Bios (alphabetical)

James Burnside – Playwright
Playwright, (slightly) disabled Veteran, Husband, Father, Old Man, Long Covid.

Deja – Guide Dog
A beautiful black Labrador who helps her momma navigate every day obstacles. Deja’s favorite thing to do is performing with her momma. No petting, eye contact, and no kissy or whistling noises.

Alexandria Ellison – Projection Designer
Alexandria Ellison is a media specialist based in Austin. She is passionate about theatre and has worked with Hyde Park Theatre, Bottle Alley Theatre Co. and Scottish Rite Theatre. Theatre credits include serving as assistant director for The Good Thief starring Ken Webster.

Nathaniel Fomby – Tracy/Elijah
Nathaniel Fomby is a graduate of Concordia University Texas where he studied theatre, music and education. He has been in many shows, including Reckless, Crimes of the Heart, A Stranger with Roses, and The Insanity of Mary Girard. He also starred in CTX Theatre’s first musical production of The 25thAnnual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Little Shop of Horrors. During the day, when he is not performing, he is an Elementary Theatre Teacher. Nathaniel is very excited to be working with Art Spark on this amazing project!

Daya Garcia – Dr. Pinky-Chorus
Daya, formerly performed with Tilt Performance Group, was a part of TUBU Fest and is excited to play the role of Dr. Pinky in the Chorus in Waiting for the Bus. Her favorite color is pink and she is an advocate for the blind community. And she’s ready to shine a ray of pink sunshine.

Kristen Gooch – Jamie
Kristen is Co-Founder of TUBU Fest and an Austin Based Actor, Poet and Disability Advocate.

Adam Griebel – Dana
Adam is a native Austinite and has always loved live theater. He was a member of the original cast of Actual Lives, a theatrical troupe of adults with disabilities participating in autobiographical page-to-stage theater productions. Adam has a degree in recreational therapy and has worked providing personal care attendant services to folks with disabilities. Adam wants to thank his loving wife, Laura and daughter, Madeleine for their support. He is very grateful to Art Spark Texas for this opportunity to participate in this production.

Christian Huey – Doctor/McPherson/Captain Haskell/Chuck/Court Officer
Christian is an Austin native and graduate of UT and Texas State University. He’s been active in the Greater Austin theatre, improv comedy, and indie film scenes for 20 years.

Celia Hughes – Producer
Celia is proud to be the keeper of the vessel that has produced this amazing play. Art Spark Texas tries to shine a light into the dark corridors of our history so that we may spark the conversations where change is possible. It is with hope that we share Waiting for the Bus with you today. 

Kaye Love – Etta/CFO
Kaye has been involved in performance advocacy since 2008, appearing in performances with Actual Lives Austin, Speaking Advocates, Stand Up for Mental Health, and as a member of Tilt Performance company from 2018 to 2023. She works as a Professional Counselor, and is a Minister in Connection with the Interfaith Temple of New York.

Ryan Moore – Rich/Dickson/Rod/Ben Riley/COO/Fight Coordinator
Ryan would like to welcome you to our production of Waiting for the Bus. Ryan recently graduated from Florida State University with a BA in theatre and its excited to be performing his second show in Austin. Some of his previous credits include Max (The Play that Goes Wrong), David (The Amen Corner) and Cedric (Puffs!). He would like to thank his family and mother for their undying support and he hopes you leave the theatre knowing something you didn’t when you entered.

Brynja Newman – Costume Designer
Brynja Newman has a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and a multi-faceted background in the performing arts. She worked as a costume technician for 2 years in the St. Edward’s University Costume Shop, and has deep appreciation for the history of clothing and costume.

Mia Nguyen – Dr. Chicolini – Chorus/Caroline
Mia Hsiung Nguyen is an actress based in Austin, TX. She is currently a fourth-year BFA in Acting major at the University of Texas at Austin. Her recent credits with UT include CHOREOMANIAC 1518 (Sevallia), HAMLET (Ophelia), THEN WE’LL REST (Penny) and OUR TOWN (Emily Webb), and more. This past summer, she studied at Shakespeare & Company and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Credits outside of UT include The Comedy of Errors and The Tempest at Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Mia has also starred in various films and music videos around Austin.

Grace Ramsden – Stage Manager/Intimacy Director
Grace Ramsden is a stage manager and intimacy director passionate about fostering a theatrical environment where consent, safety, and empathy are at the forefront of every production. Most recently, she has worked with Austin Playhouse on Emma (Assistant Stage Manager), The Spitfire Grill (Stage Manager), Born with Teeth (Intimacy Director), Big Fish (Assistant Stage Manager), and Indecent (Intimacy Director). She has also worked throughout Austin at Mary Moody Northen Theatre, Austin Shakespeare, TILT Performance Group, and Crown Theatre.

