting saturated in that journey, and a lot of it is trauma written in some of these stories.

So some of the future things that Vox is considering is,

how do we create a respite space and an information resource repository for sustaining our access providers that are exponentially more exposed to trauma because of the content that they’re working on and The frequency they’re working on than some of the artists who are producing the shows themselves.
So we got to sustain our people, not just refer them and plug them in into these spaces.

So some kind of sustainability, resilience, mental health, support and resource for our gig workers is in our future?

Sam:
We’re trying really hard to not be global, national too fast because of capacity and burnout.

We’re trying to make sure that we are sustainable in what we’re doing and creating a model and a blueprint, and then we can work on helping other people distribute that elsewhere.

TR:
In addition to more culturally equitable AD Trainings,
TOV has plans to assist artists to engage with legislators
to assure their needs are properly being met in government.

Sam:
We’re working on an exciting project with the local arts Boston calendar, and they are putting out a calendar that is accessible and sortable by access point, which we’ve needed in the sector so badly, so that want to go see a show that’s interpreted in sign language or audio describe. You can sort by that access point and then the audio description pre show is loaded right into that website, and the ASL blog is loaded right into that website. And you can see who the providers are, because you might be a fan of a certain audio describer or director of artistic sign language.

Every city should have one.

TR:
Every city should have a Sam Gould and Christopher Robinson and Think Outside the VOX!

— Music begins: A bouncy up tempo groove.

TR in conversation with Think Outside the Vox:
You know Sam, Christopher invite folks in, and they share their information with the family.

And so it means that you, Sam, Christopher, are now. You’ve always been, but you are now official Reid My Mind Radio Family!

Sam:
I’ve been waiting for you to make it official for years.

TR:
I know there are some listening who either are in position or in proximity to those who want to make their local theater space much more accessible and do so equitably.

Listen back to this episode or read the transcript… then reach out to TOV!
You can find contact information and more about them as TOV and individually at ThinkOutsideTheVox.org.

We can all head on over to OpenDoorTheaterr.org. Learn more about their work and accessible productions.

Sam:
The next production that the theater is going to do is The Prom, it’s a fun show. It’s got a mission of inclusion, but it’s also got a mission of self advocacy, and don’t foist your agenda or your accommodations on me. So that’s the one we’re looking forward to

TR:
Some times it feels like everything is a fight.

Right now, we’re in the midst of fighting for so called democracy hear in the US. I just want to once again encourage everyone in the states to please exercise your right to vote.

I can’t tell you who to vote for but if you’re listening to this podcast, I hope that means you have both a high level of empathy and intelligence. You care about your fellow human. That combination can only really go one way.

You may not think your specific issues are addressed by either candidate, but I can tell you that one candidate
will ultimately mean your issues will never even be heard.
the other candidate will at the very least assure you have the right to protest her.

Your choice!

Unfortunately, I have to choose to conclude this season of Flipping the Script on Audio Description.

I had a good time producing it and I hope you enjoyed listening and or reading it!
(Shout out to those who read the transcripts)

I may have one or two episodes later this year. So stay tuned and subscribed!
I’d love to put together a celebration of ten years so please
if you feel any sort of way about the podcast or just want to give a shout out,
please as requested in the beginning of this episode, send it in.

I appreciate you all rocking with Reid My Mind Radio, which is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcripts and more are available at ReidMyMind.com.

It’s been determined by a landslide that the only way to get there is to make sure you spell it right!

That’s R to the E, I, D!

— Sample: “D! And that’s me in the place to be.” Slick Rick

Like my last name!

— Reid My Mind Radio Outro

Peace!

Hide the transcript

— Clock Ticking

— Wake up scene from Ground Hog’s Day

TR:
This is the wake up scene from the movie, Ground Hog’s Day.
nIt repeats over and over again.

Have you ever had something in your life that resembles Ground Hog’s Day?
That is, a situation in which events that have happened before happen again, in what seems to be exactly the same way.

I have….

— Dream Harp
— From Don’t Touch Our Hair, 2023
TR:

I would love to see those who say they understand and support the need for Audio description to be more culturally aware and competent, put it into practice.

but, it’s like…
Audio sample: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” From The Godfather.

”

TR:
That was the opening of the 2022 episode titled Black Art White Voices.
I feel like the title says it all, but apparently not enough.

This issue didn’t start in 2022, it’s way before Black Panther in 2018.
In fact, it begins before audio description.
— End Clip —

— Reverse dream harp

— Clock ticking
##TR
In that clip, from the 2023 episode titled, Don’t Touch Our Hair,
I went on to discuss the age old tradition of stealing Black art.
From sculptures and artifacts to music, dance and other inventions.

I focused on art.
I didn’t even mention human trafficking, the theft of land and natural resources,
colonization, imperialism.

— Clock ticking

This is the context in which I continue to speak out against the white washing of Black art
with white voices as the audio description narrator.

It’s not just about preference.

By now we should all understand, Audio Description is Much More than Entertainment!

It’s about equity.

— Clock ticking

And equity is long past due.
That’s why we’re Flipping the Script on Audio Description,
which only happens here on Reid My Mind Radio!

I’m your host and producer Thomas Reid.

— Clock ticking….

— “What time is it?” Amira Baraka

— Reid My Mind Radio Intro Music

— Clock ticking

TR:
Relentless!

When you hear that word, does it have a positive or negative connotation?

According to the Google, specifically, vocabulary.com, It describes something that’s harsh, unforgiving, and persistent.

That could be the desert heat. A virus that forces you to stay in bed for days.
Or, even the blatantly disrespectful, inequitable approach some have to producing audio description.

— Clock ticking

Relentless – the way some people just don’t care to respect and honor culture.
Even when they’re aware of what they’re doing.

— Dream Harp
— From Don’t touch Our Hair, 2023 —
TR:
Who should voice the audio description for the Hair Tales documentary?
Who should be the filter through which Blind Black women experience their stories?

— Audio Description Narrator: “A title appears, The Hair Tales” Tracey Ellis Ross sits across a table from Oprah. Flowers decorate the room. Photos of Oprah and her family.

— Reverse dream harp
— Clip Ends —

TR:
The white washing of Black content and that
from and for those of the global majority didn’t start with audio description.

It didn’t start with this documentary or.

— Clip from Insecure —

Identifies the same audio description narrator.

— End Clip —

TR:
Or Esa Rae’s Insecure
So, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when earlier this year, 2024, in case you’re losing track of time,
I turned on the documentary titled Freaknic.
It’s about an event that was started in the early 1980’s by some students from HBCU’s (Historically Black College and University) taking place in Atlanta. A very Black city.

— From Freaknic Documentary on Hulu —

Once again, the same audio description narrator.

— End Clip —

— Clock ticking

— Ground Hog Day opening scene
TR:
Ground Hog’s Day y’all!

Did you know a ground hog is a woodchuck?
As in how much wood, would a wood chuck chuck,
if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

I figured it out.
Apparently, woodchucks can’t turn down any wood.

— Rim Shot!

— Music begins: A crescendo swoosh culminates to … “Stop” Q-Tip “Breathe & Stop” followed by a fun, upbeat, high energy Hip Hop groove.

TR:
Hey! Many of you have been asking how you can support the podcast!

Here’s two ways to do that …

Reid My Mind Radio Merch!

T-Shirts, hoodies, Coffee Mugs and more….

All With Reid My Mind Radio inspired themes:

— Sample: “Check this Out”
— Sample: “One”

For those of us who are serious about our AD, say it with your chest!

An Audio Description icon with the letters AD, is accompanied by the phrase “Snob Squad” in capital letters.
Beneath in quotes is the text: Quality First.

— Sample: “Two”

If you want humans creating all aspects of your AD.
Say it with your chest!

In a black-and-white nutrition label, the text reads:
100% ORGANIC
Text below reads: Audio Description is for Humans
Underneath, in all caps, it says, “GET THE AI OUT OF HERE!!

no artificial intelligence added.
On the bottom center is a QR Code.

— Sci Fi data transmission
— Keyboard typing
— R E I D M Y M I N D dot C O M

Guess where the QR Code leads you!

— Sample: “Three”

. Of course, there’s the classic.

Audio Description is More than entertainment

— Sample: “Four”

. And just to represent for the podcast…
Official!!!
Reid My Mind Radio Family!

— Sounds of a digital camera taking pictures

Consider posting a picture in your shirt.
Don’t forget the image description.

— Sounds of a digital camera taking pictures

Get as creative as you like with it!
Tag @ReidMyMindRadio on FB or IG.
@tsreid on Twitter.

And!

If you want to buy me a coffee or a tea, , you can do that too.

To support!

Visit ReidMyMind.com/Support

And with all sincerity, your support is greatly appreciated.

Now let’s
— Sample: “Stop” Q-Tip
here and get back to the episode!
Music Ends
—
TR:

As I said in the Don’t Touch Our Hair episode in 2023….

— Dream Harp
— From Don’t Touch Our Hair 2023 —

TR:
Black art and culture isn’t made to be filtered through whiteness.

Non-Blind consumers are free to experience the art in the way it was intended. And so should Blind people.
— End Clip —

— Clock ticking

TR:
Relentless!

That can also apply to those who say we know the difference between right and wrong.
We’re determined to counter selfish with selfless.
We will respect, appreciate and uplift by assuring authentic representation.

We see you and will continue to call out your nonsense.

But understand, like those who came before us,
we’re not sitting around waiting for you to create the change
we know is representative of the real world.

— Clock ticking

— Hazardous Alarm
(Yelling in a Filtered, over modulated voice)
Times up!

I’m talking to all of you who continue to think the white voice is the standard.
Those of you who perpetuate in equitable access to visual content by excluding
voices from the global majority.

Your slip is showing!

I don’t have to call you out, you do it yourself.

Whether we’re talking about the providers:

— Tansey Alexander saying “Audio Description by Point 360”
—
Or individual narrators:
— “Voiced by Tansey Alexander”

–(Yelling in a Filtered, over modulated voice)
Times up!

— Music begins: A menacing synth intro that’s leading to something…
That’s for all of the AD producers and narrator’s who either hire inequitably or
choose to hide behind the fact that they were hired for the role, knowing the community would be better served by someone culturally affiliated with the content.

