Neurodiverse/Neurodivergent, Crip, and Mad. Crip and Mad have been and are still being used to denigrate and shame, but these words are being or have been taken back by our communities, and invested with positive meanings. These reclamations have their roots in rights movements, social justice theories, and cultural production. The purpose of these labors is liberation. Insulting language has been reframed, without erasing its dangerous legacies or denying the fact of persistent danger and inequity. This work is necessary and ongoing, and its effects are broad. Neurodiversity/Neurodivergence is a cultural umbrella under which Autistic creativity exists and thrives; neurodiversity is now understood to be a large network, including Autistic experiences, as well as various mental, intellectual, cognitive, reading, emotional, and other forms of difference. Access in the arts is everyone’s business, and it is no secret that Neurodivergent, Disabled, Deaf, Mad, and Crip poets have not been well represented inmany literary contexts. I suspect (or hope) that this has often been less a matter of intention than attention to the issue. The groundbreaking collection, Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability (edited by Jennifer Bartlett, Michael Northen, and Sheila Black; CincoPuntos Press, 2011), was amajor event that disrupted the general pattern, by foregrounding poets with physical disabilities. Northen and Black both have work in this Special Issue. Many of the more recent gains in access and visibility (not just visually) began with this book. Jennifer Bartlett's 2018 New York Times self-described “digital chapbook,” “Poetry is aWay ofBeing in theWorld that Wasn’t Made forUs,”broughtworkby tendisabledpoets to theTimesaudience,with context and discussion. Two more mini-anthologies were published in the Times, in spring 2019, by the above-referencedKhadijahQueen and Jillian Weise, each including work by disabled poets and visual artists, accompanied by vivid image descriptions. The first of these, “Make No Apologies for Yourself” (May 19, 2019), begins with the question, “Are we writing for other disabled people, for the nondisabled, or for everyone?” and answers, “Theworkofthese poets speaks for itself.” Queen’s and Weise’s second piece, “We Will Not Be Exorcised” (June 15, 2019), continues from the sentences quoted Volume 7 - Page 23
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