Mindy Rast-Keenan – Nurse
While having worked steadily in the Austin theater scene for two decades, Mindy is delighted to make her Ark Spark Texas debut. She was most recently seen as Twelfth Night’s Olivia in the original jukebox musical Bar(d) (Walking Shadow Shakespeare) last August, belting out Natalie Imbruglia to the masses. Outside of Art Spark, Mindy is a member of the VORTEX Repertory Company and The Paramount’s Story Wranglers, and has performed with Different Stages, Trinity Street Players, The City Theatre, Rosedale Shakespeare, Scottish Rite Theater, and Paradox Players, just to name a few. Beyond theater, Mindy is an award-winning voice actor with clients like Goodwill Central Texas, Staples, and plays a myriad of different characters in Pirate101 and Wizard101 (KingsIsle Entertainment), and even had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo of the HBO series Quarry. When not acting, MIndy likes to spend her time playing D&D, and being a weirdo alongside her beloved husband, Drake.

John Rodgers – Lighting/Sound
John is a traveling English and theater teacher from New Hampshire with a deep passion for storytelling that extends beyond the classroom. He currently operates Communication By Captivation LLC, an online and in person multimedia arts company dedicated to live performance and animated content, where he and his team craft engaging narratives that resonate with audiences. With a diverse background in the performing arts, John embraces various roles, from managing technical aspects behind the scenes to performing on stage. An active participant in the ATX theater community, he is committed to contributing wherever he can. John is excited to lend his technical expertise to Waiting for the Bus as Lighting and Audio Technician and Designer.

Liz Ross – Director
Liz Ross is proud to direct Waiting for The Bus. They are the Executive Director and co-founder of TUBU Fest, an award winning disability short fringe play festival. They were a Board Member of KOOP Radio for 6 years, hosted The Sex Ed Show for 5 years, and recently received their grad degree in Integrative Medicine – Acupuncture and Herbology. Liz is a writer, director, producer, with experience in theatre, film, games, radio, non-profit, politics, and tech.

Rafael Trevino – Robinson/Carl/Mario/Leroy Bienvenue
Rafael acted in a short play earlier this year in TUBU Fest, a disability short fringe festival. He is excited to join the cast in Waiting for The Bus.

Yadira Uno – Dr. Firefly-Chorus
I am legally Blind with an eye condition called Optic Nerve Hypoplesia. I am an actress, but also an artist who is inspired by her guide dog Deja.

Kurt Wilkinson – Jimmy/Judge
Kurt Wilkinson (he/they) lives in San Antonio and graduated from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi with a BA in Acting and Directing in 2019. Kurt is most known for the one man version of A Christmas Carol they did with The Classic Theatre of San Antonio in 2022. Kurt was proud to accept the SPARK award at the Art Spark Texas 2023 Artist of the Year awards, and they have previously worked with ArtSpark in TUBU Fest and the staged reading of this play.

Waiting for the Bus was created based on research into the history of disabled people in America. Here are some of the links and books we referenced when writing the play. We encourage you to read deeper into this history that was briefly touched upon in the play, Waiting for the Bus.

Alt Text: Waiting for the Bus, November 14-23rd at Ground Floor Theater. An original play by James Burnside, directed by Liz Ross.

Links

Dorothea Dix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix

The legacy of Eugenics: https://tinyurl.com/avsm8vdb

Covid 19: https://tinyurl.com/mrajtydh

League of the Physically Handicapped: https://tinyurl.com/2yudtvzs

League of the Physically Handicapped: https://tinyurl.com/yaydh6zp

504 Protest: https://tinyurl.com/5n7t43u3

Black Panthers: https://tinyurl.com/4w3sdtks

Austin State Hospital: https://tinyurl.com/nhef3u5f

Haunted House: https://tinyurl.com/mr2rv3w6

Brains: https://tinyurl.com/4ft2y8zd

Texas Fight Club: https://tinyurl.com/5n8emws7

Unmarked Graves: https://tinyurl.com/y56x6uxt

Austin State School Cemetery: https://tinyurl.com/2cb38vje

Rusk State Hospital: https://tinyurl.com/38a34ked

Rusk State Hospital: https://tinyurl.com/4s9bku4s

A History of Institutions for People with Disabilities: https://tinyurl.com/5n7kxvpv

Books

Disability Visibility: First Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century; Edited by Alice Wong

What Have We done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement; Fred Pelka

A Disability History of the United States; Kim E. Nielsen

No Right to be Idle: The invention of Disability, 1940s-1930s; Sarah F. Rose

by MsBoye

Our May 2023 Artist of the Month is Kaye Love, MSSW/MBA, LPC. Kaye is a Psychotherapist, Life Coach, Interfaith Minister, Special Educator, Writer, Actor, Comedian, and more recently a Singer/Songwriter. For the last eight years she has been working with individuals with developmental and learning disabilities, including Intellectual Disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder, in Special Education and Vocational Rehabilitation. She provides spiritually sensitive counseling to clients who identify with diverse belief systems, including Buddhism, Christianity, Ethical Humanism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Wicca.