Notice, I said the community would be better served.
I didn’t say Black people. Indigenous or brown….
I said community!

— Music: … the beat drops

We all miss out on authentic experiences.

Yet so many are silent when it comes to authentic representation in audio description.
Augh shucks, I’m a white person, I can’t really speak about it!

Meanwhile, some of these same people and national organizations
are quick to protest for disabled characters in film to be played by disabled actors.

Are you just concerned with white disabled representation? White authenticity.

–(Yelling in a Filtered, over modulated voice)
Times up!

I said community!

That includes American organizations who claim to be dedicated to creating opportunities for Blind people.

Yet, as they celebrate audio description and honor some of the companies producing the work,
they turn a blind eye to the fact that some of these same companies do very little to create opportunities for Blind AD professionals.

Yeh, I said Blind!
(That’s ableist)

Yeh, isn’t it!

I’m talking about companies that cling to inaccessibility as an excuse.

Why are these organizations silent?

Why would they participate in putting even more obstacles in the way of Blind people trying to enter the industry.
And call it certification.
What’s to gain?

–(Yelling in a Filtered, over modulated voice)
Times up!

I said community!

AD isn’t about those who create it!

I’m especially talking to those who present themselves as altruistic do gooders.
Yet, your actions clearly indicate your main objective is to get as much work as possible.

“How much wood would a wood chuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

For the record, I have no problems with those trying to secure the bag, get that check, make that money…. go get it.

Just stop trying to sell something else to the community.

(Yelling in a Filtered, over modulated voice)
Times up!

We see you!

Blind narrators!

I’m not yelling at you, but it would be nice to hear more of us speak on this.
Go beyond the generic representation conversation and be specific.

If we’re fighting together for an equitable AD industry, then we should really back each other on all the issues.

I recognize that it can seem like a risk to speak out,
but think about it, the companies who aren’t hiring you right now, are probably the greatest offenders.

What do you really have to lose?
— Bomb drops!

What does the community have to gain?

— Increasing swoosh

Relentless is finding a way forward.
Teaming up with those who share your values.

Whether we’re talking about audio description, captions, ASL or any other access, culture and equity matter.
On the screens in theaters at home or in our hands, everywhere and anywhere you find content.

(combine with the overdrive “Times Up”)
Times up on that age old tradition. We’re way over due for a new way of thinking.

I know some people are just going to do what they’re going to do, but I don’t have to accept it.

I don’t have to go along to get along.

— Clock ticking

Relentless is committing to calling y’all out on this nonsense.

Relentless is yelling louder than you.
Turning up the volume in order to drown out your noise with
an inclusive message. One that’s for the full community.
One that highlights and amplifies the work of those who believe in equitable quality access

I might not be able to change this, but I can do something!
— “Do Something” from Michelle Obama’s 2024 DNC speech

TR:
In these next two episodes in the Flipping the Script series, I want to introduce or reintroduce you to
some of those doing the work to make audio description and accessibility represent the real world.
The world that has always consisted of gorgeous colors, rich cultures that go beyond what
quite frankly has been a systemic attempt to prop up so called whiteness as the standard.

(Yelling in a Filtered, over modulated voice)
Times up!

I much prefer producing episodes that highlight cool things happening in AD, like Omnium, like young Eleanor narrating live theater content.
But I’m committed to doing what I can. I’m gonna be relentless.

Or should I say, Relentless!

(Laughing) Come on you had to know I was going to do that right!

I appreciate you listening and encourage you to keep rocking with Reid My Mind Radio wherever you get podcasts.

We have transcripts and more at ReidMyMind.com.
There’s no time limit on when you can visit.
We’re up all day and night.
The only restriction is you have to spell it right!
That’s R to the E I D!

— (“D!… And that’s me in the place to be.” Slick Rick)

Like my last name.

— Reid My Mind Radio Outro
Peace!

Hide the transcript

“Good Evening!”
Music begins: A funky break beat loop.

TR:
Tribe and trust!

Tribe and trust.

These were the two themes in the last episode with film maker Andres Jay Molina.
Well, for me at least, it was apparent that they play a big roll in the adjustment process. Not just for Jay, but in some way for us all.

When I refer to tribe, I’m talking about a community of people you identify with. Typically this includes support, encouragement and collaboration. It’s not about the number of people but rather the quality of the relationships.

Then there’s trust. First in yourself. As in having the courage and strength to live, speak and move through life in your truth. Whatever that is!

Then, trusting in others.

Even if their not a part of the tribe, which can test a person’s ability to trust.

For this final self portrait, I decided to sit with these things. Ask myself, “how do these things fit into my life today?”

Going into this episode reminds me of how I used to feel when my girls were younger and they’d sit with me in the kitchen as I prepare a dinner every now and then.

“Baby girls”, I’d say to them, ” I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I guess we’ll see!”

And then one of my girls would say, “Daddy, you’re Blind, you can’t see! And then we’d laugh.

— TR & daughters in conversation laughing.

Take a listen to the episode featuring my girls earlier this season and you’ll definitely get an understanding of our humor and communication style.

I’m Thomas Reid and you are now rocking with Reid My Mind Radio!
— Reid My Mind Radio Intro
Andres “Jay” Molina:
When I first got to the nursing home I didn’t know anybody of course, So I was just hanging out by myself. And then one of the nurses told me, go outside, there’s people just like you, young like you, and you can talk to them.

But when I saw these guys actually, one of them looked Dominican, I’m Dominican.
And that attracted me more.
And as soon as I approached them, they just looked at me and saidcome on man you with us.
and I started hanging out with them.
And that’s when we became friends.

TR:
I wasn’t in any way alone during my early days of blindness. I had my family and some close friends. I even found another brother who I could speak with about this new experience we shared.

Yet, when I heard Jay talk about meeting the other brothers outside the nursing home, it reminded me how I wanted more of that in my early days of blindness.

Today, I believe what I wanted was acceptance and brotherhood. People in my life who really understood what I was now experiencing.
My family and others were sympathetic but sometimes you just want to be around those who you know just get it.

Details matter in relationships.

When I asked Jay for example, what was it about the group of guys hanging outside of the nursing home, that made him feel their words,

Andre Jay Molina:
Come on you’re with us.

TR:
… were true?

He was quick to say, they looked like him. They weren’t dopple gangers.
They just shared a culture and background. A Style of dress, haircuts or the way you wear your hat. It’s recognizable.

— Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, PCB Convention!

TR:
I used to serve as the Conference Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind.
During this one conference in Johnstown PA, a hotel employee, asks me, “Where you from? You’re not from out here.”, he says. “Are you from New York?”

That’s all she wrote. He and I started talking and as he noted, living out there in Johnstown, he was really home sick and didn’t really ever get the chance to kick it with someone in that way. It’s in the vibe. The way you say something as in more than the words. It’s understood. No explanations necessary.

For the rest of that weekend and even the next time we were in that hotel, if he saw me, he was going to stop and try to resume our conversation. I felt bad because I was busy and often couldn’t chat as much as I would have liked to. I too was missing that familiarity. I just wasn’t in the position to kick it. But I appreciated him.

There’s something funny about being away from home and finding someone else from your town that makes you immediately bond with them. I’m sure this applies to others, but I can tell you there’s definitely a New York thing that happens when we’re out of town.

I’ve been all sorts of places, thousands of miles away from home and all of a sudden, you make eye contact with someone and one of you immediately knows.. “You from New York bro?” I’ve met people who I believe if something broke out where ever we were at the time, they’d have my back just on some we’re both from NYC type of thing. But if we were in NYC, chances are we wouldn’t speak to one another.

That’s so funny! And yet awful and real.

Wehn you’re new to disability, you can feel as if you’re in a foreign land right in your own neighborhood.

The idea of recognizing home in someone is probably relateable to us all.

In that space with the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind, it took some time to feel like a part of the group. But if I’m being honest, something was missing for me that could have made that feel more like my tribe.

From the moment I attended my first conference, there were those in the group who weren’t welcoming.
That’s to be expected. I don’t think they liked me, my style or my ideas.
The fact that I was rolling with a crew of people who were either new to blindness or new to the organized blind environment.

We were also interested in having a good time and hyping ourselves up. Ok, I probably did a lot of the hyping up.
Most of the people seemed to enjoy and appreciate that but there were definitely those who turned their noses up to that sort of thing.

Even years later, after all of the work put into the organization it just wasn’t feeling like home. i chalked it up to not being from PA.

Truth is, even though I lived here for over twenty years now, I just can’t seem to claim it like that. I’m not PA.
I’m always NYC.

Don’t get me wrong, I truly love and deeply appreciate the people in PCB and what I was able to learn both from them directly and through all of the interactions and experiences.

Today, I’m older and still sort of feel a desire to find my tribe, but I now believe that there’s not one for me. Rather, there are multiple communities that fulfill me in different ways and at different times.

A disability centered space is something I find myself wanting to be around.
Not all the time, but that free flowing accesible environment like we used to create with the PCB in person conference is a great space to explore and feel what the world can be with a bit of access.

Access is just part of the story.
If you’re a person with multiple identities, inclusion means you’re able to comfortably express your full self.
You shouldn’t have to deny some aspect of who you are in order to be accepted.

For so long, there weren’t many places outside of my home and among my family, where I felt I can be my full self.

That’s not on anyone but me.

There are people I’m around today where I feel much more comfortable being myself.
Some of that is because they are accepting, but a bigger part is me.
I just care less today about what other people think.

Maybe I’m just more comfortable with who I am as a person?

This is definitely about blindness.

By the time I became Blind, I was quite secure with myself as a Black man. But sometimes I still feel as though I’m in search of my tribe. The place I can bring my full self. My Black,which includes my Puerto Rican, my Blind, Bronx, my very silly and nerdy self.

I’ve been promising my family that this is the year I grow up since forever! Forget that, I’m staying five for as long as I’m alive!

Is there a place that would welcome all of me?

Unfortunately, organizations may think they’re welcoming of everyone, but individuals that make up the organization don’t necessarily subscribe to that same idea. Even if they think they do, their actions aren’t always inline with that philosophy.

Everything is fine when it’s obvious you’re all headed to the same destination.
You’re on cruise control. Things seem to change though, when you hit an intersection. And when that is at the corner of let’s say Blind and Black for example, well the degree of openness and brother and sisterhood get’s tested. Welcoming, inclusion, diversity, all that stuff you said you are actually get’s tested.

