Staying Authentic in the Arts

Very pleased to have Jasmine Thien on Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice this week. Jasmine is a fully blind, Bruneian born Chinese actor, writer, spoken word artist and stand up comedian.Her work explores intersectionality, ableism, culture and trauma in ways that are authentic while remaining accessible to all.Jasmine has written a semi autobiographical play called I Dream in Colour. She will be performing at the Omnibus Theatre 22nd/ 23rd July and at the Edinburgh Fringe.We first met though a mutual friend and subsequently realised we were neighbours! After listening to her podcast on Disability Arts Online about her intersectional experience of the performing arts as a disabled migrant to the UK and finding out she is from Brunei, I knew she had to come on the show. We talked about her upcoming play, future plans and explored the similarity in our backgrounds and experiences as disabled people.You can find Jasmine on instagram @ jasminethiencreativeCatch up with past episodes of Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts below. This Week in Disability News MPs voted through the disability benefits bill with a majority of 75 today after facing major opposition from all Disability organisations, advocates and some members of the press. A total of 335 MPs voted in favour of the bill, while 260 voted for the proposals to be dropped.There was fierce opposition from some in the chamber who argued that the “brutal cuts would push hundreds of thousands of vulnerable, sick and disabled people into poverty”. The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill will now go to the third stage in parliament, and will face another vote.The government says they will wait for the outcome of the review led by Work and Pensions Minister Sir Stephen Timms - now set to include input from disabled people.However this is simply not good enough and there will be an opportunity to fight it in the House of Lords where it will be debated further."Expecting disabled people of today to turn our back on disabled people of tomorrow is unreasonable and it will never happen."Photos from the vigil outside parliament today. DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) has said they will be making a list of MPs who vote in favour and will make sure they lose their seats at the next General Election and that their disabled constituents hound them until then.#TakingThePIP #WelfareNotWarfare #DisabilityBenefitsKeep up with my work and news on my linktr.ee here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanorlisney.substack.com