In a wheelchair, my queerness is erased, I am desexualised. In a wheelchair, my ‘invisible’ impairments are erased, I am tossed to the side titled ‘visible’.
Disabled people are one side of this chasm, or the other, as if it hadn’t been built to divide us. For as long as disabled people break ourselves into those groups, separate ourselves along faultlines designed in the minds of non-disabled people, we are losing. How can we move beyond a division based on ‘visibility’ to acknowledge and develop a solidarity that recognises the complexities, interdependencies, and constantly changing perceptions of ourselves and our community?
Jamie Hale is a queer / crip artist, curator, poet, writer, playwright, actor, facilitator, trainer and director – otherwise known as ‘busy’, ‘interdisciplinary’, or ‘indecisive’.
They create poetry, comedy, scriptwriting, and drama for page, stage, and screen and in Feb 2021 won the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund Award in Directing/Theatre-Making. Jamie currently works as Artistic Director at CRIPtic – a development and showcasing opportunity for d/Deaf and disabled people across the Arts founded by Jamie in 2019.
They have performed their work at the Barbican, Invisible Fest, Tate Modern, the Southbank Centre and with Graeae theatre company, and have written for publications including the Guardian and Magma. Their pandemic poetry pamphlet, Shield, was published in Jan 2021.
They are also an expert in disability and health and social care policy, working as CEO for Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance and as Chair of Lewisham Disabled People’s Commission. Jamie is studying for a Master’s in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics of Health at UCL.