If you’re a part of such an organization, look around and if those who you met at the intersection are gone, well, you probably failed.
Perhaps it’s time to stop saying you’re welcoming and actually become that.

As disabled people, so much of our lives are impacted by access.

The spaces we visit, the content and information we consume, the types of services we use. It all boils down to physical, digital or some other form of accessibility.

If I’m interested in participating in an event or getting involved with a non blindness organization, I have to think about and plan around accessibility. I need to be prepared to spend time working through a website or app.
Ready to take a picture of a hand out circulated during an event in order to have my phone read it.
Ask for some sort of direction in a new physical space.

Truth is most organizations like people, never consider accessibility. They never had to think about it.

Similarly,organizations with very low or no participation from Black people and others of color, may not recognize the exclusion. Or should I say non-inclusion? (Laughs)

The problem is when any of these organizations say they are inclusive but don’t take any meaningful steps to actually change.
Therefore, my Black and or my Blind are not really welcomed.

Is it really a community if my access needs aren’t being met but culturally I’m included? Can I consider myself a part of a community when all of my access needs are met, but I have to leave my culture at the door.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that this affects my participation.

Or is that what they wanted all along?

Then they were never about community.

— DJ Scratch transition

TR:
I could imagine that some people found it strange when Jay mentioned that he and the other fellas didn’t immediately trust Jennilee Brewster.

If you recall, the group of brothers would gather outside the nursing home. Smoke a little weed. You know, just chillin’. And yes, at the time, weed wasn’t legal in New York.

Andres “Jay” Molina:
And then we had this white woman coming around asking questions. She was being really persistent.

TR:
I won’t beat around the bush here, these brothers most likely were concerned that Ms. Brewster could be a Karen.

A white lady asserting her privilege and budding into the lives and business of others, especially people of color.

You can find lots of examples of Karen’s at work on YouTube today thanks to smart phones and the ease of recording.

I’m in no way suggesting you go down that rabbit hole. It leads to all sorts of racists encounters that has an under current of possible violence. Plus watching mentally unstable people shouldn’t be entertainment.

For those who are actually named Karen, I feel for you.
But you have nothing to worry about if you’re not the type of person to racially profile people. There’s no need to be offended if you’re not the type of person to call the police on little Black children selling lemonade outside their own homes.

For Black people and others of color, these experiences aren’t knew at all. They’re just documented now.

Whether in corporate environments, schools, social settings, just about everywhere we exist, we learn to bob and weave avoiding micro agressions like a boxer dodging jabs, upper cuts and knockout blows.

No, actually, every where we exist!

— Clip of MTG attacking Rep. Jasmine Crokett in Congress.

TR:
So when jay explained that he and the rest of the brothers who would become the reality poets were leery about letting Miss Brewster into their circle, well some of us can relate.

Yet, we need each other. Jay’s story reminds us of that.

It’s an example of how opportunity often doesn’t present itself like we imagine it in our minds. It’s not as defined. It’s not flashy. The messenger rarely looks like the person we imagine or hope for.

Trust is essential.

Jay and the rest of the brothers eventually did put their trst in Ms. Brewster. It paid off. They became the Reality Poets. That not only made an impact on them personally but they’re art is doing the same for others.

What if they didn’t trust? What if they waited for an opportunity to present itself in a way that made them more comfortable?

Did Jay’s past make you uncomfortable?

I’m talking about his former occupation; drug dealer. He spent time in prison. I never asked about that part of his life. It’s in his past.

I do think about how many Black and brown people today are behind bars for selling weed. Meanwhile, now legal in many states, the Cannabis industry, overwhelmingly run by white men, has taken off. And like every other industry that forms, will be run by a few large corporations.

I think about these Black and brown men and women who when released from prison struggle to support themselves. This world doesn’t really seem to hand out second chances very equitably.

I don’t want all of these micro aggressions, systemic problems, the attacks on humanity, to change me for the worse. I want to believe in people, while still being aware. I want to be conscious and still able to trust in others.

That takes serious work!

— Break beat Transition

TR:
When should we trust ourselves?

We all have ideas that at some given time, we believe are correct and defend.

When something forces us to re-examine our perspective, we either realize our ignorance and change or become even more convinced we’re right.

When Jay talked about his reaction to seeing a wheel chair user at the bus stop knowing it was going to make him late for work, I’m sure he felt justified and would defend his position at that time. It’s a common reaction in a busy town where everyone is rushing somewhere. We want to hold someone responsible.

You ever notice how no one gets mad at the bus designers? Why the heck didn’t the bus manufacturers make it easier for those using wheelchairs to get on the bus like everyone else?

We don’t get madat ourselves for not leaving earlier and building in time for unexpected delays.

I give Jay a lot of credit for sharing that story. Any time someone shares an ableist thought or action from their past, I want to highlight it and recognize them for their honesty. I know it’s not easy.
I also think it’s something we should uplift for the sake of making space for us all to grow. I want that space for me too.
I’ve said and done things back in the day I wouldn’t do today.

I recognize and appreciate that Jay had to have a certain level of trust for me to share that story. In fact, I’ll say that about all of those who share their stories with me on the podcast.

I actually take that pretty seriously. Trust in general, is a core value of mine. I don’t do well with those who break it.

Trust needs to be earned.

Yet, we really do trust in things that can’t actually earn our trust. Wheelchairs, computers, access technology, a white cane.
All of these things can’t earn our trust. We’re believing in those who make the equipment, those who teach us how to use them and mainly ourselves and our ability.

When I once trained those new to blindness on technology, it was pretty obvious after a while who was going to adapt to the new way of getting things done.
Some would focus on how they used to do it.

“I used to just click the mouse and drag this file over to the other window”, they’d say. Yes, I know, I’d say.
I did that too, but now let me show you how you can do this today.

I hated my screen reader in the early days. I tried to convince myself that I couldn’t understand what it was saying. But it was clear that the more I complained to myself, the less I was actually getting done.

I didn’t have an alternative. My eyes were gone but my ears and ability to learn were all in tact. So either I was going to quit and do nothing or figure it out. In my mind, the pain of quitting and doing nothing feels worse than trying and not getting it. At least you can keep trying.

Then again, thinking about this now, of course I’d adapt to the technology. I’ve always been comfortable with tech.
I’m confident in my abilities, I trust myself.

In other areas of my life, I don’t feel as confident and may not be as quick to adapt.

Dang! I have to keep it real. There are times when it feels like I can’t trust or believe in others, but perhaps I’m really not trusting in myself.

My ego is telling me to strike this from the episode, wwe’ll see who wins.

— DJ Scratch Transition

TR:
There was a lot of trust involved in this Art of Adjustment season. I had no idea how I would produce the self-portrait episodes. I relied on inspiration and faith that something would come out of the conversations. That part is a given, it’s more about the trust in being able to make it work.

Whether or not it works is subjective. That’s up to you the listeneror transcript reader.

My hope is that some concept or idea discussed in one of these AOA episodes got you thinking. Perhaps encouraging you to consider how art or some form of expression can be a vehicle to assist you in your own adjustment.

The focus here on R double M Radio is adjustment to disability, but it applies to life in general.

Ah, y’all know that.
You all make connections and don’t experience things in a vacuum. That’s why I enjoy hanging with y’all!

Hey! This is my tribe! The R double M Radio family.

This podcast has helped me meet and establish relationships with people I’d otherwise never really get the chance to interact with. We share similar perspectives on a variety of topics. At least, we share the idea of being open. For me that means, open to other points of view, but not when they come at the expense of others or threaten a group’s existence. I’ll remain closed to hate, lies and deception. That’s some corny sucker stuff!

Even though this is a podcast and the communication seems like it only flows in one direction, you know it doesn’t have to always be like that.You can hit me up, ReidMyMindRadio@gmail.com. Give it a try.
REIDMYMINDRADIO@GMAIL.
COM (spelled out).

How is art or some other form of expression a part of your adjustment?
Have you been delaying the pursuit of that interest?
Did any particular story resonate with you in a special way?

Let a brother know.

— DJ Scratch Transition

If you didn’t really dig these series of episodes, like it wasn’t your thing, you can blame that on me. Well, you’re probably not listening right now so I’ll move on.

If you enjoyed these episodes well give the credit to the artists themselves: Krystle, Andrew, Kiana and Jay.

It’s all their fault!

They not only shared their stories and perspectives but they inspired the thoughts and ideas that came to be the self portrait episodes. That inspiration is a result of our actual conversations, they’re work, interests and experiences.

I hope it proved to do the same for you.

The process of producing it alone in my mind is the win for me. Like I said earlier… ” I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I guess we’ll see!”

I’m off to continue working on the next season. That means you won’t hear from me until July. Or August, there’s a lot going on.

We do have a Blind Centered Audio Description Chat episode dropping in June. So stay tuned for that.

Also, if you’re interested in some free audio described content head on over to ReidMyMind.com. I’ll link you to a YouTube playlist of the
2024 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge Finalists. Audio description provided by Social Audio Description Collective!

— Airhorn

The best way to stay informed,is to follow or subscribe to Reid My Mind Radio wherever you get podcasts. Transcripts and more are at ReidMyMind.com.

There’s lots of ways to get there:
Maybe you open your favorite browser and type, some of y’all like to dictate…
however you do it, you got to spell it right

Say it with me; that’s R to the E, I D.
— Sample: “D… and that’s me in the place to be! Slick Rick

Like my last name.

–Reid My Mind Radio Outro

Peace!

Hide the transcript

TR:
Greetings !
We’re at the half way point in the season. That is, The Art of Adjustment.

This season, we’re focusing on the ways art in any form aids in the adjustment process.
Then I’m challenging myself to follow these episodes with some of my own experiences, observations or ideas that stem from the conversation with the guest.

My name is Thomas Reid. Welcome to Reid My Mind Radio.

— Reid My Mind Radio Intro

TR:
My guest today, Kiana Glanton has many titles. We’ll get into them all as they are each closely related to today’s conversation.
First though, a little more about Kiana.

Kiana:
I’m a medium brown skinned black woman of Cuban and African descent. And I go by she her and Ella as I speak Spanish.
I have blonde and brown dreadlocks that are curled up. I would define myself as low vision because when you start to explain to people not within our community about the different degrees of visual impairment, they think it’s either blind or not.

