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Teenage years are often thought of as a time for exploration, rebellion, and asserting individuality. This program explores that pivotal period of life through the lens of Disability.

Making Space: Stories of Disabled Youth in the GTA is a two-part online storytelling event series exploring the past and present experiences of disabled and chronically ill youth growing up in Toronto. Featuring personal narratives and artwork, this program is a space for recognition, solidarity, and celebration, exploring how the landscape for disabled youth has shifted over time.

This exhibit and event series is in partnership with ReelAbilities Film Festival of Toronto and the Miles Nadal JCC , and is curated by Ophira Calof.

Part Two: Thursday March 18, 7-8:15pm EDT.

This storytelling event will explore the present day lived experiences of disabled and chronically ill youth and young adults as they navigate a city that, according to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, aims to be barrier free by 2025.

Featured storytellers include: Samantha Walsh, Mari Dev Ramsawakh, Jenn Boulay, Sydney Dallas, Spencer West, and Steff Juniper.

Teenage years are often thought of as a time for exploration, rebellion, and asserting individuality. This program explores that pivotal period of life through the lens of Disability.

Making Space: Stories of Disabled Youth in the GTA is a two-part online storytelling event series exploring the past and present experiences of disabled and chronically ill youth growing up in Toronto. Featuring personal narratives and artwork, this program is a space for recognition, solidarity, and celebration, exploring how the landscape for disabled youth has shifted over time.

This exhibit and event series is in partnership with ReelAbilities Film Festival of Toronto and the Miles Nadal JCC , and is curated by Ophira Calof.

Part One: Thursday March 11, 7-8:15pm EDT.

In the not so distant past, it was common for disabled people to live their lives in institutions. In fact, the last government run institutions for people with intellectual disabilities in Ontario did not close until 2009.

This storytelling event will bring to light stories from the 1960s-1980s as calls for deinstitutionalization and disability rights policy were gaining momentum, and an activist movement towards community living was gaining ground.

Featured storytellers include: Tracy Odell, Fran Odette, Frank Hull, Shahnaz Stri, Peter Park and Heather Willis.

Experience the joy of flight with Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson.

Kinetic Light’s stunning choreography leaps in glorious slow motion into the site-specific playgrounds of concrete ramps, metal railings, stairs, and breathtaking open blue sky, revealing the joy of flight on wheels.

Directed by Katherine Helen Fisher, 6 min

Access: CC and AD

Find the film trailer at the bottom of this page.

The film proceeds a free virtual workshop hosted by Kinetic Light dance company on March 10th: Meeting Intersectional Disability Aesthetics, Politics, and Culture presented by Kinetic Light's dancer and artistic director, Alice Sheppard.

--About the virtual Workshop--

The newly re-emerging disability arts movement affirms that disability is more than the medicalized understanding of impairment as a deficit. This talk places creative access and intersectional disability aesthetics, culture, and politics at the heart of the creative process. Come meet Kinetic Light.

Alice Sheppard is an emerging and Bessie award-winning choreographer, Sheppard creates movement that challenges conventional understandings of disabled and dancing bodies. Engaging disability arts, culture, and history, she is intrigued by the intersections of disability, gender, and race. In addition to performance and choreography,Sheppard is a sought-after speaker and has lectured on topics related to disability arts, race and dance. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and in academic journals.