SSB is proud to present a reading by Kenny Fries—Disability Can Save Your Life—a timely poetic expression of the wisdom and experience of living a “disabled” life.
Kenny has just been awarded a 3-year, multi-project grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and the SSB Away 2020 Tuscany residency. The piece is dedicated to Stacey Park, #StaceyTaughtUs. We’re delighted to help support this prolific artist’s process and vision, and his many collaborative projects across disciplines.
During the 3 years of the Canada Council for the Arts grant Kenny will work on various projects in collaboration with artists and institutions around the world with the goal of using his privilege as a pioneer in disability arts to foster an enduring connection between generations of disabled artists. Collectively, these projects will not only fill historical and cultural gaps but also look at the historical and contemporary importance of disability culture. Kenny says, “This has become a more urgent goal as the current coronavirus pandemic has brought to the surface the vulnerability of those who live with disabilities caused by the lack of knowledge and misunderstanding of disabled lives.”
Some of the projects: development of “Life (Un)Worthy of Life,” a collaboration with performance artist Perel to be produced at the Bodies of Work Festival in Chicago; curating and editing “Disability Futures in the Arts,” a series of 15 essays by disabled artists about disability representation and role models to be published by Wordgathering; co-curating “Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer,” the first international queer/disability exhibit at the Schwules Museum Berlin, which will include a queer/disability performance festival at Sophiensaele; the world premiere of the full In the Gardens of Japan song cycle, a long time collaboration with Japanese composer Kumiko Takahashi and Japanese vocalist Mika Kimula, as well as a collaboration with filmmaker Alison O’Daniel on a film based on In the Gardens of Japan, at the Chihan Art Project in Izu, Japan; and A Picture of Health, a multi- disciplinary collaboration with poet and feminist literary scholar Elisabeth Frost inspired by the photography and multi-media work of Jo Spence.
#kennyfries #ssb #notthesameoldshit #ntsos #artistsfirst #itsnotaboutmoney