I first met Kaye in 2018 as a member of TILT Performance Group and have enjoyed working with her recently as a member of the Podcast Working Group here at Art Spark. Over the years I have come to respect her for her authenticity, her spirituality, and her willingness to take risks personally and creatively. She is a fervent Advocate for Epilepsy Awareness and for accessibility rights and inclusion of all people with disabilities, particularly in Churches and other Spiritual Communities. 

Although she doesn’t mention it much, I happen to know this multi-talented woman is also a crafter, seamstress, and fine artist in her spare time, although I can’t imagine she has any spare time!

MsBoye: Hey Kaye, congratulations on being selected as the Art Spark Artist of the Month. Can you start by telling us who you are, where you’re from, and where do you live now?

Kaye: My full name is Janet Kaye Love; I go by Kaye. I work as a Professional Counselor and am a Minister in connection with the Interfaith Temple of New York. I have been living in Austin for about 15 years, which was a long-awaited return. I was born here and moved to Fort Worth when I was about 5 and came back for holidays and summer vacations. 

I have been participating in Art Spark Texas since about 2008, starting with “Actual Lives” followed by “Opening Minds, Opening Doors”, “Stand Up for Mental Health”, “Speaking Advocates” and now the Podcast, “True Tales by Disability Advocates”.

MsBoye: One of the reasons we chose you for this month is that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. You mentioned being a part of the “Stand Up for Mental Health” project. Can you tell us about that experience? 

Kaye: “Stand Up for Mental Health” was an incredible experience. It was an opportunity for all of us involved to bring some levity to a serious issue, while working to shatter stereotypes. I had been telling jokes about my seizures and “dain bramage” (a little humor there!) for years as a coping mechanism, so I got to put those to good use.  I had the opportunity to poke some fun at the ridiculous responses people have to seizures and neurodiversity, as well as educate others on the dangers of fluorescent and flashing lights. I enjoyed the intense sense of community that formed among the participants as we worked as a team to polish each other’s performances, and the many hours of laughter that we shared. Dave Granier is an awesome instructor and mentor. The best part was the incredible joy and magic of facilitating laughter for 80 to 100 people at once! 

MsBoye: I know you are passionate about the issue of awareness of disability inclusion in Spiritual Communities and Churches. What do Access, Ableism, and Inclusion mean to you?

Kaye: Inclusive access incorporates more than just entering a building, in addition it involves a welcoming, inclusive culture of equity. It incorporates all aspects of the physical environment (beyond the ADA basic recommendations) including lighting, scent/chemical exposure, sounds, educational materials and presentations, volunteer opportunities, employment opportunities, and philosophy/theology. When a community is truly inclusive it invites a sense of belonging through unconditional acceptance of people as Divinely Perfect just as they are. Ableism focuses on abilities instead of the Sacred Self. It minimizes the importance of considering the needs of all when designing community features. It limits the development of a sense of belonging for those whose needs are left out of the process.  

MsBoye: What creative projects are you working on right now?

Kaye: I am currently preparing to deliver my talk “Discovering Grace by Moving through Grief” as the Sunday message at Trinity Church of Austin on May 21, followed by a workshop on Grief on May 28. This talk and/or workshop is available for other groups and congregations that are interested. When that is wrapped up, I will be continuing to explore opportunities for consulting with congregations who desire to increase accessibility, inclusion and belonging.  

For the last two years I have been excited to be a part of the Art Spark Texas podcast working group. “True Tales by Disability Advocates” is now in its second season, and I have had the chance to participate in the production team and as a guest storyteller.  It’s been fun learning how to podcast and meeting all the storytellers, and I’m looking forward to working on the 3rd season. 

Presently, I am in rehearsals for the new version of Peter Pan called “PAN: A NEVERLAND FOR ALL”, devised by TILT Performance Group. Opening June 2nd and running through June 11th at First United Methodist Church of Austin, downtown. Seating is free and may be reserved at tiltperformance.org beginning May 15.

After 10 years shattering stereotypes in Austin, this will be TILT’s final production. Although I am very sad about the end of TILT, I know that new opportunities will arise for myself and the other talented company members to continue to perform and grow as actors.

MsBoye: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you? Or anything people would be surprised to know about you?

Kaye: People often ask me where I got my accent and are surprised to find out I learned to talk at The University of Texas at Austin. My parents were both students there and we lived on campus in married student housing.

MsBoye: Finally, if you had the attention of the whole world for five minutes, what would you say?

