 A. Laura Brody
Hello, lovely people! Miry Whitehill's talk is rescheduled to April 29. We're going to make sure she gets a great audience! Genius Teatime is such a beautiful community. In our first three talks, we've benefited three wonderful groups: The Wishtoyo Foundation that protects and preserves the culture, history, and life ways of Chumash and indigenous peoples, and the environment everyone depends on; The Center For Body Literacy, Pamela Samuelson's new organization that supports body literacy and autonomy; and Gro Gifted, promoting a comprehensive and accurate understanding of giftedness through research and outreach. You've helped the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund grow- after another two months of talks, I can start to add ASL to the Opulent Mobility website so it becomes more friendly to Deaf and hard of hearing folks. We've learned so much from our wonderful speakers! Many thanks to Julie Cordero-Lamb, Kate Conklin, Rebecca Niederlander, and everyone else who has signed up to share their time and expertise. And of course, thanks to Pamela Clare Wylie Samuelson for being a fabulous accomplice- I mean, co-host. And thanks so much to all of you joining us! In a time where the news of the world can be so hard and liberties are under attack at every turn, this community is bringing hope and light. You are awesome and don't you forget it. One benefit of having a little lull in programming? I got to put up the videos of our last two talks! Please enjoy our first three Genius Teatimes. Click the picture for the link.
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 Have I mentioned the Plague Wear Gala?!?
Fellow artists and designers, please join us for the Plague Wear Gala! To take part, fill out the form, and then email me the images you want to share. If you don't have anything that will work for this theme, have no fear. The deadline is May 1st so there is plenty of time to create some stylish plague wear! This will be an online gala that will be recorded and shared. We will find a way to set up your own "red carpet" area at home to show off your designs, and I'll share the event at the end of May. "Clothing to protect oneself from the plague has an historical basis, with long, beaked-nose masks being the most classic and recognizable form of plague wear. This gala will promote awareness on how COVID -19 is increasing disabilities worldwide while at the same time people are acting as though this pandemic will somehow not affect them. Folks with compromised immune systems are required to self isolate or risk their lives because temporarily able-bodied people feel "We can't wear masks forever". This gala asks-- why not? And why not make them fabulous? Submit your designs and images for modern day plague wear that helps you combat plagues in high style! "Plague" can be interpreted loosely. These designs can ward off pandemics, social anxiety, and/or depression, for example." Thanks so much! I am excited to see your creations.  Oh wow, y'all. Yesterday's Genius Teatime was amazing! What a wonderful talk and a great community. We could easily have gone on for another full hour or more of discussion. Can't wait to share the videos with you!
Coming up next... Saturday, March 4 Miry Whitehill: Welcome, Neighbor Refugee resettlement in the United States: How it works, how it feels, and how we can support our resettling neighbors. Your donation this week will fund Miry's List, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up at https://form.jotform.com/230388221619153 Miry Whitehill started Miry's List in July 2016 when a friend introduced her to a family of new arrival Syrian refugees resettling in Los Angeles with kids the same age as her own. At that time, she was a full-time mom of 2 on maternity leave from her career in digital advertising. Prior to living in Los Angeles, Miry lived in Tel Aviv, Israel and she speaks fluent Hebrew. Miry has a Bachelors of Science in Marketing from University of Maryland. Her first book Our World Is a Family, a picture book about being a good neighbor, was published in March, 2022 by Sourcebooks. Miry's List is a nonprofit organization made up of neighbors and friends dedicated to welcoming new arrival refugee families into our community through inspired crowdsourcing solutions.  Genius Teatime welcomes Rebecca Niederlander!
