HILFH #18 Petra Kuppers

This month Mary talks with Petra Kuppers, a disability culture activist and community performance artist. Petra holds the Anita Gonzalez Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture chair in English and Women's & Gender studies departments at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also teaches with the low-residency MFA Interdisciplinary Arts faculty at Goddard College. Petra uses somatic and speculative writing as well as performance practice to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. She has written academic books on disability arts and culture, medicine and performance, and community performance.In their conversation, Mary and Petra consider the natural world and its diversity, alongside the political, spiritual and activist considerations that arise from being embodied.Links to Petra's work:Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters. Gut Botany (poetry collection)Disability Visibilityhttps://www.alexispauline.com/https://www.petrakuppers.com/presentbreathMusic this week by Cedar Mathers-Winn and Gary Ferguson