Support CCAC and enjoy a virtual fireside conversation with activists Rahnee Patrick and Grace Tsao. They’ll discuss Alice Wong’s new book, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life, and offer insight into what it takes to create spaces for disabled people to be in conversation with one another and the world. An audience Q&A portion will follow.
Date and Time: Monday, December 5 from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM Central Time
Program Accessibility: CART and ASL Interpretation will be provided.
Cost: $25 admission
Platform: Zoom (link will be shared with registrants)
To better frame the featured conversation, we encourage you to read Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong in advance of the event.
ASL interpretation and Real-Time Captioning will be provided.
CCAC is committed to free programming and resources throughout the year. We need your help to continue this important work. Individual tickets are available for $25.
A limited number of free tickets are available for attendees who are unable to purchase them due to financial circumstances.
If you would like to attend and need a complimentary ticket, please email your request to info@ChicagoCulturalAccess.org with the subject line Fundraiser Financial Access Request.
Alice Wong is a disabled activist, media maker, and research consultant based in San Francisco, California. She is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. Alice is also the host and co-producer of the Disability Visibility podcast and co-partner in a number of collaborations such as #CripTheVote and Access Is Love. From 2013 to 2015, Alice served as a member of the National Council on Disability, an appointment by President Barack Obama. You can follow her on Twitter: @SFdirewolf. For more: disabilityvisibilityproject.com.
Rahnee Patrick, MA is the first Asian American and disabled Director of the Rehabilitation Services, a Division of the Illinois Department of Human Services. The oldest of four, Rahnee‘s US-born father is an Air Force veteran who met her mother, of Ubonratchathani, Thailand, during the Viet Nam Conflict. The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) awarded Rahnee the Paul Hearne Award, as an emerging national leader. Rahnee is a proud aunt who lives with her spouse Mike Ervin in downtown Chicago with their two small dogs, Mao Mao and Roxy Pops.
Grace Tsao has spent her career working in higher education, non-profit, and state government. She has a B.S. in News-Editorial Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.S. in Cultural Foundations of Education with a concentration in Multicultural Education from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and an M.A. in Sociology from Loyola University Chicago where her focus was on race, gender, and disability. Grace teaches social science online to undergraduate students and is the Chair and Advocacy Chair of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Illinois.
Noa Fields (moderator) is a trans writer with hearing aids. She is the author of the poetry chapbook With, and has also been published in Tripwire, Anomaly, Zoeglossia, Elderly Mag, Tyger Quarterly, and Sixty Inches from Center, among others. She is the Events & Accessibility Coordinator at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago and a 2022 fellow with Zoeglossia and Disability Lead.
Zoom Meeting Notes
Registered participants will receive a Zoom Meeting Link via email from this email account the day prior to the event. Please ensure that Info@ChicagoCulturalAccess.org is an approved sender to your email account, or be sure to check your Spam/Junk Mail filter for the email.
Accessibility
ASL Interpretation and Real-Time Captioning (with a streaming link option) will be provided. Please complete the accommodation request field found in the event registration path or call 773-203-5039 to request other access services, or to learn more about event accessibility.
Cost: $25 admission
While most CCAC programs are free, the $25 admission helps to cover programming costs to ensure CCAC’s mission is achievable and accessible to all. You may donate online anytime! Donations to CCAC are tax deductible.
CCAC is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, PERT Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Michael and Mona Heath Fund, and individual donors like you. In addition, this program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Raise funds for CCAC and enjoy a virtual fireside conversation with activists Emily Ladau and Risa Jaz Rifkind. They’ll discuss Emily’s new book, Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally, and dive into rich conversation around access, identity, intersectionality and more. An audience Q & A portion will follow.
To better frame the featured conversation, we encourage you to read Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau in advance of the event. CCAC is committed to free programming and resources throughout the year. We need your help to continue this important work. Individual tickets are available for $20.
Featured Guests
Emily Ladau is a passionate disability rights activist, writer, storyteller, and digital communications consultant. She serves as the Editor in Chief of the Rooted in Rights Blog, a platform dedicated to amplifying authentic narratives on the disability experience through an intersectional lens. Her writing has been published in outlets including The New York Times, SELF, Salon, Vice, and HuffPost and her first book, Demystifying Disability, is being published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in fall 2021.
Risa Jaz Rifkind is passionate about inclusion and the arts and serves as the Treasurer for CCAC. In her full time role, she is the Director of Civic Engagement and Marketing for Disability Lead. In 2020, she also participated on the Disability Inclusion Fund’s grant making committee. Additionally, she supports organizations develop, implement, and institutionalize disability inclusion through workshops, training, and customized approaches as an independent consultant. Risa received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.
Request A Free Book or Free Admission
A limited number of free tickets and copies of Demystifying Disability are available for attendees who are unable to purchase them due to financial circumstances.
If you would like to attend and need a complimentary ticket and/or book, please email your request to info@ChicagoCulturalAccess.org with the subject line Fundraiser Financial Access Request.
Zoom Meeting Notes
Registered participants will receive a Zoom Meeting Link via email from this email account the day prior to the event. Please ensure that Info@ChicagoCulturalAccess.org is an approved sender to your email account, or be sure to check your Spam/Junk Mail filter for the email.
Accessibility
Real-Time Captioning and ASL interpretation will be provided. Please complete the accommodation request field found in the event registration path with what service(s) you will want to access, or for any additional requests. You may also reach us at 708-574-5190 to request services. Thank you!
CCAC is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, PERT Foundation, 21st Century Fox Social Impact, The Michael and Mona Heath Fund, and individual donors like you. In addition, this program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.