Blindness hit me at about age 16. For me, it wasn’t a drastic vision loss, it was over time. The profound loss has happened over the last five years in which I become a cane user.
It’s only been over the last two or three years that I’ve really stepped into a role of advocacy and empowerment now that I have accepted this and I’m ready to be of use to my community.

TR:
I had a chance to see Kiana serving her community in her role at an event last summer at the Lighthouse Guild in New York.

Kiana:
I am the development intern. I like to call myself the chief development Intern because I often work with the CEO and the chief development officer all the people in the C suite. Sometimes you got to speak it into existence. I don’t walk in rooms without feeling like I absolutely earned my spot and that I deserve to be here.

TR:
It was obvious to me that, although her title includes intern, She’s not an “intern intern”.

Kiana:
I did go to grad school and go to undergrad, I graduated from Stony Brook University. And so I do have education, and I have a work history that I’m proud of. However, when I really started losing my sight, I had to learn how to be back in the office again. And it’s not just learning how to use JAWS, and Word and Excel and outlook, But really learning how to interact with people and get things done and be part of a team that is, for the most part fully sighted. So I began to intern just to get the work experience, because I knew that I could, whatever job I want, whatever job I get, I’m going to do well, and I’m pretty confident and comfortable interacting with people. But I wasn’t quite sure if I had the logistical skills together.

TR:
It takes real confidence to recognize what you’re lacking and humble yourself to go get it.

Through the Commission for the Blind in New York, she was able to secure a thirteen week internship at the Lighthouse Guild. Unfamiliar with fundraising, she ended up knocking it out the park.

— Sound of baseball being hit by a bat and crowd cheering.

Kiana:
So When my 13 Weeks was over, my boss was really impressed.
And he found a private donor and a foundation to support my internship, while we figured the next steps out, and then I got a promotion within that. And I got extended time, while we figure out if there’s space here at my current job at the lighthouse, which I love. There are lots of companies that I could do really well at, I just feel really connected to the mission. It’s personal for me to work for a company that supports blind and low vision people.

I don’t look at us as a project or a group of people. This is my home, this is just my own community.

— Music begins: A whistling synth opens to a slow driving beat.

TR:
That’s the type of attitude, quite honestly, that in my experience was and may still be lacking in many organizations serving the Blind.

Kiana:
At the time, there was only one visually impaired person in the management floor, the executive suite of Lighthouse Guild, and
over time, they’ve acquired three more and I’m one of those three. So we have a marketing manager. We have a development manager and we have our volunteer service coordinator who are all visually impaired, and that’s affecting programming and policy and really having a voice in this company.

TR in Conversation with Kiana:: 2
Lighthouse, take off that intern, and make this woman permanent management. Alright, let’s go.

TR:
She’s committed to her work, but her foundation is her grounding.

Kiana:
We’re just coming off the Kwanzaa season, which my family has been celebrating since I was six years old. By the time this comes out I’ll be 41.
We believe in the Kwanzaa principles, all seven of them all year round.

Nia is purpose. I literally get up every morning and say, Thank you, God, and thank you for my child, thank you for giving me a reason to stand up taller. And to be more confident because she’s watching me. So I have to give her the best version of me. She needs to know that diligence is always rewarded. I do this for her.

Even when she’s at her dad’s for the weekend, I’m still on the clock. I’m still thinking about meals to prepare. I’m thinking about getting home safely. Cuz she’s dependent on me returning home. What if something happened to me when I was irresponsible. And then there was no mommy for her to come home to, then I let her down. And that’s not living out of fear. It’s just guiding the principles that I govern myself with and how I move around.

TR:
You can tell a child something until you’re blue in the face. Your actions however, speak much louder than words.

Kiana:
She needs to know you can restart your life if you need to. You can pivot.

There are things that I once said and did in my 20s or in my 30s that I absolutely do not believe anymore. I thought that people who eat meat are just ignorant and selfish and greedy. And I don’t think that way anymore.

I once thought that only black people make good potato salad and I don’t think that

TR in Conversation with Kiana:
. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, this is news to me.

TR:
Ok, I get the point. And in general, I agree.

I’m just saying…. I know people who are pretty serious about their potato salad.

Kiana:
I am showing her that it is possible to be taught and repositioned at any point in your life. And then if you want something and you set a goal, and measurable steps that you can get there, you can have it. I explained to her all the time why I’m disciplined in this way.

I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that children are to be seen and heard. Now, I don’t allow no talking back. But if you have a point or something you need to tell me. It’s worth me stopping to listen to you. Now, if it’s an emergency, and I’m giving you every indication that you need to just listen and follow me, you need to do that. I’ve given her code words, because I think sometimes children are put in positions that aren’t always safe or comfortable for them. If there’s something that I’m missing, say the code word and I’m stopping everything so that I can speak to you. That’s important to me.

TR:
My babies are grown now, but I can tell you that’s some great advice.
Children need to know they can come talk to their parents and they will be heard.

Living a life of purpose, for Kiana, starts with being intentional about raising her daughter Cali. (Hi Cali!)
It includes her presentation of herself in the world.

Kiana:
I’m someone that’s really into They’re aesthetic, and not from a vanity standpoint, but in a professional and put together kind of lens.
There’s a misconception that blind people look a mess, because we can’t see ourselves and we’re not aware of a stain or a button or stripes and plaid and polka dots all put together.
I want my daughter to know [when I walk out this door, you look at that face that hygiene together, ] make sure your clothes are straight, you organize over the weekend. So you have your outfits already ready and lined up. And you go accordingly and you carry yourself with pride.

TR:
That’s pride in her full self.

Kiana:
I’m a woman. I’m a black woman. I’m a mom, I’m Kiana. [I love carnival, ] I love my family, my community. Oh yeah, I’m blind.

TR:
That pride and sense of self is evident in the way she maneuvers through all sorts of spaces.

Kiana:
So when I choose to come in here as an intern with education, and more experienced than people that are around me, I do so with pride, I do so with confidence, I do not have shame about it, because I’ve worked hard to be here. And I’m opening doors and making opportunity for the other visually impaired people who are coming behind me. I’m sharing my experience and hoping to provide resources, avenues and opportunities for empowerment within my community, particularly for women of color.

TR:
Empowering the community by sharing what worked for her.

Kiana:
Five years ago, I came into contact with the most impactful person to me in my blind journey, who was a really close friend, and he’s an athlete and really disciplined, really strong and powerful and smart. And he told me, I needed to find something. And he knew I liked bodybuilding. And I like lifting. But I was just kind of doing it solo, just because I liked it. I didn’t really have any friends to do it with me or at the level in which I was doing it at.

He’s playing gold ball, running and cycling and playing these different sports and none of them connected to me. So he brought me a baseball one day. It was a standard baseball and it had two little jingle bells in it. And he said, This is Blind Baseball.

TR:
He suggested Kiana speak with a colleague of hers at the Lighthouse who was already involved with the game.

Kiana:
I was like, No way You want me to be around a bunch of blind people all of us with canes. People are gonna laugh at us and point at us and stare at us.
I don’t want to hang out with the Blind kids. I’m too cool. I’m too pretty. I’m too vain. I don’t want to do it.

Mind you. I am blind. I have a cane. I’m talking about myself. But that was my truth. I was still embarrassed. I am highly competitive. I hope you and I never play Uno or anything. I’m flipping tables angry like.

TR in Conversation with Kiana:
Okay, I relate.

TR:
She had a change of heart.

Kiana:
So I get out there to Central Park to practice and I have on workout clothes. I’m feeling great. And there’s another woman there. And she has a hot pink sneakers and a kinky jersey. I thought she was so cute. Oh, so cute. And I was so mad at myself. I should dress cuter.
I wasn’t jealous, I was just like look at her being cute.

We started a running exercise where we had to run blindfolded, from home to first base.

— Music begins: A slow build up groove that leads to a slow hard core beat.

I ran like Frankenstein. Three steps in my hands out. I was scared I was gonna run into a pole. It is horrifying. It took me about 15 to 20 seconds. But I was scared. And then I watched the girl run.

She did a little bit better than me and I said Oh no. I will not lose to anybody out here. The next thing you know I’m running and I got down to nine seconds and the coach comes up to me he says , Kiana, do you work out I said do I work out five days a week every morning Of course I work out.

TR:
She quickly learned how to hit and became comfortable running the bases fast and free.

With her competitive nature kicking in, the coach now sees Kiana as a secret weapon.
By the time the next practice comes around, she ready.

Kiana:

The liaison from Italy happens to be visiting. And he watches me hit. Now I’m knocking this ball far. And he said, I think you can make the national team. And it’s only my second or third practice.
He said, if we get funding for you to go, would you want to try out?
I started in late May of 2022. By July 15, I was getting a phone call saying I made the national team and I was headed to the Netherlands to represent the United States, the only black woman on the team, one of two women to make the team. And that’s all she wrote.

TR:
No, that, was just the beginning.

The team traveled to the Netherlands. Kiana scores the first point of the tournament and the team ultimately brings home the bronze.

This was her first experience with team sports and organized athletics.

— Music ends!

It changed her life.

Kiana:
I had something to fight for. I had a group I had people who accepted me. And if we’re all blind, and blindness doesn’t even matter, right? That’s the common denominator. So now it’s who’s faster, who is stronger, who’s more powerful, who’s louder, who’s gonna Captain us who’s a follower who’s a leader.

Every good thing about me was kind of amplified and elevated. How much of a leader I am, how outspoken I am, how supportive how loyal I am, and how much I care about sharing this experience.

I brought my camera and my tripod. And I went live when we were in the Netherlands. I wanted my baby to see her mom at 39 change her life. I left a home, a business, a longtime partner, I left a bunch of things, to save myself to rescue myself. And this was my biggest rescue at that point, was deciding to do something I had never done before. And I killed it.

I decided this is going to be my thing, I’m going to grow the sport.

TR:
How will she do that, you ask?

Kiana:
I made myself the poster child for the sport in this country. Because I want to see it grow.

TR:
Not just for the sake of growing the sport.

First and foremost, it’s the example she is setting for her daughter. It’s also a chance to challenge and confront perceived limitations.

