#disart

A drag show featuring artists with disabilities has found a new home after the property owner pulled the event over concerns that performers were being exploited.

The U.K.-based troupe Drag Syndrome was all set to mount its first-ever show in the U.S. this Saturday  as part of Project 1, a public art festival that will be held in Grand Rapids, Mich. from September 7 to October 27. As part of the seven weeks of scheduled programming, the group was set to perform at Tanglefoot Studios, an outdoor amphitheater that’s uniquely equipped to meet the accessibility needs of people with disabilities.

Tanglefoot owner Peter Meijer took issue with the event, however. Meijer, the grandson of retail chain magnate Frederik Meijer and a Republican candidate for Congress, claimed in a letter to festival organizers that people with Down Syndrome must be “protected” from exploitation.

“The differently-abled are among the most special souls in our community,” he wrote, comparing people with disabilities to “children.”

Representatives from DisArt, a Michigan-based advocacy group which is spearheading the event, called Meijer on August 19 to discuss his fears that people with Down Syndrome are not, as he claimed, “in a position to give their full and informed consent.” DisArt Co-Founder Chris Smit explained that Drag Syndrome is an internationally celebrated group of performers who have put on shows at the Tate Modern in London and been recognized by Queen Elizabeth II.

But the subject is also personal for him. Smit, who has spinal muscular atrophy, told Meijer that living with disability is a uniquely individual experience which affects everyone differently.

“Some people, unfortunately, fall back on this idea that disabled people can't think for themselves,” he tells Out. “All that does is stop any sort of possibility for cultural growth and cultural flourishing disabled people. This is not the first time in history a group of people have been marginalized and grouped together in order to keep everybody else feeling comfortable about their own misconceptions.”

Did a collaboration Switch Around meme with @ksilberne and @finowl-fantasy! And boy. I felt weird doing lineart again, digitally.

Communion Reprised

Tomodachi Life has reminded me Kai canonically does play the guitar and I had the mighty urge to draw this :')