The very first episode of The Laura Flanders Show to air on public television was my 2020 conversation with Alice Sheppard and Jess Thom, a pair of outstanding and provocative artists expanding our ideas about beauty, mobility and inclusion. Over the years I’ve welcomed disability justice leaders like writer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and comedian Maysoon Zayid to the show, and you can find all those conversations at our Disability Justice playlist on YouTube. But this week, we’re sharing a special re-air of the episode that started it all.
Alice Sheppard is a wheelchair dancer and esteemed choreographer, and in the episode, you get to see her gravity-defying art in action. Together we discuss what it means to provide equitable experiences for disabled people, and some of the successes and failures in the U.K. and the U.S. when it comes to expanding equity and inclusion. “It’s not enough to be on stage. It’s how we’re on stage,” says Sheppard. “It’s the work that we’re in on stage. It’s the roles that we’re cast in.”
I also spoke with Jess Thom, an artist, writer and “Touretteshero” on a mission to “change the world one tic at a time.” Thom says that ignoring her tics had only made her feel restricted, until Touretteshero co-founder Matthew Pountney described Tourettes as a “crazy language generating machine.” “Rather than see myself as the problem, I understood that neurodiversity was my power and had power,” she shares. “But we have to get as many people talking, and thinking, and connecting with each other and now more than ever.”
Both Sheppard and Thom show how difference and neurodiversity make art and society richer and more interesting. Sheppard continues to perform with Kinetic Light, a disability arts ensemble; Thom hosts Touretteshero events around the U.K. and writes a blog. Last year she published an essay on losing financial support through the Access to Work program for people with disabilities, and in February, she published her response to the BBC’s decision to air tics from Tourette’s activist John Davidson. Check your local listings at lauraflanders.org to watch the full conversation.
And on the LF&F podcast, for Pride Month, we’re sharing conversations on solidarity, kinship and liberation — subscribe so you don’t miss out. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
Stay kind, stay curious,
Laura
Watch on YouTube
Listen here (Premieres Monday, June 1)
