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ABLE Voices Ep 75: Christina Lucille
22 Plays8 months ago
We are inviting disabled artists and arts educators to be guests and guest hosts on ABLE Voices. Today's guest host is Briana Raucci.
Briana is a Connecticut-based artist, writer, and photographer with multiple disabilities, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy. endometriosis, ADHD, and more. Over the years, Briana has self-described as a photographer, photojournalist, writer, graphic designer, UX & product designer, social media manager, artist, etc., but feels none of those titles alone fully embody the creativity she is constantly trying to express in new ways. After in-depth creative exploration, doing both full-time and freelance work for over 13 years, Briana is now freelancing full-time, utilizing all her creative abilities. Being a multi-passionate individual, this has allowed her to balance all of her creative endeavors and add a few more! Since this interview, she has begun fundraising to support her disability advocacy work. Today Briana will be speaking with Christina Lucille.
Christina Lucille is a disabled digital artist, graphic designer, and business owner who has a strong social media presence under her artist title, Chronic Pop. Through her platform she advocates for the disabled community by creating controversial art pieces and having honest conversations about what it feels like to be a disabled person in an able-bodied world. The intention behind Chronic Pop is to make fun, humorous art that makes talking about these difficult topics a bit less daunting and brings some joy into disabled lives.
Find Briana online at: https://www.brianaraucci.com/ Read Briana's Disability & Art Blog: https://www.brianaraucci.com/blog Follow Briana on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianaraucci/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrianaRaucciPhotography LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianaraucci/
Follow Christina on Instagram @chronicpopshop
Follow Christina on TikTok @chronicpopshop
Shop Chronic Pop https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChronicPop
The ABLE Voices podcast is produced and edited by BIAAE Operations Coordinator, Daniel Martinez del Campo. The introduction music was written by Kai Levin and the ending song was written by Sebastian Batista. Kai and Sebastian are students in the Arts Education Programs at the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education.
For more information about our programs visit us at https://college.berklee.edu/BIAAE
Follow us for more weekly updates at:
Instagram: @BIAAE
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BIAAE
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Transcript
Introduction to Able Voices Podcast
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Able Voices podcast.
00:00:17
Speaker
I'm Dr. Rhoda Bernard, founding managing director of the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education and the assistant chair of the music education department at Berklee College of Music.
00:00:27
Speaker
and I am proud to present this podcast featuring disabled artists and arts educators.
00:00:33
Speaker
We are inviting artists with disabilities to be guest hosts for the Able Voices podcast.
00:00:38
Speaker
Today's guest host is Brianna Rauchy.
00:00:42
Speaker
Brianna is a Connecticut based artist specializing in film and digital photography, writing and design.
00:00:49
Speaker
Brianna also happens to have multiple disabilities.
00:00:53
Speaker
Over the years, Brianna has self-described as a photographer,
00:00:56
Speaker
photojournalist, writer, graphic designer, UX and product designer, social media manager, artist, et cetera, but feels none of these titles fully embodies the creativity she is constantly trying to express in new ways.
00:01:15
Speaker
After in-depth creative exploration, doing both full-time and freelance work for over 13 years, Brianna is now freelancing full-time, utilizing all of her creative abilities.
00:01:27
Speaker
Being a multi-passionate individual, this has allowed her to balance all of her creative endeavors and to add a few more.
00:01:37
Speaker
Hi,
Meet Christina Lucille, Artist and Advocate
00:01:38
Speaker
this is the Able Voices Podcast.
00:01:40
Speaker
I'm your guest host, Brianna Racci.
00:01:42
Speaker
I'm a disabled artist with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, endometriosis, and a bunch of other fun disorders.
00:01:48
Speaker
I make art for people with disabilities to explain what it's like to live with them.
00:01:53
Speaker
And today I am joined by the lovely Christina Lucille, who is also a disabled artist.
00:02:00
Speaker
She has MS and endometriosis, and she also creates art for the disabled community.
00:02:06
Speaker
So Christina, I'd like to start off by asking you about your story as an artist.
From Classical Singing to Acrylic and Digital Art
00:02:10
Speaker
How did you start?