"Chronically Gifted, Chronically Ill" February 25 from 3:30-4:30 PM on Zoom. Sign up here. Your donation this week will benefit GRO Gifted, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. The asynchrony of giftedness is a whole body experience, affecting not just the brain, but also the body. Anecdotal reports and at least one major study abound of the increased prevalence of certain physiological conditions in the gifted population. Rebecca Niederlander has several syndromes and conditions that are genetic, and some that are of unknown origin, but that are certainly affected by their interaction with her brain. Why are these so prevalent in the gifted community? Are the things you think of as just a facet of being alive actually chronic illnesses that need medical attention? Come hear one story and her efforts to move from anecdotes to medical research. Rebecca Niederlander is an artist, essayist, curator, activist, and accomplice. Her artwork has been shown internationally including the acclaimed Venice Biennale. A recipient of numerous grants including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Durfee Foundation, Niederlander’s TEDtalk was entitled “The Art of the Journey.” She developed community engagement projects for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Niederlander co-founded the art and family social engagement BROODWORK (which was featured in the New York Times). She has written about art for numerous publications including a chapter in the catalog of the exhibition “Color and Fire” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, for which she was also a curatorial assistant. Niederlander is the Board Treasurer for GRO-Gifted non-profit. She presented at the 2023 Gift-A-Palooza conference on giftedness and neurodiversity. In 2021 and 2022 she presented at the SENG Annual Conference on Parenting your Transgender and Gifted Child and Being the Best Ally to the Transgender and Gifted People in your Life, as well as co-authored the article Just Listen: Affirming Strategies for Supporting Gifted Transgender Youth for the June 2021 issue of the NAGC magazine Parenting for High Potential. She founded a therapy dog program at the Sycamores Home for boys that she ran for five years. Niederlander is married with one son. Always looking at ways in which life’s experiences cross over, she is committed to illuminating the broad scope of the asynchronous nature of gifted individuals through her diverse creative practice. Genius Teatime is cohosted by A. Laura Brody of Opulent Mobility and Pamela Samuelson of Embodywork LA. This signup form only offers PayPal. If you want to use Venmo or Zelle instead, my handles are @alaurabrody or laurabrody@verizon.net. If you don't have the funds, DM me and we'll figure this out! THIS IS AMAZING, Y'ALL! All events are held on Zoom Saturdays from 3:30-4:30 PM PST.
Sign up links will be posted as I make 'em. Check out the Genius Teatime page for the latest. You don't want to miss these fabulous folks! February 11: Julianne Cordero-Lamb What is, and what can be: what the plants teach us about adapting to climate disruption. Your donation this week will fund The Wishtoyo Foundation, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. February 18: Kate Conklin Wildness & Precision: The Creative Process Your donation this week will benefit The Center for the Advancement of Body Literacy, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. February 25: Rebecca Niederlander Chronically Gifted, Chronically Ill February 25, 3:30 - 4: 30 PST on Zoom Your donation this week will benefit GRO Gifted, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. March 11: Rachel Ungerer Celebrating Disabled Sexuality through BDSM Your donation this week will benefit Diversability, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. March 18: Danielle Roderick How to host a baby shower and source the baby registry mostly second hand, and have everybody be cool with it. Your donation this week will fund Miry's List, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. March 25: David Resnick The History of Beatboxing and how YouTube radically accelerated its evolution into new realms of genius Your donation this week will benefit the National Stuttering Association, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. April 1: Laura Young Debunking the Myth of the Starving Artist - how arts training makes you better at everything you do, and how current income data does a terrible job at telling the career and financial stories of working creatives. The person yammering at you is Laura Young: Artsy Gen Z Whisperer and Occasional Trashcan Statistician, and during the day the Director of Enrollment Management at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Your donation this week will benefit the Art Pro, a free visual arts resource that is super inclusive: their artmaking ideas are all low- or no-cost using found materials. https://artprof.org/ Local to Los Angeles is the Lineage Performing Arts Center. https://www.lineagepac.org/wellness. They teach free classes for disabled people to promote mind-body connectivity and joy through performing arts. You will also help the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund offer ASL interpretation. April 8: Kate Anthony The Roots of Codependence Your donation this week will benefit The M3ND Project, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. April 15: Gia Mora Easy Ways to Switch to a More Sustainable Lifestyle Your donation this week will benefit the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. April 22 Susan Ruth: Leaps of Faith- building your own podcast and independent film Susan Ruth is the human behind the podcast Hey Human and is directing her first indie horror film. She’s also a painter, singer/songwriter, and tarot card reader. Your donation this week will benefit the Trevor Project, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. April 29: Miry Whitehall Welcome, Neighbor Refugee resettlement in the United States: How it works, how it feels, and how we can support our resettling neighbors. Your donation this week will fund Miry's List, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. May 13: Mindi Trimble Get Majorly Determined: Support College-Bound Students to Embrace Uncertainty, Stand Out, & Get In to their Dream School Your donation this week will benefit Iamaria.org (I am Aria.org). I Am Aria is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit program that improves mental health through creativity in youths 10-17. It will also benefit our speaker and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund.  Genius Teatime welcomes our first speaker: Julie Cordero-Lamb!