Kaye: In my life I am committed to remembering and practicing these simple philosophies:

1. Normal is a bell curve and everyone is on it, and I have learned to fly on its wings.
2. Disability is a formative part of the human experience; each one of us will have an opportunity to learn from it at some time. 
3. The Truth of who I am, who we all are, is that which is beyond my physical, emotional, and cognitive abilities. 
4. All challenges offer a growth opportunity, and how I relate to my challenges is more of an issue than the challenge itself. 
5. I must feel my feelings and process my losses to find my gifts.  
6. Radical acceptance enhances the ability to enjoy life.
7. We all thrive when we are celebrated for what we can do, instead of being pressured to “fix” ourselves, so we can be average to “fit-in.”

MsBoye: Where can we go to find out more about you and your work?

Kaye: You can find out more about all the different aspects of my creative and professional work by clicking these links:

• Watch a video of “Discovering Grace by Moving Through Grief”
• Learn more about my Counseling Practice
• Learn more about TILT Performance Group and watch recordings of past productions
• Like and follow the True Tales podcast Facebook and hear about new episodes
• Watch my 2013 Stand Up for Mental Health performance here  and my 2014 performance here
• Read my essay Pity Fatigue which was a finalist in the Pen to Paper Writing Competition
• Follow my LinkedIn Account

Kaye Love’s relationship with faith and spirituality has taken many shapes over the years. Kaye grew up agnostic, but with Methodist grandparents and a father interested in Buddhist and Hindu beliefs, she was exposed to spirituality at an early age. By the time she was in college, Kaye ended up in campus ministry, joining the Methodist church at her school. Her involvement with communities of faith has only expanded since then.

“I’ve been a member of a coven, and an ethical society, I’ve done some Buddhist things and some Sikh things . . . I’ve just always been fascinated with mythology and the different ways that God/the universe speaks to people.”

This fascination of Kaye’s led to an interest in interfaith ministry, which she finally committed herself to pursuing after listening to a speech by Jimmy Carter about the importance of church leadership positions for women. The former president elaborated, explaining how when women are leaders in the church, people see them as capable of being leaders in the community. Kaye determined that this same point could be applied to people with disabilities.

“I thought about the importance of people having their first volunteer positions in their faith communities and the opportunity to be seen as somebody who’s productive and good at making contacts. Having that role of giving back to the community is something important that most people don’t have when they have a disability and can’t get into the church, synagogue, etc. . . . If people are going to their faith communities for ways of creating meaning and purpose in their life, and their faith community is not set up to let them do that when they’re having an experience of disability, it takes away the ability for people to create meaning and purpose out of their disability.”          

When working with as powerful of an institution as religion, structuring congregations with the sort of recognition, representation, and acceptance of disability that Kaye is describing can yield results that make a lasting impact within and outside of the community they originated in.

“That [representation] helps us to have more opportunities in the community, but it also strengthens–whether it is a church, synagogue, ethical society, or a mosque–that organization because it has the whole range of human experience, and we learn to see people as whole and complete regardless of their physical embodiment, or their thinking, or their feelings.”

Now an ordained minister, Kaye has the accreditation necessary to make the changes she has in mind for communities of faith in terms of representation. “I’m really just starting on this path. . . I would like to do consultation with faith communities about how to make their facilities, education, and volunteer programs in theology more accessible for their benefit, and for the people with disabilities who would go there. . . my focus is dealing with internalized ableism, and helping people develop more self-compassion when they have an experience of disability. There’s a lot of problems with accessibility and faith education, congregational education, congregational volunteer positions, and things like that.”

It’s a great effort to be made, and as a social worker, job coach, career consultant, certified special educator, and psychotherapist, Kaye certainly has her hands full. But with a dedication to faith and disability advocacy, Kaye Love’s commitment to greater accessibility and representation for disability in communities of faith holds great promise.

“What spirituality has to give everyone is knowing that they’re more than what they are, what they do, how they think, and how they feel. I think that’s especially important to people with disabilities who have had cultural conditioning that tells them that they don’t have as many opportunities for meaning and purpose in their lives.”

If you’re looking to hear more from Kaye, check out the latest episode of the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast, “Community, Faith, and Inclusion,” available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else podcasts are streamed. Want some more? Check out her stand up, available right here and here, as well her story “Pity Fatigue.”

Whether it’s living with a disability, working past other people’s perceptions, or learning how to raise honeybees, Brittany Sessum believes you can figure a way around anything if you’ve got the right mindset. Brittany is as confident as she is vulnerable, carrying a sense of collected mindfulness and giving equal care and attention to what she calls “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” 

“Your mental is the thing that counts, it supersedes what your physical ability is. That’s what I have to deal with, that’s what other people on the podcast have to deal with. You have to deal with your mental first. If you don’t deal with that first, then that’s it. You could be defeated, you could be insecure, you could be in a stuck place. But if you free yourself mentally, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter what your limitations are, you can always strive to go around that and circumvent that and do it in a different way. Don’t be a cookie-cutter. That’s my school.”