00:02:12
Speaker
How did you get to where you are today, etc.?
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, I started really late, I feel like, in life.
00:02:19
Speaker
At first, I was training as a classical musician.
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I was a classical singer.
00:02:25
Speaker
I was trained in it for a long time.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, and then, you know...
00:02:29
Speaker
I kind of not outgrew it, but just was looking for something different.
00:02:35
Speaker
I started to feel sick about 18, 19, 20, like really sick.
00:02:40
Speaker
And singing with my voice was starting to get weird, right?
00:02:44
Speaker
It was the MS starting to kick in.
00:02:46
Speaker
So I kind of ventured into acrylic painting on canvas.
00:02:51
Speaker
And that's kind of how I got started.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:55
Speaker
But yeah, I just started doing acrylic painting about 18 or 19 years old.
00:02:59
Speaker
Wow, that's amazing.
00:03:00
Speaker
So you said your MS kicked in when you were about how old?
00:03:06
Speaker
Well, I noticed it when I was 18, 19, but I actually have pediatric MS.
00:03:11
Speaker
So I've had it about...
00:03:14
Speaker
for as long as I can remember since I was about three or four.
00:03:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:18
Speaker
And then when you decided to kind of switch, how did you develop?
00:03:22
Speaker
You have Chronic Pop Shop, which is your shop where you sell all your disabled art.
00:03:28
Speaker
How did you start that and how did that pick up and develop to what it is today?
00:03:33
Speaker
So I started the acrylic painting when I was like, you know, that late age group.
00:03:38
Speaker
And then...
00:03:40
Speaker
I was about 22 and I started to show and sell my art around town.
00:03:46
Speaker
This was acrylic on canvas.
00:03:48
Speaker
But then I went through a really bad liver failure from my MS medication and then I had a bad relapse.
00:03:56
Speaker
And so I kind of had to give up painting on canvas because my hands were super shaky and it was not fun.
00:04:05
Speaker
My line were, I mean, it was just so like all over the place.
00:04:10
Speaker
And then my partner introduced me to digital art.
00:04:15
Speaker
And I at first was like, I'm not gonna change.
00:04:18
Speaker
I'm not gonna like switch my mediums.
00:04:20
Speaker
I'm like, I'm never gonna do digital.
00:04:22
Speaker
Cause I don't know, I was just so stubborn.
00:04:24
Speaker
And I kind of, I picked it up one day on her pad, on her little art pad that she had.
00:04:30
Speaker
And I was like, hmm, I can actually like make my lines straight on here and I can like actually have some control.
00:04:37
Speaker
So then I kind of started to use Procreate my iPad and yeah.
00:04:43
Speaker
And then it wasn't until I lost half my vision that I took it more seriously and started to like illustrate more
00:04:52
Speaker
And I made like notepads because I wanted to help manage my health.
00:04:56
Speaker
And then
Sharing Personal Stories Through Art
00:04:57
Speaker
I opened up the Chronic Pop account on Instagram.
00:05:00
Speaker
And yeah, it just kind of took over from there.
00:05:03
Speaker
And I wanted to do more like funny, relatable, disabled artwork, you know, that you don't really see out there a lot.
00:05:09
Speaker
So.
00:05:10
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:05:11
Speaker
You channeled something that
00:05:13
Speaker
helps you into something that could help other people too with your notepads and, you know, the funny sayings that you, you know, put, it's, it's hard to have disability.
00:05:22
Speaker
So I like how you channeled it.
00:05:23
Speaker
And it's also,
00:05:25
Speaker
interesting that you said you switched to Procreate because I use it as well.
00:05:28
Speaker
And it is such a good accommodation when you have like shaky hands and everything to kind of get the art in your head out onto not real paper, but you know, the digital medium.
00:05:43
Speaker
So I'd like to ask you about your experiences as a person with disabilities.
00:05:47
Speaker
When you integrate that into your art, like how did it feel when you started talking about that publicly?
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:53
Speaker
Really uncomfortable.
00:05:55
Speaker
Very uncomfortable because I'm just not a vulnerable person.