What is, and what can be: what the plants teach us about adapting to climate disruption. February 11 from 3:30-4:30 PM on Zoom. https://calendly.com/.../genius-teatime-with-julianne... Your $10-30 donation will fund The Wishtoyo Foundation, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. No one turned away for lack of funds. Sign up at the link or contact me. Julia Cordero-Lamb is a grassroots herbalist and teacher of traditional regenerative horticulture in her family’s homeland, the unceded tribal territory of the central coastal Chumash. She is an enrolled member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, and founded the Syuxtun Plant Mentorship Collective in 2016. Julia also co-founded the Chumash Maritime Association in 1996, which brought traditional Chumash plank canoes back into the Chumash family circle. She did her MA/PhD work at UCSB, but opted out of an academic career in order to practice traditional regenerative horticulture at the grassroots, community level, and to raise her children on her farm in Washington state. She writes, makes things, grows and preserves food, and farms 8 acres in the cedar forests in the Salish Sea area with her spouse, two children, two housemates, their two children, and many special plants and animals. This signup form only offers PayPal. If you want to use Venmo or Zelle instead, my handles are @alaurabrody or laurabrody@verizon.net. If you don't have the funds, DM me and we'll figure this out!  Join us for Genius Teatime!
Pamela Samuelson of Embodywork LA) and I (A. Laura Brody of Opulent Mobility) are teaming up to co-host Genius Teatime, a weekly Zoom where you get to share your genius! It’s a series of lectures from our community that help fund charities, our speakers, and accessibility features. Saturday afternoons from 3:30 – 4:30 PM starting February 11th. Contact to sign up and learn about holistic birth care, herbalism, disability art, accessibility in education, gender affirming care, home cooking, the trouble with fast fashion, and so much more. What can you give a 40 minute lecture on without any prep? We’d love to include your genius! Contact me for details and to sign up for the lecturer pool. It will be a 40 minute talk with a 20 minute Q and A and you’ll get a speaking fee from the donations for that week. Suggested donation of $10-30 USD, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. The money will go towards a different charity each week (chosen by our lecturer), to pay our speakers, and to accessibility features for Opulent Mobility. We’ll have automatic captioning, corrected captions on the archive videos, and ASL interpretation as soon as we can afford it. We are excited to share your genius!  Detail of Nebula Enthroned by A. Laura Brody. Photo by Heidi Marie Photography I am slowly recovering from Covid and don't recommend it to anyone (so unpleasant, and still so glad it wasn't worse)- but I'm finally testing negative and feeling a bit more positive. There is much to look forward to!
First off, I finally set up a YouTube channel for Opulent Mobility. Plans are in the works for a collective genius workshop series to be shared on that channel- I'll keep you posted. 18 Opulent Mobility artists spoke with me, seven more sent in written statements, and it's all going to be in an upcoming book. The Opulent Mobility book will focus on the artists, the exhibits from the beginning until today, and the process of turning this vision of re-imagining disability as opulent and powerful into a reality. This is both exciting and intimidating but hopefully it will be ready by year end? During these interviews, it became clear that the artists and I all want more opportunities to collaborate and to share Opulent Mobility more widely. This is great news, and means it may be time to get set up as a registered non-profit. That is awesome and may take a minute. (Edited: turns out that may be premature- but I will definitely be looking into more foundation funding! If you know of foundations that focus on disability and accessibility, please send me their information. Thanks so much!) There are 2 new exhibits planned for this year in addition to Opulent Mobility: A Plague Wear gala for protective gear to ward off Covid and other modern issues and Enter the Goddess(es), a show to celebrate our goddesses. Calls for art will be posted in the next few months, but get in touch if you want to float some ideas past me. Take good care of your selves and spirits for the coming year. Thanks for joining me! XO Laura  Melusine glamour shot by Heidi Marie Photography Are you mentally burnt to a crisp? I sure am. It feels like time to recover and re-fuel. This post is a big thank you the artists and collaborators of Opulent Mobility who keep me inspired year after year, plus an invitation to embroider your favorite image with me. Special thanks to those who donated to help fund ASL descriptions! You are awesome. If you didn't yet, it's not too late! Donate to Opulent Mobility here and you could get a tax deduction.
