Image description, alt text embedded: The cripple logo. It is of a neon green rectangle with a thick, bold letter C in the middle. The letter is very wobbly and has breaks in it's stroke, like two mouths coming ouf of it's ends. It is reminiscent of the original cripple logo by disabled designer, Mia Navarro in that it feels a bit eerie and unsettling. The word cripple is adjacent to the bottom right of the letter c.
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Cripple is purposely non-linear.
*coming soon*
Welcome to cripple! This is a note about our new website and what we do.
So what is cripple? Cripple is a publishing initiative that supports disabled artists and designers. We say that cripple is purposely non-linear because everything about disability and neurodivergence is never a straight path and sometimes a bit all over the map. And that’s a good thing—though certainly not easy. It’s in how we exist in the world. And how our day to day unfolds. We rarely start at point A and make it to point B without coming across a lot of inaccessibility, the ever impossible medical industrial complex, significant prejudice and all the while being in pain, sick, anxious and so forth.
Cripple was founded by emily sara (www.emily-sara.com), in the year twenty twenty, during the thick of covid, in bed. She’s a queer, neurodivergent, disabled, artist, designer, writer and alt educator and this is a wing of her very hybridized practice. She founded cripple while teaching in higher education, recognizing the critical importance of supporting other disabled and neurodivergent artists and designers in bringing their work to life. She found that a lot of publishing spheres don’t quite quote unquote “get it” when it comes to disability or understanding the diverse access needs of disabled artists and designers.
So what does cripple do? Every single day, if you join us on instagram (and soon other platforms as well)—intersectional news, resources, and history are published on our feed alongside our stories. We also do book giveaways—not just our own books but books that are important to our culture of disability. Emily has also curated a number of Resources (located below) and organized them for anyone who is looking to learn more about contemporary disability. This section is forever growing and if you come across any additions you’d recommend, please be sure to contact us (also located below)—we’d love to hear about your work or something else you’ve read or experienced. Everything in our resources section is also free.
Additionally, we publish our own books, zines and other items by disabled artists and designers—you can find these items in the things section which is currently under construction (but not for long). Over the years this has included toys, clothing, ceramics, stickers, posters, etc. We think of a publishing initiative as a very expansive term. We have open calls from time to time. We also take longer than usual to put out books because we really believe in taking care of our bodyminds on both ends (the artist/designer and also our own team assisting with bringing these pieces to fruition). And last but not least, we have a disabled artist+ and lecture series that started in July of twenty twenty four and a documentary series called cripple shorts that began filming in February of twenty twenty five. Please definitely check these out. Both are ongoing and located on the same youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@cripple_publishing_initiative.
So to summarize—cripple exists as a growing digital archive with many arms. One that can serve as support for the disabled and neurodivergent, as well as education for the general public. A digital library that highlights our oft-neglected contemporary concerns, our history, our art/design and more.
And though we are currently up against some historically large hurdles—every. single. day. we are furiously determined about uplifting and supporting our collective future.
Hope you’ll join us.
Be sure to sign up for our emails under *Contact Us* (we don’t like getting spam either, no worries, we won’t send out a ton). And come visit us on Instagram, YouTube and more.
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