The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. Sun beams appear to be coming from the left corner, over a background of red and blue, with the faint outline of leaves dotted throughout. A white clock face is in the centre, with the numbers and centre replaced by small humanoid figures. A long, black shadow is coming from the centre figure, pointing towards the lower left corner. Text on the cover, from top to bottom, reads:
The author’s name “Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha” in dark blue capitals at the very top of the page,
The phrases “Author of” and “Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice” stacked directly below in smaller dark blue capitals.
Lower left centre of the cover, below the clock, the title “The Future is Disabled” in large white capitals,
Directly below this, the subtitle “Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs” in smaller, thinner white font. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Ableism
• Grief
• Chronic Illness
• Death
• Child Abuse
• Homophobia
• Transphobia
• Rape
• Suicide

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Summary:

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha follows up their incredible book Care Work with The Future Is Disabled. Piepzna-Samarasinha writes about the last two years of surviving COVID-19 as a disabled femme of color in an ableist world that isn’t interested in protecting disabled folks. They also discuss mutual aid and disabled joy in the face of isolation and discrimination.

The pandemic has been incredibly difficult for disabled people who have been asked to “take one for the team” by wider society. Piepzna-Samarasinha writes encouragement to disabled folks, relishing in our community’s creativity in our fight for survival. They also mourn those lost in the pandemic and the care crisis so many of us still face.

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Notes:

Other works by Piepzna-Samarasinha include:

• Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
• Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home

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Archivist Comments:

I’ve seen this cover so many times by now and yet it wasn’t until I was writing the description that I realised the little “numbers” on the clock face where human figurines.

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