Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium – Saturday, March 18th – 12:00 PM

Community Speaks

The Vulnerable Body: Illness and Disability in the Community

Sign up here.

What does it mean to be a person living with illness or disability in our Desi community? Explore how our histories, stories, and culture shape the experiences of our community members when facing illness or disability. How do illness and disability intersect with other identities such as gender, race, immigration status, sexuality and class?

Call for Community Speaks Participants: We call for stories from people who have either been impacted by illness or disability or those have been witness to their journey. Every story telling needs an audience, so come – listen, hear, empathize and be part of this powerful journey. Sign up here.

Interested? Submit your request at info@tasveer.org  and we will reach out to you. Not sure? Have questions ? Contact 206-349-4478

Community Speaks began as a forum for people impacted by violence to break their isolation through storytelling. We invite all South Asians and/or people who identify with the community, to speak up. Spoken Word, Visual Art, Poem/Prose, Dance or any other form of expression are welcome. If you wish to remain anonymous, yet have us tell your story, we can facilitate that.

This forum will be moderated by

Seema Bahl: Professor of Sociology at Bellevue College. Prof. Bahl grew up in the Pacific Northwest and connects strongly to issues of the South Asian diaspora. She teaches and has specific interests in the areas of gender, race, and disability.

Amber Vora: Amber Vora is a writer, parent and community educator/organizer working for disability justice. She has worked to end gender-based violence in Seattle and beyond since 2001 and worked in various roles at API Chaya from 2002-2016. In 2011 she co-founded the Seattle Disability Justice Collective (2011-2013) with Seema Bahl and ET Russian to build community with and highlight the under-recognized brilliance of people of color and queer folks with disabilities, diverse mental health experiences and/or chronic illness.

A bi-queer, mixed race (Gujarati Indian & European American) person living with multiple chronic illnesses, Amber currently dedicates her spoons, passion and power to the work of caretaking her body/mind/self, parenting her child, and creating spaces for individual and collective liberation to unfurl. In 2016 Amber founded Reclaiming Medicine (https://reclaimingmedicine.org), offering workshops that meld the transformative power of art, spirit and storytelling with disability justice principles to help usher the joyful, liberated lives and worlds we long for into reality.