This week we're talking to social justice engineer, activist-attorney, and founder of HEARD (Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities), Talila "TL" Lewis.
We talk about deafness and disability in relation to the school-to-prison pipeline, disability solidarity in racial justice movements, The Harriet Tubman Collective, redistributing power in college classrooms, and Deaf art made inside prison.
Please check out Heard on Facebook and on Twitter.
Also, here is a link to the syllabus for TL's Summer 2016 college class called Disability Justice In the Age of Mass Incarceration: Perspectives on Race, Disability, Law & Accountability.
#DisabilitySolidarity #DeafInPrison
[Descriptions of the pictures: First, TL Lewis, a Black person with short hair, sits at a table, hands clasped, and smiles for the camera. TL wears a cobalt blue button down shirt. Second, at the national prison strike rally, a group of young adults of color who are Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, and Hard of Hearing stand on outdoor stairs together with TL. Each is raising a fist in the air. They hold signs with #DeafInPrison and #DeafAccesstoJustice. Many are smiling. Third, on the sidewalk at the national prison strike rally, a group of people of color stand in a circle. TL speaks into a loud speaker while someone ASL interprets what TL is saying. The person interpreting has a shirt with "ASL Live" and an image of an eye with a hand in the pupil and a four-colored iris.]
- KBOO