July 26, 2020 marked the 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act – and to honor the landmark anniversary, our team at the Campaign for Southern Equality is reflecting on the intersections of LGBTQ identity and disability in a series of video conversations with CSE staffers and community members.
In this fifth video in the series, Campaign for Southern Equality’s Holiday Simmons interviews Mark Travis Rivera (He/Him/His), who is the Community Engagement Manager for AXIS Dance Company, one of the nation’s most acclaimed ensembles of disabled and non-disabled performers. Mark started his own company, the Marked Dance Project, an integrated contemporary dance company for dancers with and without disabilities.
In this video, Mark talks about his work, his passion for dance, and his experiences with disability, including how at a young age he developed cerebral palsy, which affects him from the hips down.
“I hope that people recognize you know, 30 years is a long time for the ADA to have been around, and there’s still so much work to do,” Mark said. “There’s still so much more dialogue that needs to happen across difference. And so I just hope that we can continue to have this conversation so that it doesn’t feel I have to split myself in three thousand directions just to fit in.”
Listen to the Interview:
Read More About the Queering Disability Justice Series:
- BLOG POST: Ivy Hill introduces the series and shares their experience with disability justice.
- VIDEO INTERVIEW: Dede Norungolo and Al Murray speak about Dede’s traumatic brain injury and her work advocating for folks with disabilities.
- VIDEO INTERVIEW: Rhóna Ramsey and Emily Fox speak about disability justice – including Rhóna’s experiences living with Wolf-Hirschhorn and an Atrioventricular Septal Defect and Emily’s experiences with neuro Lyme disease and diet restrictions.
- VIDEO INTERVIEW: Priya Ray speaks with Liz Williams about the work she does to advocate for people with disabilities, as well as the intersections of her identities as a Southerner, an Indian, and a person who uses a wheelchair.
- VIDEO INTERVIEW: Adam Polaski and Cecil Robinson reflect on their personal experiences with stuttering, a speech disorder. They talk about the intersections of their gay male identity and their stutters.
