Global Disability Dialogue

About Miyuki, Sasha, and Yan

Photo of Miyuki Tanaka, a light-skinned Japanese person with black, straight, chin-length hair. She wears a black shirt dress, and speaks into a mic in a movie theater with a white screen and big speakers in the background.

Miyuki Tanaka is an independent curator and producer. She has been working on projects that defy categorization under the theme of “disability as a perspective that redefines the world.” She produces exhibitions, performances, and other projects to reinterpret how disabled and nondisabled audiences view and experience performances and artworks.. Her recent work includes the film NIGHT CRUISING, Watching Dance with Creative Audio Descriptions, and the exhibition Rules? etc. With the support of a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council, she was a visiting scholar at New York University in 2022, researching accessibility and inclusivity in the arts.

Photo of Miyuki Tanaka, a light-skinned Japanese person with black, straight, chin-length hair. She wears a black shirt dress, and speaks into a mic in a movie theater with a white screen and big speakers in the background.

sasha kurlenkova (she/ he) is a disability advocate and nondisabled ally who shares sensitivities with the disability justice movement thanks to his own past addiction trajectories, as well as constant learning from a community of disabled friends and students. sasha is also a phd student in the department of media, culture, and communication at nyu doing research with russian-based families, and specifically children and young people with cerebral palsy who use communication devices.

Photo of sasha sitting at a wooden table in a coffee shop, by the window, with a dear friend (who is taking this picture). she is wearing a beige beany, a bright sweater with red, yellow and turquoise flowers a-la Andy Warhol, and is holding a huge white cup of cappuccino so that you could only see the upper part of her face. she is looking out the window with squinting, smiling eyes. there are two cups of fruit salad for sasha and his friend, as well as another cappuccino and a glass of water on the table. the picture was taken right after sasha’s birthday, so he feels pretty joyful sharing a meal with his friend in a calm and pleasant atmosphere. behind the window there are orange and white road cones and a yellow and orange sign with the words ‘speed park,’ matching the bright colour scheme of the picture.

 

Photo of sasha sitting at a wooden table in a coffee shop, by the window, with a dear friend (who is taking this picture). she is wearing a beige beany, a bright sweater with red, yellow and turquoise flowers a-la Andy Warhol, and is holding a huge white cup of cappuccino so that you could only see the upper part of her face. she is looking out the window with squinting, smiling eyes. there are two cups of fruit salad for sasha and his friend, as well as another cappuccino and a glass of water on the table. the picture was taken right after sasha’s birthday, so he feels pretty joyful sharing a meal with his friend in a calm and pleasant atmosphere. behind the window there are orange and white road cones and a yellow and orange sign with the words ‘speed park,’ matching the bright colour scheme of the picture.
Photo of Yan, a middle-aged white man with grey hair, wearing a black shirt and sitting in front of a bookshelf and a tall plant.

Yan Grenier received a Ph.D. in Anthropology at Laval University (Quebec, Canada) in the summer of 2020, for which he received an SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship in honor of Nelson Mandela. He is currently a postdoctoral FRQSC fellow at the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Disability Studies at New York University. His research focuses on the mobility and immobility experiences of disabled people in relation to urban infrastructures in NYC, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the way people dwell and become in a transformed habitual environment. He is part of the Disability COVID chronicle initiative. His recent projects include Futur Antérieur, a documentary on the disability movement in Quebec; an analysis of pandemic triage tools; and documentation of deinstitutionalization grassroots efforts. He is a research advisor for Canada’s parallel report on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Photo of Yan, a middle-aged white man with grey hair, wearing a black shirt and sitting in front of a bookshelf and a tall plant. 

 

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