Brittany is anything but cookie-cutter. When it comes to her seventeen years of military service, she’s had to work double-time to get outside the box her leadership and peers have tried to place her in, putting her belief in the power of a steady mentality to the test. 

“I had a visible limp for years at a time, and people feel like you can’t measure up. But my work ethic always outweighed the way that I looked. . . . I always outworked everybody, but I’d tell stories to my soldiers how the military felt like I should have been kicked out due to my medical. My leadership, they thought I wasn’t physically fit to stay in. . . . A couple of my soldiers during the time, they would call me Tiny Tim, they would tell me that I should have been an extra in the Thriller music video. And you know what? It’s like I said, you just take it in stride. That’s how some people feel when they perceive you, but I was never depressed about it. I took that in stride and said, ‘Okay, well, how can I make people see beyond where they see me at.'” 

This unwarranted scrutiny of her leadership and fellow soldiers only made Brittany double-down on her mindset of success.

“I started pushing. I got promoted, and most people thought I wouldn’t get promoted in the military after so long. . . . I’m not going to let nobody get me out if I don’t feel like I want to get out. And so you fight for what you believe in. And so I stayed in, I went through the whole medical process through the army, and look–they said I was still physically fit to stay in.”

While a steady mindset helped Brittany in her service, she stresses the point that perceptions–both those of other people and the ones we hold within ourselves–can control every aspect of our life. It’s up to us how we work with these beliefs, and whether we take them into our own hands or not, their end result is ours to live with. Brittany will tell you, this isn’t an easy task. But it’s crucial, both for ourselves and for the community we strengthen when we challenge the beliefs that by holding one person back, hold us all behind. 

“People’s perception of you, some of it will change. Some people’s perceptions won’t change, whether it’s good or bad. And sometimes if it’s bad, who cares? My life is my life, and I’m gonna keep moving forward. . . . Everything ties back together with the mental piece, and how you grow, how you don’t get stuck. You have to have good people around you, you have to have a positive mindset, and you have to overcome.”

Hear more from Brittany as she hosts the episode of the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast, “Pride and Bravery,” available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all other platforms.

Working on the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast has been just one of the many projects Joey has taken on as part of their disability advocacy. As the leader of the Disability Caucus for the Texas Democratic Party, Texas Democrats with Disabilities, and co-founder of the nonprofit Justice In Reach, their work to increase accessibility and protect the rights of disabled people in Texas is typically caught up in the data–and frequent doldrums–of politics. Through joining this first season of True Tales, they’ve introduced storytelling to their advocacy, learning to work with it as an agent of change that exists outside the confines of bureaucracy. 

“I found that stories are able to grab people’s attention, and grabbing people’s attention is a very difficult thing to do in a world where everything is competing for it. People can connect to and they can relate to stories. When they see a bunch of data, everything sort of glazes over–they tune it out, they’re just bored, and they don’t understand why it’s important or how it connects to everything else. But with stories, it’s a lot clearer, and it’s a lot easier to relate to.”

Joey explains the importance of this project further:

“These are our stories, these are our perspectives, and I think that it’s beneficial for people who are not disabled and not considering [that] and won’t have access to these stories and perspectives. They may not consider them at all when they’re making decisions that impact our lives, and in many cases these decisions impact every aspect of a disabled person’s life, whether they are aware of it or not, in all little intricate ways policies can dictate.”

This is precisely the area where Joey’s work as leader of Texas Democrats with Disabilities focuses. Rarely are the policies and practices put in place concerning disabled people actually made by people with disabilities. As a consequence, the decisions made at the local, state, and federal level concerning disability are inexcusably poor reflections of the real needs and rights of the disabled community. Having almost come to the end of their second term as leader of the caucus, Joey has spent the last four years working tirelessly to counter this injustice. 

“I learned so much coming into this position, much more than I was aware of before. But I knew that we had rights. . . . My role has been fighting, Nonstop advocacy. The biggest thing was building the community because we didn’t have data. When you think about politics, and you think about wins, people can say, “Oh, this group over here, they contributed to me winning this race, or this group over here, contributed to me running my race,” but they can’t say that about disabled people, because we didn’t have any data. We didn’t know who those voters were. So we’ve been building out our data, and through our own outreach, we’ve identified a lot of people. We’re able to send targeted information to help educate and make them aware of opportunities to get involved. We have monthly meetings, and every time that we learn of something that is relevant, or confusing, or that we need to clarify, or something fun that we could try to do, we reach out and involve the community in that. That is exhausting, but so worthwhile.”

