As co-founders and persons of color with a disability, both Moore and Berne are quick to make the analogy between people with disabilities and other ethnic minorities and members of the LGBT community. They note that all share that sense of exclusion and misunderstanding from an often well-meaning but generally ill informed mainstream who lack true insight into this "other" world which is "alien" to them -- hence the title of this weekend's Sins Invalid Artists In Residence Show: Resident Alien. "The idea of 'alien' came up a number of times. Lateef McLeod wrote a poem called "Not of This World" that explores that kind of othering, talking about the perception of disabled people as kind of monstrous or alien," said Nomy Lamm, the Artist In Residents' director. "Then, there are two artists, Fayza Bundalli and Redwolf Painter, who are culling a family history around colonization and the impact of colonization on their bodies, which led to their disabilities. The show is about the ways that so many of us in this culture are treated as aliens and not given the same kinds of rights. And yet, it is not about being victims; it's about how we come into our power in that context."

Sins Invalid's mission "vision," said Moore "... recognizes that we will be liberated as whole beings – as disabled/as queer/as brown/as black/as genderqueer/as female- or male-bodied – as we are far greater whole than partitioned. We recognize that our allies emerge from many communities and that demographic identity alone does not determine one's commitment to liberation." Moore said one thing the Sins Invalid organization would hope to come from this weekend's Resident Alien program is, "People questioning who is left out when we think of art, performance and community and what stories, talents and politics we need to know. We at Sins Invalid think the audience should take away from the show is everybody/community has stories, history, culture, politics and beauty to share."

              

Resident Alien: The Sins Invalid Artists In Residence Show is at 8pm tonight (Friday, Jan 28) & tomorrow (Saturday, Jan 29) at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts at 2868 Mission Street, San Francisco. MAP here. General Admission: $15; Youth, Seniors, Students, Disabled, and Low Income: $10. Box Office: 415-643-2785  General information on Sins Invalid.
Note that Leroy Moore is also the founder of the Krip Hop Nation - a global collective of hip-hop artists with disabilities. He and his organization will be featured here in the Amoeblog in an upcoming Black History Month post.