00:06:01
Speaker
And it's really cheesy to say that like, oh, vulnerability is strength, right?
00:06:05
Speaker
Because I'm like one of those people, I'm like, ugh, that cringe.
00:06:08
Speaker
I don't want to talk about my feelings.
00:06:11
Speaker
But you can ask my therapist of six years.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:15
Speaker
But I don't know, it just kind of started to become freeing.
00:06:19
Speaker
The more comfortable I got in my art account, the more free I felt.
00:06:24
Speaker
And then definitely when
00:06:27
Speaker
politics started to, you know, come up with November, last November and stuff, I was like, you know, I'm kind of pissy.
00:06:36
Speaker
And I feel like, I feel like it's okay for us to be like sad in the disabled and chronically ill community.
00:06:42
Speaker
It's okay to be like happy, but you know, nobody ever said it's okay to be angry.
00:06:48
Speaker
And so I really wanted to express like the anger that I think a lot of us felt.
00:06:52
Speaker
And so, yeah, I just started using that and putting that into my work.
00:06:57
Speaker
It's been fun, though.
00:07:00
Speaker
I have a lot of fun with it.
00:07:02
Speaker
Yeah, and I can tell, and you can tell through your art that you have fun with it and other people engage with it.
00:07:06
Speaker
You have such a good, strong following who actually participate in the work.
00:07:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:11
Speaker
So I know our listeners would like to hear about your arts education.
00:07:15
Speaker
I know you kind of were studying music, which is funny for Berkeley, at first.
00:07:20
Speaker
So what other kinds of art education did you receive, and can you talk about how you continue to learn more?
00:07:27
Speaker
your art forms today?
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, I have none.
00:07:31
Speaker
I have never taken an art class.
00:07:34
Speaker
Really?
00:07:38
Speaker
No, not in high school, not in college.
00:07:40
Speaker
And it's something I really wish I would have, but I was so focused on my education.
00:07:46
Speaker
I actually had to leave school for like my relapses.
00:07:49
Speaker
I was studying speech pathology, which makes sense because of my voice, right?
00:07:54
Speaker
And then I had to leave because my MS got so bad.
00:07:57
Speaker
And then, yeah, I was just so focused on getting into graduate school for psychology after that.
00:08:04
Speaker
And I just never had the time and I wish I would have.
00:08:08
Speaker
Luckily for me, my partner was going to school to be an architect and she took a lot of art classes and everything.
00:08:15
Speaker
So she actually was, she's kind of like my teacher.
00:08:20
Speaker
And yeah, I do like self-learning stuff like
00:08:24
Speaker
This sounds so silly.
00:08:25
Speaker
I just was learning perspective.
00:08:27
Speaker
And it's so basic.
00:08:30
Speaker
But it's something that I never learned.
00:08:33
Speaker
Truly, right?
00:08:34
Speaker
It's like going back to the basics is so important as an artist, right?
00:08:37
Speaker
And I didn't realize that until I was trying to draw a box.
00:08:42
Speaker
And I'm like, I can't get this right.
00:08:44
Speaker
And I hate geometry.
00:08:47
Speaker
I struggle with perspective too.
00:08:49
Speaker
It's funny like that, you know, we're artists and it's like, oh, I feel like I struggle with like some of the basic stuff, but like creativity leads to other places that you don't necessarily need certain aspects of it.
00:09:01
Speaker
And that's what's so fun about art is it can be explorative and you don't need per se like a solid education.
00:09:08
Speaker
Do you think your previous education in pathology and like what you were studying plays into your art at all?
00:09:15
Speaker
at this point?
00:09:16
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:17
Speaker
Especially in speech pathology, I was actually specializing in neurology.
Facing Ableism and Finding Support
00:09:22
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:09:22
Speaker
So yeah.
00:09:23
Speaker
And I've taken a lot of anatomy courses.
00:09:25
Speaker
So me drawing anatomy, I actually kind of did it on the side when I was a speech pathos student.
00:09:32
Speaker
So it was really, yeah, I don't know.
00:09:34
Speaker
I just picked it up naturally.
