The panel, featuring artists Diana Anselmo and Angela Alves and curator Saša Asentić, will introduce the monographic issue Cripping Performance of Maska journal. The speakers will discuss ways of thinking about the body, language, and performance that address different needs, emphasizing accessibility, care, and disability justice.

The issue, co-curated by Saša Asentić, reflects on the (in)accessibility of the performing arts field and aims to share knowledge developed through the increasing presence of disabled artists in artistic leadership positions and as performers, the result of ongoing activism. 

It draws on Robert McRuer’s concept of “cripping,” understood as a practice that makes visible, questions, destabilizes—or resists—the normative assumptions of able-bodiedness and able-mindedness in culture, discourse, and society. The journal also engages with Alison Kafer’s reflection on reclaiming the term Crip for its political potential to transform current understandings of disability toward justice and more equitable futures. Cripping Performance is mostly built on how contributors relate to the term and the political identity of Crip.