Kiana:
I take issue with the rates of obesity and heart disease and diabetes within the black community, but particularly within the female community for black women. Because I think sometimes socially, we put things in our way, whether it’s hair, whether it’s access to resources, whether it’s time, whether it’s motherhood, I mean a bunch of things become excuses for why we are not more active and healthy.

So what were visually impaired, you still could come out, I don’t want to see my community dying off 40 and 50 years old, and not making it to our 60s 70s 80s and even to three figures like why is that not on the table for us.

TR:
Can you tell Kiana’s pretty serious about Blind Baseball?

Kiana:
I became a beast about the sport. I am the secretary of the USBBA which is the US blind baseball Association, which was created to grow the sport. And there are other teams and groups that are doing blind baseball, and I love those guys shout out to the lions. But what I’m growing is based off of an idea where everyone has equal transparency financially is important. And all are welcomed, whether you’re 80 years old and you just want to come out here and walk the bases, or you’re a fresh 19 year old who’s jetting around the bases and anything in between This sport is for you. If you want to compete, I’ll help you get stronger. We’ll have practices based off your level. But I want everyone to come out. I want excited people to come out and volunteer, I want you to bring your kids and have them volunteer, I want this to be something that we are proud of. And that we take seriously.

TR:
If you’re in the NYC area, Kiana’s waiting for you.

Kiana:
Hashtag better than bronze, we created our newest team, the lighthouse guild lightning, which I’m the captain of a co captain, and we’re only going to grow. And this is not about me in the forefront. It’s about sport. It’s about how it made me feel. It gave me purpose. It gave me another purpose, another thing to fight for. And then my daughter likes to come volunteer. So whenever she’s here on the weekends, she comes out and collects balls and helps be a sighted guide to our participants. And she cheers her mommy on, and she knows I get busy on that field.

TR:
Getting busy on the field is one way to have fun while flexing those competitive muscles, but it’s also about community.

Kiana:
So I have always been someone really culturally connected and aware and really proud of my race and gender, and culture and nationality and all those things. And that has been a huge hallmark of who I am. And that didn’t change with visual impairment. In fact, it became more important.

Blackness or Caribbeanness or Latinus, or any of these identifiers become more personal when you lose your sight?
We begin to feel a sense of loneliness when you lose your sight, you can’t just make eye contact across the airport, when you see the only other black person going to Europe.
when we see each other we do the head nod. How do you do that when you’re visually impaired?

Kiana:
I’m looking to connect and make more friends in general but particularly with people of color Because I feel so marginalized and so underrepresented in some of these blind spaces that I’m in, I want to know where my people are.

I found them.

TR:
While at an event, spreading the word about Blind Baseball, Kiana met
Eyes Like Mine co-founder and Reid My Mind Radio family member and alumni Krystle Allen.

For the record, I had no idea when planning this season.

Learning more about the organization and the Miss Blind Diva Empowerment Pageant, Kiana decided to enter.

Kiana:
I am very competitive, I don’t go into anything without thinking I’m gonna win. I don’t know if this is for the faint of heart, but if I’m getting in this, your girl’s a beast, I’m gonna win. I believe in manifestation. But I also believe in working hard, and having good morals and ethics, and having a good product and being a representative of my community.
I’m going to use this space appropriately, because I may not have it tomorrow, but on this day, I’m going to show up. And I happen to connect with women who also wanted to make moves in the community. And so that began to make me feel even more powerful. Because I had other women beside me with their canes out, taking steps bravely forward, to tell our stories from our voice from our perspective, without someone else watering down or patronizing our experience.

TR:
The pageant has two segments; Ms. Blind Diva Empowerment and the Ms. Independent YouTube Challenge.
For the latter, contestants submit a video on YouTube that displays their independence. That could mean so many things for each person.
The winners are determined based on the number of likes received over a three week period.

And then just one hour before the end of the period.

Kiana:
I was outside fully glammed in a gown, makeup and everything on the corner in Newark at a bus stop. I was down by about 75 votes.
I stood on that corner and got every person that passed to vote for me. I put my money where my mouth is.
I’m good on any block.

The only three people that didn’t vote for me didn’t have the capacity because they had like flip phones or didn’t speak English or Spanish. I couldn’t explain to them why I was out there.

A city bus driver stop and got off the bus which he shouldn’t have and voted for me and then had people on the bus come off and

TR in Conversation with Kiana:
You had a QR code too?

Kiana:
I had to make it easy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I did.

TR:
Next thing you know, Kiana is crowned both Ms. Blind Diva Empowerment and Ms. Independent YouTube Challenge winner.

Kiana:
Those two titles are typically handed to two people. But because I said I’m a beast. I won both of them for the first time in history.

What was nice about this is it was a competition. But really there was such a collaborative spirit, all of us just wanting to do well.

And that’s okay to be competitive for things that makes sense. As long as it’s not over men in from nasty jealousy spaces, but really about excellence. That’s good. When we’re pushing each other to work hard.

Kiana:
And so sports, my baby and then this female empowerment within the blind community. It changed my life even more like just it grew me up further strengthened me and toughened me in a really profound way.

TR:
Adding to that list, prior to the pageant, Kiana found an art form that really resonated with her.

Kiana: 4
So I have always light drummers. I think female drummers are so attractive and powerful Sheila II
. If you’ve ever looked at the arm muscles of a drummer, it’s impressive, like and then the be a woman out there getting busy.

I found out that my captain of Team USA Alex Perella is a drum instructor. And so I said, Can you teach me he said, Yeah, I have weekly classes over at visions, which is an organization in New York City that support the blind and low vision community. And so he invited me to come out. Now I know I have rhythm. I know I can dance. I just need someone to teach me how to do this properly, because anyone could just go bang on a drum, but I want to get busy.

TR:
We’re talking about Congas to be specific.

— Music begins: A Conga rhythm.

Kiana:
these drums and this patterns and this beat comes all the way from Africa, all the way through the Middle Passage all through the chattel south all through the world.

When I thought about the pageant, I was thinking, somebody’s gonna sing, somebody’s gonna dance, somebody’s gonna do poetry. But how dope would it be to explain that drums and music are not a visual experience. This can be felt by people from the deaf community through vibrations. You feel this spiritually and emotionally.

I played and had that crowd rocking with me. And I just remember thinking like, I feel connected to this.

TR:
Think about that. That drum was once a tree with energy. The act of hitting a drum in different locations creating specific sounds and tones involves even more energy. All of that emanates through sound and vibration out to the world…

— Music ends!

to be shared with those nearby. It is a connection. It’s spiritual.

Kiana: 9
I’m willing to put my time in. And it also helps with dexterity. It also helps with autoimmune disease that I have, which is sarcoid and affects my hands and my knuckles. And so being able to engage my hands and strengthen them that way, just makes me healthier, emotionally and physically as well. You have to have good posture when you’re sitting at the drum for long periods of time. So it is challenging me and helping elevate me from a physical standpoint.

TR:
Drumming can be communal.

Kiana: 4 plus
I just love that there are so many blind people in this class and low vision people who want to express themselves in a way that perhaps they didn’t think was possible.

TR:
When it comes to the art of adjustment, people are the thread that connects it all together.

Kiana:
From the introduction of my friend that really prominent athlete to my community at Lighthouse to the women have LVH and Eyes Like Mine, they have made me want to fight harder,
they’ve been the fuel the people around me, especially the people who are more seasoned than me, because I aspire to be confident and have longevity in our community as an advocate, just like they are, and they were to me.

I believe that God positions people to help you He sends people your way that are going to influence ,impact you. And that’s what the blind community has been.

What I’ve been able to do is connect with like minded people, with hearts, for service, and for community in a really real way.

I’ve learned to kind of identify the areas that are important to me, we’ve talked about art, we’ve talked about athletics, we’ve talked about empowerment, my baby, being a prominent part of my life is really important that I have balanced, and that I’m able to effectively participate in these areas.

Regardless of whether you’re through Helen Keller or visions or lighthouse, whether you are in this pageant or playing this sport, or you’re just home or your goal is simply to be able to move around your house independently. I would like to be a person that advocates for you.

TR:
Kiana obviously has a personal connection to blindness which can explain that desire to be an advocate for others. But it goes further. She’s looking to provide relief to others in general through an organization she found with some friends.

Kiana:
The Rescue experience is a support group that my two friends and I created five years ago, and at that time, I was leaving a toxic and unfortunately, a violent relationship. And I just remember thinking, how am I going to figure this out. What am I going to do with being blind and single and just depressed and all these things.

And my friend, Lexy B told me, You have to rescue yourself. And then you have to tell people that this happened, part of your healing, and part of your journey is going to be you expressing that you went through this and that you’re losing your sight. And that you’re, you’re figuring these things out, you’re healing is going to come from you sharing.

TR:
After rescuing herself, she was able to begin doing the same for others.

Kiana:
Donating money to a woman who needs to buy coats for her children, or getting her hair done. Or sending someone we know who’s overworked and tired to a hotel for the night with dinner, and a spa the next day. People who just needed a little bit of help, who was doing the work, but just use a little bit of support.

TR:
They formed an LLC in order to begin sharing even more.

Kiana:
I’m ready to help people on a grander scale. And so we’re growing daily, and so that’s the rescue experience.

TR in Conversation with Kiana:: 3
I like everything about it, but I like specifically how the things that you’re providing. They’re not huge, It’s not a million dollar thing. It’s accessible. But I can imagine how much that means to that individual receiving that.

TR:
Kiana has her job at the lighthouse, Blind Baseball, Miss Blind Empowerment, she’s playing the congas and in between all of that helping to rescue others… that’s a lot!

I just had to come out and ask her..

TR in Conversation with Kiana:
So, how you chill girl? (Laughs)

Kiana:
(Laughs.)
I am deeply rooted and connected in my family. And so I love music. There’s always music playing in my house.
I love to dance. I love some good season food. I love to entertain. I have a lot of game nights in my house and we play different social games and drinking games and just an opportunity to connect.

I listen to Audible. Love to hear your voice when you pop up all these different audio descriptions and stuff.

I make time for myself. I mean Time to sleep in some days and to take naps. And to really thank God for all the opportunity, there was a time that I felt stagnant. So I do a lot of work. But I remember praying for something to believe in, something to get into. And now it’s here you can’t complain when you pray and your prayers get answered.