00:09:36
Speaker
I just like doodling a lot and designing.
00:09:40
Speaker
So it was, yeah, it's just been something I did in college.
00:09:45
Speaker
And then I kind of transferred that over to drawing for Chronic Pop.
00:09:50
Speaker
And yeah, it's been fun.
00:09:53
Speaker
I like, I drew a thyroid the other day, I think.
00:09:56
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:09:57
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:58
Speaker
Did you have any teachers that are or professors that knew about your disability and helped you through like navigating that time where you were trying to figure out, you know, like, how am I going to push forward?
00:10:10
Speaker
Like, can you talk about that in your education in terms of your disability?
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:14
Speaker
So when I was a speech pathology student, they and I, um,
00:10:19
Speaker
I basically have my body went numb and I was like, oh, I have MS because I was studying right in a row.
00:10:25
Speaker
Right.
00:10:25
Speaker
And so I knew right away what it was.
00:10:28
Speaker
And I went in and they told my professors and they're like, you shouldn't be a speech pathologist because it's too hard for you.
00:10:34
Speaker
And so I left the program.
00:10:36
Speaker
They were very ableist, extremely.
00:10:38
Speaker
They didn't.
00:10:39
Speaker
It's actually it's actually an area that is very riddled with ableism, unfortunately.
00:10:46
Speaker
But when I did my psychology degree, the rest of my degree, right, they were very accommodating, like very kind, very accommodating.
00:10:56
Speaker
They knew I was trying to get into grad school.
00:10:58
Speaker
so um yeah they they help me a lot um but yeah so you're very active as an artist can you tell us about your current work and you know obviously you said that you're putting politics into it more and expressing your anger but you know can you tell us a little bit more about how you're exploring all this yeah yeah I think um
00:11:22
Speaker
I think I take like inspiration right now from a lot of other disabled people and just listening to them and also going into the political spaces and seeing what's going on.
Art as Expression and Representation
00:11:34
Speaker
Do you know what I mean?
00:11:35
Speaker
And it's funny because I see a lot of other disabled artists on Instagram.
00:11:41
Speaker
Right.
00:11:42
Speaker
And like I said, it's really hard to be vulnerable as a disabled person because you're not allowed to be a certain way.
00:11:48
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:11:48
Speaker
So I just, I am trying to fill the gaps that are missing.
00:11:52
Speaker
You know, I want to feel like our voices are included and that, you know, the voices of being angry are included or, you know, even just, I'm super sarcastic.
00:12:04
Speaker
It's how I deal with a lot of the trauma.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:08
Speaker
I mean, it's how you have to, if you, if you don't laugh, you know, what are we going to do?
00:12:11
Speaker
Cry all day.
00:12:12
Speaker
I mean, I do that too, but you have to laugh about it because it's hard to live with disabilities.
00:12:17
Speaker
So yeah,
00:12:18
Speaker
through finding your own voice and your audience and everything, do you think that you've found your niche?
00:12:25
Speaker
And how would you explain your niche within the disabled community?
00:12:29
Speaker
Oh, that is interesting.
00:12:31
Speaker
I think, hmm, what is my niche?
00:12:35
Speaker
That's a good question.
00:12:36
Speaker
It's very, well, if we're going off of art style, like my art is very bold,
00:12:42
Speaker
know what I mean like the colors it's very simple very simple like doodle drawing um like a little bit of shading right and I think it just goes along with like the I want to create like a bold style and like have bold words behind it you know what I mean so I think that that kind of is my niche there is like angry sarcastic bold
00:13:08
Speaker
if you know what I mean.
00:13:09
Speaker
And kind of more fun.
00:13:10
Speaker
I like to make it a little bit more fun instead of, you know, and not to be, you know, everybody's like, oh, don't be toxic positive.
00:13:16
Speaker
I'm like, I'm not being toxic angry.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:21
Speaker
I mean, like you said, you have to joke and make light of stuff that's very difficult because how else are we supposed to, you know, deal?
00:13:29
Speaker
We're constantly inundated with all of this stuff.
