Kennedy Healy’s Skills Share Workshop on Writing Care Scenes
Kennedy Healy’s Skills Share Workshop on Writing Care Scenes
What can art made about care and informed by personal experience look like? How can art-making foster community spaces? How can disabled artists “crip” their art, and meet the gaps left by other media about disability?
Kennedy Healy (she/they), a 2023 3Arts/Bodies of Work Resident Artist, addresses these dynamics in their work. Drawing upon their personal knowledge about dynamics of care and interdependency, Kennedy gave a skill-share presentation at Haymarket House in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, which included information about ongoing projects and insights into their creative processes.
At the beginning of the presentation, Kennedy shared some updates about their current projects, including work on Care: The Musical. The musical follows the stories of four disabled people and their care workers – all giving and receiving care under Illinois’s state funded in-home care system – before and during and COVID-19 pandemic. As quoted in the synopisis of Care: The Musical: “Throughout the play the characters fall in love with themselves and each other, resist a growing state violence, and ultimately build networks for survival. Musical numbers are used to both poke fun at faulty systems and process the massive grief of these times, together”.
Starting the writing process prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy gave insight into how it gave shape to the musical in part due to their own experiences with care work at the time. Kennedy’s previous work actually highlights these specific dynamics of care and interdependence during the pandemic. On show at UIC’s Gallery 400 in the 2022 exhibition For Each Other,
Kennedy’s project Care (2021) was made in collaboration with care worker and photographer Marley Molkentin. The photographs in the series document the pair’s relationship amidst the height of the COVID pandemic, and the inadequate resources provided by the state’s in-home care system through which Kennedy receives support. These images demonstrate the complex nature of care work, including the trust and vulnerability inherent in the dynamic of giving and receiving care.
In addition to their musical project, Kennedy also presented on Crip Crap Media – the media production and consulting company they formed in December 2021 – which also encompasses a blog and a podcast by the same name. Crip Crap describes itself as “Media about disability, by and for disabled people.” Employing the label “crip,” the company’s irreverent name refers to the reclamation by disabled people of an ableist slur. It also evokes Crip Theory – coined by Robert McRuer in the seminal book by the same name – a methodological framework which explores and challenges the societal norms of dis/ability, gender, and sexuality. In their presentation, Kennedy shared Crip Crap’s three keys to disability friendly media: (1) authentic storytelling; (2) accessibility for disabled creatives; and (3) accessibility for audiences.The latter two highlight how media by disabled and allied artists often includes accessibility in the process of creating art, as opposed to inserting it as an afterthought. This gives way to the aesthetic consideration of accessibility, integrating it into the disability culture production and dissemination.
Before breaking for time for the audience to write, Kennedy staged a reading from the musical script, along with volunteer readers from the audience. This opportunity granted audience members a glimpse into the content of the musical and some inspiration for our own creative writing process. Additionally, Kennedy gave some pointers on writing care scenes: “Remember:
∙ Care is everywhere
∙ Giving and receiving care is not binary
∙ Can include a variety of disabilities, support between friends, care for children or seniors, or something else entirely!”
These points give some insight into Kennedy’s creative process and how their experiences with and perspectives on care manifest in their work.
After our writing break, Kennedy opened the floor for audience members to volunteer and share what they came up with. This provided an opportunity to share in a safe and confidential environment amongst peers – and to receive kind feedback. Additionally, because this break was right after the presentation, writers had the musical script and Kennedy’s guidelines fresh in mind.
With the option to attend the event in person or over Zoom, Kennedy’s workshop was a chance to hear thoughts from someone who is actively incorporating crip-centered principles in their own creative process. Additionally, with activities on site like the practice in writing care scenes and a zine making space, the workshop created a peer-to-peer space for exploring participants’ creativity in a safe and accessible place. This culminated in a real example of Crip Crap’s three key ideas and a chance to highlight Kennedy’s ongoing projects.
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Madison Whitaker (they/them) is a PhD student in the Department of Art History at UIC. Madison’s work focuses on dynamics of care in queer-crip art, with an interest in sexuality and kink culture.