Right now is busy season so I just pray for strength and endurance like physical I get in the gym and I lift, mental and emotional to deal with all that comes my way. Working from home and being stagnant for some years. And so I gotta catch up. It’s work to be done.

TR:
Kiana has some serious energy!

I’m talking about both the vibe she puts out into the world.
And that high energy level as in, come on let’s go do this!

If you want to stay up with what she’s up to:

Kiana:
On Instagram, please follow me at pretty underscore blind underscore baseball
Facebook is Kiana V Glanton.
That is K I A n, Nancy, a, the letter V for Victor or victory. And my last name Glanton. G L A, N as in Nancy, T as in Tom, O as an Oscar, and N as a Nancy.

TR:
You can also catch her live on her Miss Blind Diva 2023 fan page every Monday.
If Instagram is more your thing, she’s live there as well, talking about various issues in the Blind community as well as the Rescue experience.

Kiana:
I’m raising money for the TD fiber or bike tour, I’m going to do a 40 mile charity ride. I’m asking people who are participating, to donate to that campaign, so that I can raise funds and awareness for adaptive athletics, which changed my life. I have not ever been on a tandem bike before my adulthood. And I’m about to do 40 miles in five boroughs with 30,000 people. So I got some work to do. And that journey is going to be online as well through the lighthouse guild on our social media pages, but particularly on my personal pages on pretty blind baseball or and Kiana V Glanton on Facebook.

TR in Conversation with Kiana:
Well Kiana when folks come on the podcast, and they share their story, they share their experiences. I like to welcome them and appreciate them. Let you know that you are now officially part of the Reid my Mind Radio family.

— Airhorn

Kiana:
privilege to be with you today. Thank you so much for this platform. Thank you for the work you do in our community. You Your voice is so powerful and meaningful. So I’m glad to be amongst good people and good company. So thank you to you and your listeners.

TR:
My conversation with Kiana actually began with her sharing her love for Caribbean Carnival. It wasn’t included here because it was a bit of a tangent. But on further examination it inspired deeper thought and generated some ideas.
Join me next time where I’ll talk about some of this and more in my continuous self-portrait.

— Music begins: An energetic percussive opening to a synth infused excited beat!

Have you told someone lately that you rock with Reid My Mind Radio and they should too?
Family, I don’t ask much from y’all, because I have my own issues around asking.
But here’s the absolute real deal, I’m not asking you for me. I’m asking you for those who I truly believe will benefit from what is being shared on this podcast. People like Kiana, Krystle, Andrew need to be all up in the ear holes of those adjusting to blindness and disability in general.

Ok, maybe that’s not a great way to put it but you know what I mean.

I’m being honest and sincere right now, I think we can make a difference in people’s lives. So the more we tell folks about what’s going on over here, the more likely that person new to disability, whatever it is… will find some helpful ideas, concepts and encouragement.
Reid My Mind Radio is available wherever you get podcasts. We have transcripts and more at ReidMyMind.com.
The only way to find the website, this podcast or me is by spelling it right,
that’s R to the E I D.
— Sample “D… And that’s me in the place to be!” Slick Rick.
— Reid My Mind Radio Outro
Peace!

Hide the transcript

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
What is your politics around disability?

Raven:
I think most people who have disabilities should be put on an island.

Riana:
Silly Laughter

Raven:
Away from us normal people! (Laughs)

Riana:
Girl! I agree. (Laughter continues….)

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Ok, this is the way I’m going to open the show.

Raven:
)Loud laughter)

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Nobody’s gonna know you’re playing.

Riana:
My sister’s opinions do not …

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
(Loud Laughter)

Raven:
Hey! I thought we were in this together.

(Group laughing fades out!)

TR:
Maybe not an island.
But let’s say Andrew Leland’s country of the Blind were indeed a real place, what would be the requirements for citizenship?
Is it based solely on acuity or must you have additional qualifications?
What would be some of those qualifications?
What actually makes you Blind?

Visual Accuity?
Orientation and mobility skills?
What if you have multiple disabilities?

These questions, well sort of, have been on my mind ever since my conversation with Andrew, featured in the last episode. the actual questions I’ve been thinking about are more related to topics like ableism, and what categorizes something as disability art or a part of disability culture.

Today, continuing with my self portrait, I’ll see where these topics take me. That is, with the help of those two you heard at the top of this episode.

Riana:
My name is Riana Reid. I’m a 26 year old woman. I’m brown skin. I wear rectangular glasses. I currently have my hair and a pineapple meaning My curls are on the top of my head and like a ponytail. I have a bright smile. And high cheekbones, kinda. (giggles)
People tell me I look like my mommy. (Giggles)

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
You look like your father.

Riana:
(Giggles) Okay!

Raven:
Riana’s pronouns are she her hers.

Hi, everyone. My name is Raven. I’m a 20 year old woman. I have dark skin and big curly fluffy hair with almond shaped eyes and big smile and my pronouns are she her hers.

TR:
I’m Thomas Reid. If this by chance is your first time listening, I’m the host and producer of this here podcast. And more importantly, I’m the father of these two young ladies.
That’s right, Daddy Daughter Day in full effect! Let’s go!

— Reid My Mind Radio Intro

TR:
During my conversation with Andrew, we got into a discussion about what categorizes something disability culture. What makes someone a disabled artist.

TR in Conversation with Andrew: 56:24
If they’re in the mainstream, I don’t consider that disability culture. That’s just me.
Are they making the art from a disability perspective? I think that’s the way I draw that line.

Andrew: 56:57
My book is a mainstream book, it’s with a commercial publisher.

I don’t want to put you on the spot. But like, does that mean that what I’m doing is not from a disability perspective?

TR in Conversation with Andrew: 57:08
No.

When you mentioned the blind music artists, like, everybody knows Stevie.

to me, it’s a little different.

Andrew: 57:28
It’s interesting, he has like an album called Talking Book.

He’s not singing about blindness in every song.

It’s kind of a bigger question about identity.
Does your work fall under the category of the identity just by virtue of your having the identity?
Or does the work have to be about the identity for it to be included?
I think it’s kind of a spectrum.

TR:
Before we get to the question of what categorizes something as disability art specifically, let’s talk about identity.

A few years ago, I submitted Reid My Mind Radio to a Black podcast collective. They were looking for Black podcasts to amplify. Based on the fact that I never received a response, I assumed my podcast wasn’t Black enough for them.

But I’m Black!

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
How do you define black?

Raven:
From African descent?

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Okay.

Riana:
There are some people who have some African descent and are not Black. Clarence Thomas, I guess he black technically? Well, he probably (Said in a deep mimicking voice ) “I’m not black I’m dark complexion. I’m the same race as my wife.”

Raven:
We had a speaker in this club that I was in. And I just remember her saying that she doesn’t use the term black anymore because someone found it offensive and she’s African American. And I don’t know if I lost my mind in the moment. But every time I think about it, I lose my mind. Black people are all around the world. And I think whoever said she was offended by the term Black has her own personal issue.

Riana:
At the friggin schools, they’re always like Black or African American. I’m like this school district is blessed with such a beautiful black diaspora. Half these kids do not identify as African American, but they definitely black.

Raven:
I’ve had friends before be like, Oh, I’m not black then because I’m not African American. I’m like girl.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Cause they’re from the Caribbean…

Raven:
That’s what they’re taught.

TR:
Could I have been rejected from that Black podcast network because I’m Blind?
Stevie’s Blind, Ray was Blind and they’re Black!

— Do the Right Thing on He’s Black but he’s not Black!
Mookie (Spike Lee):
Can I talk to you for a second?

Pino: ():
What?

Mookie:
Pino, who’s your favorite basketball player?

Pino:
Magic Johnson.

Who’s your favorite movie star?

Pino:
Eddie Murphy.

… Magic, Eddie Murphy, Prince, there not Black. I mean….
Let me explain myself. They’re not really Black, I mean they’re Black but they’re not really Black. They’re more than Black. It’s different.

Mookie:
It’s different?

Pino:
Yeh, to me it’s different.
End of Clip

TR:
When I listen back to this podcast, I think it sounds Black. Not just because I’m on it, not because of the music beds or the references throughout that I know those who know, know. It’s a vibe that is in everything I do.

Police see me as Black.
My teachers and authority figures saw me as Black.
But then again, if your perception of Black is based in stereotypes then ok, maybe my podcast and I don’t fit.

But, I’m Blac!

— Song “I’m Black” from the Parody film CB4

Andrew: 58:30
So there’s a writer named Jim Knipfel who wrote the first book about blindness I ever read, which is a RP memoir called slack jaw that came out in the 90s. He and I have become friends. He’s sort of like a blind writing mentor for me. One day, he paid me a really big compliment, he was like, Andrew, be a writer, don’t be a blind writer, you’re too good of a writer to be a blind writer.
And it was a compliment, but it was also like I’m kind of psyched to be a blind writer.

TR:
Without knowing the exact intent behind that message, it reminds me of someone telling me I don’t look or act Blind. Which is actually less about me and more about someone’s perception of Blind.

Andrew:
John Lee Clark, the deaf blind poet, he had an interview in Word Gathering, the disability arts journal, where he kind of said the opposite. He was like, don’t hide it. That’s a perspective that is going to set your work apart. It’s a perspective to really draw from, I want to write everything from a deafblind perspective.

I kind of feel the tug of both of those approaches to being an artist.

TR:
Could it be more about who is doing the defining?

Andrew:
I was getting a ride from a friend of mine, honestly at the end of the ride, I was like, why are you a friend of mine?

He said to me, in no uncertain terms, so now that you’ve written this book, you got to know your audience, people really respond to hearing the story of you losing your vision, that’s what you need to write now. Just stay in your lane basically.

Write another book that’s about losing more vision. I was like you knew about my career that I had before I wrote this book now all you can see is blindness and like this kind of emotional aspect of vision loss that you see as the moneymaker.

I think that’s what Jim meant by being a blind writer, as opposed to just being a writer. People could only understand you through this experience. And so to me, that’s the pitfall. That’s, that’s where I agree with Jim. But then the next book, I want to write, it doesn’t even have to be about vision loss, but it can be sort of, from a blind perspective. And using blindness in that way that I find really positive.