00:13:32
Speaker
And, you know, you have stickers that's like disabled and angry and
00:13:36
Speaker
fatigued AF.
00:13:39
Speaker
You say exactly how you're feeling and I think you do a great job with that.
00:13:43
Speaker
Is there any advice that you'd give to a young artist with disabilities?
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think don't be afraid to try new mediums and try anything.
00:13:54
Speaker
Don't be afraid to adapt your technique to what you need.
00:13:59
Speaker
I've actually seen a lot of MS artists have braces.
00:14:04
Speaker
One of them had like
00:14:06
Speaker
oh, I can't remember.
00:14:06
Speaker
It was like some device and it helped like keep their hands steady.
00:14:10
Speaker
And had I known, I'm like, just kidding.
00:14:13
Speaker
My arm, it's like my whole arm.
00:14:14
Speaker
So yeah.
00:14:16
Speaker
And I think like, don't be afraid to like, um, just be loud and honest.
00:14:23
Speaker
And like, you don't have to always say, you know, oh, I'm like feeling happy or sad.
00:14:28
Speaker
Cause there's, there's a lot of sad.
00:14:30
Speaker
There's a lot of like, you know, and that's great.
00:14:31
Speaker
That's great.
00:14:32
Speaker
Right.
00:14:32
Speaker
It's not,
00:14:33
Speaker
But you know, you're also allowed to feel other things and be very honest with how you're feeling and just how you come out into the world.
00:14:40
Speaker
I think that disabled art is really important because it's a part of disability culture.
00:14:46
Speaker
And a lot of disability culture has been kind of hidden from us and from history.
00:14:51
Speaker
And you know, there's not a lot out there.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:14:56
Speaker
How do you think people have responded to you in person?
00:15:01
Speaker
We kind of talked about how it feels a little bit cathartic and liberating to talk about this stuff and get it off your chest, and art in itself is very cathartic.
00:15:10
Speaker
Has anyone come to you about your art and explained from their perspective, with their disability, how your art made them feel?
00:15:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I mean, yeah, I'm like, not to toot my own horn.
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:24
Speaker
Or like anything like that, but I haven't had any bad comments so far.
00:15:29
Speaker
I'm sure they'll come eventually.
00:15:31
Speaker
They always do, right?
00:15:32
Speaker
I've been waiting for it every day.
00:15:34
Speaker
That's bad.
00:15:36
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I think they just feel seen.
00:15:40
Speaker
And I think like some of the stuff, like the disabled and angry post is really what launched.
00:15:45
Speaker
a lot of like, oh, like I think people are like looking for this, right?
00:15:50
Speaker
And so after I did that one post, I started to go a lot more down the political route and, you know, saying, I don't know, I don't think it's inflammatory, but saying the truth, right?
00:16:03
Speaker
And so I think people really related to that and they liked hearing me say it.
00:16:08
Speaker
So yeah, I get a lot of comments, a lot of really good feedback on it and how they feel seen and
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of like shares.
00:16:16
Speaker
So I know that people get it and are feeling it too.
00:16:21
Speaker
Do you sell your art in person as well?
00:16:23
Speaker
I haven't yet.
00:16:25
Speaker
It's only been – it's been less than a year still.
00:16:28
Speaker
Oh, no.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, I used to with my big acrylic paintings and stuff.
00:16:34
Speaker
So I'm used to like showing in that type of setting and format, like setting up in like a gallery area and
00:16:40
Speaker
and then leaving it up for like a month, and then you go back and get it right.
00:16:43
Speaker
I think everybody knows that.
00:16:46
Speaker
But yeah, it's been less than a year since I opened my shop up and started doing this.
00:16:51
Speaker
That's extremely impressive because you have a really big following already, and it's hard to get an audience, and you've done an impeccable job of finding your people and people who are drawn to your messaging and
00:17:04
Speaker
And yeah, you're doing a great job so far.
00:17:08
Speaker
Any advice that you would give to anyone younger dealing with the disabilities that you have?
00:17:14
Speaker
Anything that helped you along the way?
00:17:16
Speaker
I'm trying to think.
00:17:24
Speaker
Man, I was going to say a really bad answer.