Worthwhile is a modest assessment of the deep value of Joey’s work. There’s little to contest with the notion that elected officials should be held accountable for the communities that bring them into office, and for communities with secure access to recourse and representation, that privilege gets exercised without much issue. Yet somehow a group as large as the disability community–a community which includes one-in-four Americans–has remained woefully underserved. Joey’s task has been to fill that void from the bottom up.

 “Even if we have laws that say that we are deserving of rights, and that we are deserving of being free of discrimination, it doesn’t mean anything if we can’t access them. . . . There are so many of us, and we all vote–well many of us vote except those who have been denied the right to vote because of guardianship, certain types of guardianship take away all of a person’s civil rights–but those of us who do vote and are not disenfranchised from voting, we know what we’re looking for. We know what we need, and we are determined to have our perspectives on people reflected in the outcome.”

As they prepare to end their time as leader of Texas Democrats with Disabilities, Joey’s looking to keep these efforts going through their organization Justice In Reach, a nonprofit that aims to provide free and timely access to legal aid and representation for Texans with Disabilities. They put their mission clearly:

“We are there for the community and peers in solidarity, providing resources as they are needed that were out of reach before, and helping our people fight back and fight for our rights–preserving autonomy and dignity and checking the bullies that exploit and take advantage.”

A clear mission isn’t all it takes to enact lasting change in the face of oppression and marginalization, but if anyone’s going to get this essential work done, it’s Joey. Aside from their years of work in government, success in having more than a dozen bills filed (with two making it fully through the Texas House of Representatives before being held up in the Senate), producing and hosting on the first season of a podcast, and founding of their own advocacy organization, Joey is just someone who gets things done. The road to progress is definitely not laid out clearly, and it might take all that they have, but in the end, it doesn’t seem like Joey would have it any other way.

Hear Joey host the latest episode of the True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast, “New Normal,” available now on all platforms. 

You’re hard-pressed to find a better case for the importance of storytelling than in the words of Kamand Alaghehband. While sitting down to talk with her about working on the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast, she made a lasting impression with her beautiful reasoning for the importance of this project and the time, passion, and vulnerability that she and the show’s many guests, hosts, and producers have put into making its first season. In terms of what the show provides for the disabled community, she offers the following:

“Each story is an example of the bravery of speakers to share their vulnerable moments of their lives with us. Each episode is a symbol of bravery of different writers with their certain challenges to share how they overcame their challenges of their daily living. These stories bring confidence and bravery to the other people with disabilities to speak up about themselves.”

Kamand expanded on this point, explaining how the same honesty and attention to detail–with equal respect to the good and the bad–that makes each one of the True Tales stories so powerful offers a valuable lesson for non-disabled individuals as well.

“Their bravery to share their stories with others is an example to not judge anyone with their appearance but instead put yourself in their shoes and respect them for who they are. . . . A lot of times others judge us due to lack of knowledge about our disabilities or lack of paying enough attention that their actions are really hurting people.”

This last point by Kamand speaks to one of the central aims of True Tales. So much of the stereotypes and other misconceptions surrounding disability are grounded in a lack of knowledge and empathy within non-disabled people. Some of the greatest obstacles to disabled individuals have nothing to do with their actual disabilities but with the attitudinal barriers put in place by a woefully uninformed public. Through listening to the stories of True Tales, non-disabled individuals might open their minds and hearts to the lessons Kamand and the other storytellers are trying to get across.

“Learn about different disabilities and learn we all are human, that we work so hard to fit into society. Accept us the way we are. Open your hearts to us. Listen to our stories. Ours is very similar to yours. We all want to be successful. We all want to be loved, and at the end we all are going through one journey, on one planet. When you fly in an airplane and you look down, you never see Mother Nature dividing earth to pieces separating one place to another. It is our conscious mind doing it, and the way we look at everything. Join us in this journey of sharing our stories; open your heart to it and change your perception of us.”

With ten episodes set for this season of the podcast, the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast and its wonderful team have a wide-ranging selection of stories to share with you. Listen to Kamand host the episode “The Power of Dressing Up”, available now wherever you listen to podcasts. 

“Each story tells you a true tale of an individual who was willing to open up to you and send you a message. Are you ready to hear our messages? Join us to hear our heroic stories and share your thoughts with us. We would love to hear if you have had the same experiences like we did, regardless of if you are disabled or not.”

Acting has always been a part of Kristen Gooch’s life. Her mother encouraged her to be involved in the arts from an early age, bringing her to children’s plays at the ZACH and Paramount Theaters in Austin, enrolling her in acting courses, and taking her to craft classes all throughout childhood. In middle and high school, she began to set out on her own pursuit of acting, taking part in school productions and theater camps that exposed her to a more independent side of the craft, one driven by her own passion rather than a parent’s guidance. But with the end of high school and the beginning of Kristen’s studies for her degree in Communications Disorders, her acting practice quickly became lost in her work. 