TR in Conversation with Andrew: 1:00:45
Yeah, I totally get it. It’s how you’re being perceived as one way, and how you present yourself.
Sometimes it doesn’t seem to even matter, you’re being pigeon holed, which is not your goal.
When I started podcasts, I had this whole thing, I don’t have to do everything about blindness.
That wasn’t my intention. But along the way, I was like, wow, there’s nothing wrong with me doing things about blindness and then it broadened out to disability in general, I like this. And I can talk about everything and anything within the disability community or from a disability perspective.
I’m making that decision, it’s not someone putting that on me. But at the same time, when someone wants to limit me and say, This is the only thing you can do, that’s what I have a problem with. Because I can do whatever the hell I want to do!

Andrew: 1:02:37
That’s the question that I’ve been wrestling with really through the whole process of writing the book and figuring out my own identity as a blind person.

Is it supposed to be central? Or is it supposed to be incidental? When is it Central? When is it incidental?

Raven:
You know what blows my mind.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
What?

Raven:
When I don’t mention that you’re blind? And it’s like, (Mimicking voice)”Oh my God, how did I not know? Why didn’t you tell me, oh my we’ve been friends for so long, you didn’t tell me.”
(Laughter)

What’s it gonna come up for?
“Yeah, my Dad didn’t see today!”
(Laughter)
What the hell do you want me to talk about?
(Laughter)
I don’t know!

Riana:
it’s the same thing with me. They’re always like, shocked that I didn’t share and I said why would I

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
I mean you can understand why people would find that….

Raven:
Not really.

Riana:
No! They think it’s like me sharing like a like a trauma

Raven:
exactly! That’s what it feels like.

Riana:
(Mimicking) “Why didn’t you tell me?”
And that’s weird.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
If you go back everything that you learn about disability in the in the world and how it’s perceived and all of that stuff, it makes sense that people will respond like that.

Raven:
Yeah but it’s stupid!

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
It is stupid. (Laughs)

Riana:
And I also don’t like it sometimes because especially older generations if I tell someone that my father is blind, probably because it contributed to a conversation. They’re like, Oh, I’m so sorry.

Raven:
You knock his eyes out?

TR:
When it comes to being Black or Blind, I never had a choice.
I’m totally Blind. No eyes Blind! Like, I can win a Blind contest

— Timpani Drum roll “And the winner is”

TR:
Years ago my intention was to bridge this gap between the Blind community and others. It feels like a natural thing to consider especially as someone becoming Blind as an adult.

Today, considering all of my identities, I’m just not interested in trying to convince others to se my humanity.
I want to live a life with others who choose to recognize and appreciate people as they are in full.
I want to be seen with all of my identities not just those we happen to share. I want to do the same for others.

On the question of what makes something a part of disability culture, I think it’s about intention.
Who is the art made for?

I think disabled artist create for disabled people. Of course, others can appreciate, find inspiration in and interpret based on their own lived experiences, it’s art. But, in my mind and my interpretation, it was made for us.

— “Hold Up!” (Nate Dogg Sample)
Music begins: A crescendo leads into a bouncy up tempo beat!

TR:
Hey y’all! Quick update.
Shout out to all of the R double M Radio family out there who continue to put in that work.

Justice Shorter, who joined us during our Young Gifted Black and Disabled2022 season, along with SeededGround, recently launched the Disaster Justice Guide Book

“This guidebook is a collection of disaster-oriented lessons, lived experiences and learned expertise concerning people of color with disabilities. Based on six interviews conducted during the summer of 2023, each section is curated using the contributions of profoundly insightful individuals of color who are all well-versed in their respective areas of focus.”

You can find the downloadable guidebook along with accompanying interviews at JusticeShorter.com.

Big shout out to Ajani AJ Murray who launched his podcast Acting Up with AJ & Crew.

The podcast focuses on disability and pop culture. From movie analysis and reviews to some of the latest media happenings in the disability community, AJ’s got you covered.

I’ll link to both of these in this episode’s blog post over at ReidMyMind.com.

And now, back to the episode!

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
What is ableism?

Raven:
Ableism

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
(Laughs)

Raven:
(Spelling out the word) A B L… (Laughs)

Riana:
ableism to me is pretty much society today where it’s just it’s set up for able bodied people with the lack of acknowledgement for people with disabilities,
I guess that’s discrimination.

Raven:
I feel like a lot of the isms and all of that come from just the belief that there’s a normal like boy and girl that and if you stripped from that in any way you need to be fixed. In terms of disabilities to I think that’s what the feeling bad comes from because they’re not living the normal life that we deemed as a society as good and easy. Even though you can live happily with whatever cards you’re dealt.

Riana:
Yeah, we just need to adjust society

Raven:
Yeah!

Riana:
… to be more inclusive.

TR:
I can’t recall hearing the word ableism prior to becoming Blind.
In fact, it wasn’t until I eventually began reading about disability in general that I came across this word and concept.
That is, the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that
typical abilities are superior.
It defines people by their disability and is applicable both to an individual and system.

Like my girls said, society views disability as something requiring fixing.
It’s evident throughout our culture. Art, politics, religion.

Andrew: 52:10
The refrain that the poem says over and over again, is fall to your knees. And thank God for your eyesight.

TR:
This poem Andrew refers to in his book, was read during a service in a synagogue.

Andrew:
You just sort of have to sit there with your family, as a whole room of people just sort of appreciates that they aren’t blind.
It was kind of wild to me that Lily was offended or found it annoying and it wasn’t just me.

— Theme from Love boat!

TR:
My family and I were on a cruise taking in one of the family friendly comedy shows held in one of the ship’s smaller theaters. It’s still amazing how incredibly large these ships are. But they still get tossed around during stormy weather.

When attending any sort of comedy show, I specifically do not sit in the front row. I don’t want to be visible to the comedian. I’m there to be entertained, not part of the entertainment.

— Music begins: A dark, menacing violin repeats over a mid tempo beat.

We weren’t in the front row but it wasn’t a large theater and I was sitting in the aisle seat.

There was this one “comedian”, I say that in quotes because there wasn’t much about his comedy at all that was funny.
I could tell he was pacing from one side of the stage to the other.
He then stopped in front of the aisle that I was sitting in. He took a few moments and then walked back off to the right side of the stage.
I could just feel it, a Blind joke was coming.

It did. And it sucked!

He was struggling to make something up on the fly. It was some corny, basic joke that involved Stevie, probably the most famous Blind person on the planet. In fact, I didn’t even tell you which Stevie and you know who I’m talking about.

TR in Conversation with Riana and Raven:
Anyway, do y’all remember that? Do you have any recollection of that?

Raven:
I have about 10% recollection. And I am afraid that 9% of it is because you’ve told me the story three times this week.

TR in Conversation with Riana and Raven:
(Laughs)

Riana:
Literally the only thing I remember is daddy’s story. I don’t remember that happening at all.

TR in Conversation with Riana and Raven:
Really, y’all don’t remember that?

Raven:
Kind of?

Riana:
You’re saying that he saw you in the audience. And then he made a joke because he made the assumption you were blind.

TR in Conversation with Riana and Raven:
I’m telling you. It was like there was an energy thing something was going on. But it was like, it was as though we were making eye contact.

Raven:
Maybe you had a dream.

TR in Conversation with Riana and Raven:
Oh my god! )Said incredulously)

Raven:
(Laughs)
TR in Conversation with Riana and Raven:
It’s like, you know when you just go somewhere and you just want to be. You know what I’m saying? You just kind of want to just do your thing. You don’t necessarily need to interact. You just want to be there.

Riana:
definitely every day. I can see what Daddy is saying. When we go out, he has his cane or if you’re holding on to somebody’s arm people are going to look especially when Daddy had his eyepatch. Everybody was staring there was no just being like blending in the crowd. We stood out for sure.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Sometimes as a family we don’t necessarily always get that and that was one of those times for me that we don’t get to just be

Raven:
(Sympathetically) Augh!

Riana:
Does mommy remember that?

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
She did. She remembers it like I remember it she just says it was a different cruise which I don’t care that’s fine. And it was just it was a weird thing

Raven:
I remember a comedian saying a Blind joke and it not being funny on a cruise.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
This was that guy! (Mumbling incredulously)
Laughter

Raven:
But I don’t know what you want me to tell you.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Did it make you feel any sort of way?

Raven:
I was probably very upset, annoyed.
But you have similar experiences that are all the same thing.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Again, we talked about it goes into that just being, okay, we’re just hear we just want to have a good time like everybody and then all of a sudden, boop! Spotlight! You see what I’m saying. And not the good spotlight where you know I’m rocking the crowd “hey what’s going on” (finger snaps… “Uh, Uh!” as if dancing)

(Silence….)
Hello?

Riana:
Laughs….

Raven:
That makes me sad.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Why does it make you sad?

Raven:
Because I don’t want you to think that it’s like, hard to go out and be a family, with your family?

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
No, no, no, I’m not I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s nothing that we do wrong, it’s not our fault. My thing is that I want to know how it impacts you or do you all recognize that and I know you do now, Riana has come a long way in terms of it doesn’t you know, she knows what it is, it doesn’t bother her. So I really feel like she’s gonna be better for that. She’s a better person…

Raven:
What? (Giggles) I thought you meant better than me.

TR In Conversation with Riana & Raven:
No, no, no! (Laughs)
I’m just saying like, she’s gonna be better for that. And I think the same is true for you. At the end of the day, we’re just goin’ do are thing!

Raven:.
That’s always been my thing.

TR:
And that’s exactly what we were doing during that trip and in that theater.

The rest of the audience around me, I could sense was aware of my presence, they seem to be looking for my reaction.

— Music stops.

In this case, there was none. Because I didn’t find it funny.
I don’t think they did either.
Although I’ll never know if that’s because they are aware of me being there or if as in this case, the joke just isn’t funny.

But, that uncomfort felt by the non Blind folks, a reluctance to laugh as they await my reaction as though if I find it funny absolves them of the “sin” of laughing at a blind joke…

— (An evil, menacing laugh….) “That actually is, (coughing) pretty funny!”, The Joker.

TR:
I was extremely aware of racial discrimination at a very young age.
But, I knew nothing about ableism.
I know I didn’t harbor any sort of hatred toward disabled people. I didn’t have an ableist bone in my body! (Sarcastic giggle)

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Do you ever notice any of your own internal ableism?