00:17:25
Speaker
I was going to say weed.
00:17:26
Speaker
Edit that out.
00:17:32
Speaker
But I mean, it's a tool, right?
00:17:34
Speaker
For MS.
00:17:35
Speaker
I honestly...
00:17:38
Speaker
I am still figuring out a lot about it, you know, because I do have pediatric MS, but I was only diagnosed at 21.
00:17:47
Speaker
But my neurologist could go back and see like, oh, you've had MS for like your whole life because I had so much scarring on my brain and my spinal cord.
00:17:56
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm trying to look back and like really think I'm like, what helped me?
00:18:00
Speaker
But, you know, I'm still figuring it out as like a 28 year old because it's only been like seven years.
00:18:05
Speaker
I'm like, oh, my God.
00:18:07
Speaker
But yeah, I honestly think like digital art is if you, you know, if you can't find like a contraption to help your hands and stuff, or, you know, if you're having a hard time with like line work, you know, give digital artwork a go, I guess.
00:18:21
Speaker
Like that's kind of what I'm thinking.
00:18:24
Speaker
And then just don't push yourself too much because like for me, my art takes me about like three or four days to finish sometimes.
00:18:31
Speaker
And it's funny because if you look at it, it's really simple, right?
00:18:34
Speaker
But even me just getting like the shapes down
00:18:37
Speaker
can be still quite difficult on there.
00:18:39
Speaker
So yeah.
Advocating for Disabled Voices in Art and Politics
00:18:41
Speaker
Well, it looks incredible.
00:18:43
Speaker
What do you think is the most important message that you would want people to know who aren't familiar with your disabilities and also with your art?
00:18:52
Speaker
Ooh, a message.
00:18:55
Speaker
Even if it's like from a political perspective, for example, like I think what I'm trying to do with my art is
00:19:03
Speaker
I think things get so divisive.
00:19:05
Speaker
And if we have to take this part out, that's fine.
00:19:07
Speaker
But things get so divisive that we all need to work together to make change, right?
00:19:13
Speaker
Half of us can't make the change that we want.
00:19:15
Speaker
We have to all work together.
00:19:16
Speaker
So I think that sometimes what I try to do is explain my conditions from a personal perspective so that it's not like...
00:19:26
Speaker
your side is right.
00:19:28
Speaker
No one's side is right or wrong.
00:19:29
Speaker
It's like, hey, this is what I'm experiencing based on the laws that are being put in place and how can we collectively make this better for everyone because it's not just affecting me, it's affecting other people.
00:19:42
Speaker
So for you, is there any messaging that you try to – messaging that you try to – Oh, I see.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah, talk to your –
00:19:52
Speaker
audience.
00:19:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:52
Speaker
So I don't so much talk about my own personal disabilities and illnesses and not that, you know, I think it comes back to like being vulnerable and stuff for me.
00:20:02
Speaker
And I'm like, I just don't want to be, I am definitely one of those people that I don't want to be seen for just one thing as in like, I don't just want to be seen as being disabled.
00:20:12
Speaker
You know, same thing like with being gay.
00:20:13
Speaker
I don't just want to be seen for being gay.
00:20:15
Speaker
I just want to be seen as like me as a person.
00:20:17
Speaker
Right.
00:20:17
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:20:18
Speaker
So like that's one thing I haven't like ventured into.
00:20:21
Speaker
But I think my message is mostly I think it's really important that more people in the online community and social media who have a following, they need to speak out more and be more political.
00:20:35
Speaker
It is something that really bugs me that there's a lot of people, especially in the chronically ill community.
00:20:43
Speaker
And I think
00:20:45
Speaker
I think like, yeah, when you have an invisible disability, a lot of the time, I think there is privilege that comes with that, in my opinion.
00:20:52
Speaker
I know that there's the viewpoint of there's privilege with having like, you know, a physical disability that everybody can see all the time because then they know you're disabled and they won't question you.
00:21:03
Speaker
And so that's a perspective that people with invisible illnesses have.
00:21:07
Speaker
But I also think that it is an incredible privilege to be able to hide, you know, and just be able to not be seen.