“The curriculum was very hard, it was very medical based, and there really wasn’t a lot of room for creativity because it was more about learning medical terms and different therapy approaches . . . for several years there, I didn’t have a creative outlet.”

 It wasn’t until after college that acting found its way back into Kristen’s life. 

“After I’d finished college, a friend of mine told me about TILT [An Austin-based performance group committed to creating inclusive theater for people with disabilities]. She knew that I’d done theater and she told me, “Well, you should give it a try.” I was like, “I think those days are done for me,” but she said, “Just try it.” So I figured, Okay, I’ll give it a try, and I’ll just do one theater production. That was seven years ago now, and I’ve done sixteen theater productions this far.”

As far as Kristen’s concerned, there’s no looking back when it comes to her renewed love for theater.

“It was the rush. I forgot how much I missed performing. I liked being able to play a character and not have to apologize for anything that my character did, because that wasn’t me, that was my character. I could interact with the audience. It just becomes addicting–it was this new passion that’s been rediscovered, and I just love doing it . . . I can’t explain it. It’s this rush that just comes over you.”

Kristen’s passion for performance has a new outlet in the True Tales by Disability Advocate’s podcast. As with her acting, this spotlight carries more significance than just satisfying her own desire for the stage.  

“I’m trying to make it as an actress with a visible disability–someone who can’t pass–and just talk about the pros and cons of it . . . Maybe someone can hear my story who’s been through a similar situation, and just find a way to keep going despite that. Growing up as a little girl, I went to plenty of plays, but I never saw an actor with a disability on stage, or on television, or in the movies. If it was, that actor was usually played by an able-bodied person. Representation is important, and maybe hearing this story can make listeners out there realize that.”

The True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast is a unique opportunity to hear disabled stories in an incredibly intimate way, with the unrivaled convenience of education through the push of a button. Talking with Kristen, the value of the True Tales podcast as a force for advocacy is brought into full light.

“I think it’s a reminder, as cliche as it sounds, that everybody has a story that needs to be told. I think that it’s important for our listeners to know that when they hear these stories–if they’re members of the disabled community or not–that they’re not alone. Maybe if you even identify as non disabled, there’s someone’s story that you can relate to. That’s the main focus, and also just to give people a chance to think about how they view the world and how they look at the world and how they interact with other people, even if it’s two people who identify as disabled, but might not have the same disability. How do we treat each other?”

If you missed it, listen to Kristen share a story of her own in the True Tales by Disability Advocates episode “Life on Wheels,” available everywhere you listen to podcasts. For more, listen to her host the most recent episode of the podcast, “Girl Power,” out now on all platforms.

As an actor and writer, Toby Al-Trabulsi is well acquainted with storytelling–but when it comes to working on a podcast, he’s found himself in new territory. Speaking with him, I got the chance to hear how his time with the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast team has compared to his work on stage and script, as well as some of the finer points on why True Tales is important to him and his work with sharing stories.

Toby first found his passion for acting in high school, but his love of storytelling goes back to childhood.

“I used to read a lot when I was a kid. My first love was reading. It wasn’t necessarily writing. It was stories.”

Just as Toby’s love of reading came less from its medium than what it represented and offered–a space to experience and share stories–his path to acting was led by a desire for a place to share with others, not just a spotlight.

“I didn’t go into acting with the pursuit of acting. It was just for community making and new experiences and trying something new. It was just by happenstance that I ended up loving it.”

Following high school, Toby was referred by his school’s drama instructor to join an acting company for actors with disabilities, TILT. He’s been a part of the company ever since. After his many years as an actor, Toby is looking for new creative avenues.

“The thing that drew me to podcasting is it was a new medium to explore, and I had never done it. I was interested in what that would entail, and it entailed a lot. . . It’s been great.”

Toby now has a new place for his love of storytelling and community in the True Tales by Disability Advocates working group. But just as with any new territory, he’s had to learn as he goes.

“I think podcasting is one of those things that takes time to build up to like music. . . . The thing that I’ve learned the most is that you’ve got to be in contact with everybody, more so than in theater or film. You’ve got to be constantly in contact with your team. It’s a very accountability-driven kind of thing.”

Podcasting has led Toby into new roles as well. As an actor, Toby is quite familiar with being the one on display, and his work as a host on True Tales has offered him a chance to bring that focus onto someone else.

“It was actually quite refreshing. After going on so much time performing, it was nice to take a step back and just relax into not that passive role, but that role of being there to let someone else take the spotlight a little, or take the mic I should say. . . It wasn’t as hard as you might think. I’ve been listening to people talk my whole life. Talk at me, talk to me, talk down to me. But once I took the choice to let them speak–not to sound controlling or anything–but once I made that decision that I was just going to let them speak and I’d just be there for them and not have to speak because I don’t have to, it took a lot of pressure off. It was really nice.”