Raven:
Yeah,

Riana:
For sure.

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
I know, Raven should be really good.
(They all laugh)

Raven’s like, “And, what’s the problem!” (Laughs)

Raven:
I think I noticed more of internal ableism with more intellectual disabilities because I’ve been exposed to it less.

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
that affects you in a certain way? Is that what you’re saying?

Raven:
Yeah.(Pause)
Riana didn’t give any…

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
I’m going back. This was all about an intervention for you. (Laughs)

Raven:
That’s what it feels like. (Laughing)

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
I remember growing up, it felt like when you saw someone with a disability, you were supposed to feel bad. And sorry, and sad. Right.
The tel-a -thons. Y’all don’t know about the tel-a-thons.

Riana:
I don’t feel bad at all.

Raven:
We do know about the tel-a-thons.

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Oh, ok! That was a thing.

Raven:
Did you hear Riana?

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
What she say.

Raven:
(Overly sarcastic and in vocal fry) “I don’t feel bad at all”

(They all laugh)

Riana:
I don’t. The only time I do is if like, if they’re not being accommodated.

Raven:
Yeh, yeh!

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Riana, , what about you anything around the internal ableism?

Raven:
Yeh, anything for you? (Laughs)

Riana:
Right now I see like ableism in the way that like I approach, neurodevelopmental disabilities or disorders. Sometimes I need to remind myself that we don’t need to, like, fix it. But especially with like a kid with like ADHD, because you get into this mindset, especially at the school, and I’m definitely not going to name drop that school, but they’re very ableist, in the sense of every behavior needs to be addressed. And they have to display the behavior in a certain way. And that’s where I see myself, making sure that I step back and be like, we don’t need to change this child. The curriculum needs to be adapted towards it. And school psych is pushing towards that message anyway. But I see myself being like, (Mocking voice that sounds a lot like Elvis Presley impression, LOL)
oh, yeah, we gotta do this and check in check out, behavioral modification…

(TR and Raven laugh hysterically)
Riana:
For real, I see it. Or like a kid with autism, we were just doing like, trying to figure out an intervention for them. And I just had to sit back and be like, Okay, we’re not trying to fix this child. We’re not going to try to change this child.

TR:
Another message around disability was, inspiration. As in, “Damn, if they can do it what’s my problem?”

— “We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this special news bulletin.”

That’s not inspiration. That’s just looking at someone as less than yourself.

No one ever gave me reason to question that way of thinking.

In my episode with Andrew, we talked about an early experience he had at a NFB chapter meeting.
That really brought back some memories for me, both as someone new to that environment and as someone who used to chair meetings of a local blindness organization.

In the latter, I had many opportunities to observe the uncomfort of those attending a meeting for the first time. These folks assumed we were a support group even though everything advertised about us was clear that we were a community advocacy organization working to increase access and opportunities for people with vision loss. That was literally what I’d say to not mention the word Blind because it scared folks away.

But when those unfamiliar with disability read “people with vision loss or blind”, I think their interpretation is, “Of course it’s a support group? What else do those people need?”

During these meetings, we’re talking about the business of advocacy. Meanwhile, those new to blindness are there in search of resources, maybe comfort, encouragement?

I don’t care if you’re personally impacted or a family member or friend, there’s something quite shocking when first encountering white canes, telescopic lenses and anything else associated with blindness.
Of course, there’s nothing shocking about these things, but when you are in this position where you’re facing a new normal; it’s a lot to take in.

Over time, I could recognize those who would return and those who were outta there.

Occasionally I think about them. the ones who ran away. I hope they found what they were looking for.

I’m not necessarily saying it was internal ableism that stopped them from connecting with our group. I just know that my internal ableism could have stopped me from connecting with people who truly made a difference in my life.

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Have you ever witnessed ableism, in the real world …

Raven:
Are you kidding me?

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
… that’s outside of anything to do with your father?

Raven:
Oh my god. Yeah.

Riana:
Girl, yes! (Laughs) What?

Raven:
Are you joking? (Laughs)

Riana:
Yeh, everyday.

Raven:
Number one, Villanova. That place man…

Riana:
Yeh, Villanova.

Raven:
Not the place but

Riana:
No the actual place is not accessible.

Raven:
(Ugh!) Ok, hold on. So the first thing I’m going to say is that a lot of the places on the campus, obviously they make accommodations but a lot of the places on the campus have like the disability stalls but there’s only stairs to get in it.

Another thing that drives me nuts is the people who think that they are so woke .
I was telling a story once something about going into the big stall somewhere and they were like, (In a British accent for some reason. LOL)”Oh I don’t use those stalls cause I realize those stalls are not for me”

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
(Laughing)

Raven:
And I’m like… (laughs) it pisses me off because I’m like, (yelling) “How are they gonna get inside of the place if that’s what you’re talking about.” It pisses me off because it’s this one dimensional viewpoint here it’s like don’t say a slur to someone but it’s so much more than that.

Riana:
I’ve been around people with disabilities for a while so I see it, institutional heavily like Raven was mentioning. Daily conversations. I’m thinking of things in like recreational therapy too.

The Rec therapist is coming in and trying to make something accessible. So you’re seeing how it’s not accessible for everybody. Just a lot of times you go into a space, and they’re like, Oh, this is what you can use. And it’s like, well, we’re going to need contractors because the people are not going to even be able to come in. If you take two seconds and put yourself in somebody else’s shoes. Even like a YMCA we went to and it wasn’t accessible. Every day living, we just had to create things, at least in my experience. And maybe that was just because we were students. So they weren’t really taking us seriously, but you had to be very creative. It puts you in a mindset of like, wow, people who are just not included. You have to be so creative, just to make sure that you’re able to do what you need to do.

In school psych. It’s always like, wow, my child looks normal, they seem normal.
And I’m like, you know who’s not normal? You

Raven:
I think also in a casual way, I notice it more. I think as a society we’re starting to work on our language

Riana:
Yeh!

Raven:
But I notice that it’s a little less with ability language.

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Hmm! Riana let me ask you this. What’s the language that’s used when it comes to disability in your line of work?

Riana:
In School Psychology?

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Yeh! Do they used differently abled, special needs, do they use disability?

Riana:
No, we say disability. That’s my huge argument over semantics. Everybody’s like don’t get caught up with semantics but that’s extremely important. If you describe a disability in a certain way it can put a picture in a parent’s brain and sometimes you just have to let that parent or teacher or whoever is uncomfortable, be uncomfortable because it is what that child is period.

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
It sounds like you’re in the camp of no we’re gonna use the word disability, we’re not gonna change the language we’re gonna use those words.

Riana:
No!
Riana:
I’m not making you comfortable with anything, especially when I’m making you comfortable within ignorance. I’m not doing that. I’m gonna tell you your child has Autism cause there’s nothing wrong with Autism.
The DSM 5 says what it is and it is what it is.

Raven:
I just noticed this thing because I’m taking Psycho Pathology and I’ve noticed a lot of the names of things have changed.

Riana:
Yeh, like Sociopath is anti social personality.

Raven:
There’s like a lot that I realized have changed.
Riana:
Yeh! And that’s because of culture though. The way that semantics comes into play and the way they become derogatory and then we have to be sensitive. And that makes perfect sense, you know what I mean.

Raven:
Yeh!

Riana:
The “R” word. It makes perfect sense, I’m not going to use it.There’s some things though like obviously school psych’s aren’t going to test if a child has “gender dysphoria”, but I wouldn’t approach a situation where a child says they’re non conforming . I’m not going to say you have gender dysphoria. Like, that’s so stupid. That’s something that’s becoming a little derogatory too. That’s when I might change my wording, but that’s because of a cultural aspect.

— From George Carlin Stand Up Comedy:
“Sometime toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. Information became directory assistance. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Used cars became previously owned transportation.” (Audience laughter.) “Room service became guest room dining. And constipation became occasional irregularity.” (Audience laughter fades out)

— Music begins: A very bright, fun mid tempo beat.

TR:
Now, thinking about the requirements for citizenship in the country of the Blind, the truth is I don’t know that we have an immigration issue at all.
I don’t know anyone lining up trying to get in.

The country of the blind, just like this podcast, has fully open borders.

That being said, it is an opportunity to examine and challenge the way we move through the world to really figure out what blindness is and isn’t. What disability is and isn’t.

Even more of an opportunity if you have people in your life who you love and love you back to share in the experience.
Yes, these conversations can produce a range of emotions, but if you’re lucky, it can just lead to strengthening those bonds as opposed to breaking them.

(Sounds of laughter and conversation between Raven, Riana and Daddy!)

Blindness, disability is all a normal part of the human experience. Which I think works better when we’re all in it together!
Raven, Riana and Daddy:
(The conversation continues and leads into a hysterical laugh from the three!)

Big shout out to Andrew Leland, author of The Country of the Blind, remember, available on the NLS BARD for digital download and Book share as well as all the other places you can purchase books.

Riana and Raven, AKA, Daddy’s babies!
Hanging out with them, is one of the biggest blessings of my life.
Daddy loves you!

Reid My Mind Radio, daddy loves you too! (Silly laughter)

Reid My Mind Radio is available wherever you get podcasts.
Transcripts and more are at ReidMyMind.com.
The only way to get there is by spelling it right!
Riana and Raven:
R to the E I D!
— Sample: “D! And that’s me in the place to be.” Slick Rick

TR, Riana and Raven:
Like my last name.

— Reid My Mind Radio Outro
Peace!

Riana:
Can we do shout outs!

Raven:
Can we say bye?

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
You just said bye!

Raven:
Not really.

TR in Conversation with Riana & Raven:
Go ahead, say bye!

Raven:
Bye, guys! Thank you for having us on Reid My Mind Radioooooo! Peace!

Riana:
Peace! (In a deep voice)

(In her television announcer voice)
Thank you everybody for listening to Reid My Mind Radio. I’m Riana Reid with my co-host Raven Reid, taking over for this episode. Please follow us on Instagram. Mine is @RianaGeorgette. Raven what’s yours?

Raven:
I’m @Raven22 .

Riana:
We love you, thanks for listening, see you next week.

Raven:
I liked it, that was awesome!

Raven (at about 5 years old)
Woh! Heavy breathing. That was awesome, that was awesome!d

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