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From: Cathy.
Date: 28 Feb 2001
Time: 20:30:15
Remote Name: spider-mtc-tg074.proxy.aol.com
I am assisting with a poetry reading in April and I would really like some feedback on some questions and concerns that I have. The writing deals with disability culture and particularly the experience of people with developmental disabilities. The issue I am wrestling with is this: Do you perceive that there is a role or rule in regards to disability culture? Is the role to inform and educate or rather simply to express the multitude of individual and complex experiences? I ask, particularly Dara as a response to her powerful poem about the journey she herself took from crisis to acceptance. I feel that the writing I am seeing produced is being written by those taking the first steps on that journey and therefore the content is often difficult, angry and complex. Is performing this poetry perpetuating an image of self-hatred or can we accept the work as the initial steps to consciousness? That is not to say that the work is universally negative, it is not. The writing has been insightful, funny at times and of an incredibly high quality. In summation I guess that I would like feedback on what people perceive as the role of the culture and the individual poet within that culture? I would really appreciate people's thoughts on this issue. Thanks. Cathy.