Many thanks to all the artists, collaborators, and accessibility folks who helped bring Opulent Mobility 2022 to life. Special thanks to Larissa Nickel at AVC Gallery, LA Art Documents and Heidi Marie Photography, Anthony Tusler, Teri Grossman (audio descriptions), McKerrin Kelly (voice over), Amber Jobin (Melusine's perfumer), and all the artists who made this year memorable. Haven't seen the exhibit yet? Here's a video walk through. Mounting Opulent Mobility is a challenge every time, but each year the artists remind me why this show is important and worth the effort. I'm interviewing OM artists for an upcoming book and love to learn more about them! Dr. Ju Gosling (aka ju90) is the artistic director of Together!, an international disability film festival. Check it out December 3-4! Because of budget cuts this year is the last big event, but they will offer 10 smaller online events next year. Lisa Merida-Paytes is an accomplished sculptor and gallerist and a lovely person. Her latest exhibit is at the OAC Riffe Gallery in Columbus, OH and her artist talk (on the Nexus of Art and Health) is November 23. Rachel Ungerer was approached by Stanford University because of her work in Opulent Mobility (how neat is that!?), and gave a talk on her art practice and disability social justice. LA folks, embroider your favorite image at the Makery! Make a lasting memory, meet my fellow studio artists, and say hello to Melusine. It's in Little Tokyo, so make it a day tour and enjoy. Sign up at https://www.makery.la/workshops and scroll to find the embroidered face. $75. 260 S. Los Angeles Street on Sunday, November 27 from 2-5 PM. We'll start with an outline, go over basic stitches, and sew all that we can. Bring your image, fabric to embroider on, tissue or tracing paper to transfer your image, embroidery needles and thread OR pick up a kit on site. Beginners and regular sewists are welcome. Free street parking, inexpensive lots nearby. Good fortune to you all and get some rest whenever you can! XO Laura
This month is time to prepare for Opulent Mobility 2022 and a host of new classes!
OM 2022 opens October 9 from 1-4 PM at Antelope Valley College Gallery in Lancaster, CA and you are most cordially invited. So excited to share the wonderful artists and artworks with everyone! Get a sneak peek of the exhibit here and join us at the opening. I'm thrilled to be part of the many fine workshops coming up this fall at the Makery on Los Angeles Street. Click the link to sign up! My offerings are: Rag Rug Making on Friday, 10/14/22 from 6-9 PM Textile Portraits on Friday, 10/28/22 from 6-9 PM Visible Mending on Sunday, 11/13/22 from 2-5 PM Embroidery Portraits on Sunday, 11/27/22 from 2-5 PM You can also take classes in book arts, glass blowing and mosaic, cyanotype, macrame, carpentry, and so much more with artists Dave Lovejoy, Cathy Immordino, and Cathi Milligan. As if that weren't enough, come take Art Quilting classes with me October 19th from 4-6 PM and 6:30- 8:30 PM at Remainders Pasadena. This is part of their 21st Century Artist series, and I'm focusing on the stunning quilters of Gee's Bend. Thanks so much for joining me. Let's get together (safely) in person. (PS: I am a mask wearer because this pandemic isn't over. I encourage us all to continue to keep each other safe.) |
A. Laura Brody
I re*make mobility devices and materials and give them new lives. Sometimes I staple drape. Archives
August 2023
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