Through reflecting on this new role, Toby brings awareness to a broader notion about listening to stories of disability.

“I think that there’s this feeling within the disabled community that disabled folks don’t listen to each other. There’s lots of micro-communities. I think that we as disabled folks need to just get better at hearing each other, hearing our stories. Even though we’re all in different micro-groups and different communities, I think we can just hear what each other’s experiences are like, even within the disability community. Because I have multiple disabilities myself, and if I really thought about it that would split me between multiple disabled groups. But that’s not the important part. I am a person with disabilities, and all of me is important, just like the rest of my fellow podcasters are important and their stories.”

This horizontal separation within the disability community is often ignored in the face of the oppressive, top-down marginalization that disabled people as a whole face. But for a community that already faces so much prejudice and injustice, internal solidarity is crucial.

For more to consider, Listen to Toby host the episode of True Tales, “Life on Wheels,” with guests John Beer and Kristen Gooch. Keep an eye out for his performance in the upcoming short film, Sign Here, a story on time, barriers, and second chances, as well as his ongoing work with the TILT performance group.

Education has always been important to Jennifer Howell. With her mother being a teacher, she was introduced to the excitement surrounding learning at an early age. She’s since gone on to pursue her own career in education, having worked as a substitute teacher, after-school program leader, teacher’s aide, daycare teacher, youth activities leader, and senior adult activities director, teaching everyone from elementary students to adults and working across more than thirty different countries.

“I love learning. A lot of teachers will say that, but I love learning. I love it so much, I’m so enthusiastic about it, that I want to share it. . . . I feel like being a teacher is more a part of my personality, some kind of trait I was born with, rather than a teacher as a profession.”

While a love of learning has directed her career, it’s not by passion alone that Jennifer has come to value the role of education.

“My supervisor–head of the special education department–shared statistics with me regarding the correlation between low literacy and poverty, incarceration, health, and so much more. The importance of education was something I understood . . . But gaining a better understanding of the relationship–the statistics–of the impact of education on a person’s life made a profound impression on me.”

Knowing learning’s full potential for changing people’s minds and lives, Jennifer sees a natural connection between her work as an educator and her work as a disability advocate. With parents who both experienced disabilities, she’s always considered herself to be someone well-suited to the role.

“I felt like me of all people, I would be so sensitive and aware of the challenges that persons with disabilities face and the discrimination and their needs. And I was, I think, I was more so than the average person.”

Living with individuals with disabilities certainly imparts some empathy and understanding of the barriers and challenges that exist for them, but it wasn’t until Jennifer began living with her own disability that she gained the insight that drives her current advocacy.

“When it was me, when I was the one with arthritis, I was the one having trouble keeping up with others when we were walking together, or I was the one having trouble getting up and down the stairs or just not going somewhere at all because it was more than I could do physically. All of a sudden I started to notice things that I had never noticed before. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit that, but it’s true. You would think I would have noticed it before because of my parents or others but there really is something different about it when it’s you . . . You really start to notice some of the barriers that I hadn’t noticed before, at least not in the same way. There was that teacher thing in me, I wanted other people to know that you’re not thinking about the needs of others if you’re not providing access. You’re leaving a lot of people out by having barriers.”

At the core of advocacy is opening others’ minds to new ideas. This involves educating them in areas where a lack of understanding has fashioned misguided assumptions or where deep-set beliefs have calcified into hard barriers to progress for the people they affect. Jennifer believes that education, whether through art, writing, curriculum, or podcast, has the power to break apart this misinformation, leading to lasting change.

“My mission is to make others aware, to educate others, that every day people are excluded from participation because buildings are not wheelchair accessible, events don’t provide an ASL interpreter, websites don’t employ accessible design. . . the list is endless. . . . I want people to be more aware of the millions of ways persons with disabilities are excluded and discriminated against every day. Persons with disabilities are unable to see, hear, attend many events due to inaccessibility. They’re not hired or promoted because it’s mistakenly assumed they cannot meet the job requirements. They’re gaslighted by persons who could not possibly know what it’s like to experience autism or schizophrenia or arthritis or using a wheelchair or being disabled after brain surgery.”

Short of experiencing a disability for yourself, seriously listening to and engaging with the stories of individuals with disabilities is the next best thing when it comes to learning about and understanding the realities of living with a disability.

In true teacher spirit, Jennifer drives home the point that this room for learning is by no means limited to non-disabled persons.

“I wanted to show how that even a person with my experiences–living with and caring for loved ones with disabilities–still has plenty to learn about how to make the world more inclusive and accessible.”

Feeling motivated to learn? Listen to Jennifer host the Valentine’s Day special of the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast,  “A Love with no Limits” with guests Dave and Kate Chapple, available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you stream podcasts. For more, keep an eye out for the future episode, “A New Normal,” where Jennifer will share a story of her own about her journey from ally to advocate.