00:21:15
Speaker
because I'm an ambulatory wheelchair user and mobility aid user, so I don't have to use my stuff, right?
00:21:22
Speaker
But I do think it's a problem because I think people who are disabled artists in the community, they can't get away from that, if that makes sense, like if it physically shows all the time.
00:21:33
Speaker
But with invisible illnesses, you can.
00:21:35
Speaker
And so I think it's incredibly important that our group doesn't forget that we have a role to play
00:21:43
Speaker
And we still have to be, you know, we have to stand up for everybody in the community.
00:21:48
Speaker
Right.
00:21:48
Speaker
And we also have to, you know, it's the time to be political right now.
00:21:52
Speaker
You know, it's time to speak up and to make it known, if that makes sense.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:57
Speaker
I think everyone wants to be heard so much that it's easy to be like focus on your stuff, but it's the community as a whole, right?
00:22:05
Speaker
It's like everyone needs to contribute so that we see the full picture and can collectively make it better for everyone.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:13
Speaker
I'm very community oriented, like very much want to include everybody.
00:22:17
Speaker
I try to think of
00:22:19
Speaker
You know, I don't make specific, I try not to make very specific posts all the time.
00:22:25
Speaker
I try to just, you know, it's very, you know, open and broad so that everybody can be included in that.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, I've noticed a lot of people, especially in the chronic illness community, are kind of uncomfortable with the word disabled too.
00:22:40
Speaker
So one of the reasons why I also say disabled a lot more lately and like within my post is because I want people to know like you can have a disability, right?
00:22:49
Speaker
But not be disabled, you know, or you can be just disabled, right?
00:22:55
Speaker
But it's not a dirty word if you just have a disability, right?
00:22:59
Speaker
Because people aren't willing to say that, you know what I mean?
00:23:02
Speaker
So if a woman just has endometriosis, for example, and nothing else,
00:23:08
Speaker
and she doesn't feel disabled, right, or she's not, she won't say she has a disability.
00:23:13
Speaker
She'll just say I have endometriosis or a health issue.
00:23:16
Speaker
But the D word is kind of dirty, so.
00:23:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's been an interesting thing that I've noticed online too.
00:23:23
Speaker
I think there's been stigmas put with some words, but I like when I see posts that it's like, it's not a bad word.
00:23:30
Speaker
Disability is okay.
00:23:31
Speaker
And it's good to talk about these things and explore what it means to different people.
00:23:35
Speaker
And sometimes certain words make others uncomfortable, but the more you talk about them, the more comfortable and more knowledgeable people become.
00:23:43
Speaker
And then it doesn't become this taboo, scary thing to talk about anymore.
00:23:47
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:23:48
Speaker
Exactly.
00:23:49
Speaker
That's why, you know, I use the D word whenever I can.
00:23:52
Speaker
Yep.
00:23:53
Speaker
Anything else you'd like to share about you and your art?
00:23:58
Speaker
Now that I can think of, I'm like, I don't think so.
00:24:04
Speaker
I mean, I think we covered a lot.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:06
Speaker
Of the, you know, I, okay.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:11
Speaker
So Christina, thank you for coming on today.
00:24:13
Speaker
We really appreciate your time and for going into all of your disabilities.
00:24:18
Speaker
And I will be back next time with two other guests.
00:24:22
Speaker
And thank you for joining the Able Voices podcast.
00:24:35
Speaker
Able Voices is a production of the Berkeley Institute for Accessible Arts Education, led by me, Dr. Rhoda Bernard, the founding managing director.
00:24:44
Speaker
It is produced by Daniel Martinez del Campo.
00:24:48
Speaker
The intro music is by Kai Levin, and our closing song is by Sebastian Batista.
00:24:53
Speaker
Kai and Sebastian are students in the arts education programs at the Berkeley Institute for Accessible Arts Education.
00:25:00
Speaker
If you would like to learn more about our work, find us online at berkeley.edu.
00:25:05
Speaker
slash BIAE or email us at BIAE at Berkeley, that's L-E-E dot edu.