United Spinal's Action Online Magazine » Arts and Letters

4 Wheel City and Snoop Dogg Track on Sale July 4

Ziggi — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:40:14 +0000

A message from our favorite rapper and DJ, Tapwaterz and Ricfire of 4 Wheel City:

On July 4th The “Welcome 2 Reality G-Mix feat. Snoop Dogg” will be going on sale live on itunes and amazon for just 99cents. This is our 1st commercial release under our Independent record company 4 Wheelz Entertainment, so it’s only right to do it on the same day we all celebrate the Independence of this great country.

Join us and Snoop Dogg in the fight to keep kids in school by downloading “The Welcome 2 Reality G-Mix”.

It is [...]

NBC Casts Child Actor in Wheelchair for New Reiser Show

Ziggi — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:45:52 +0000

UPDATE: May 27, 2010:

From the Reeve Foundation’s Daily Dose:

Young wheelchair user cast in Paul Reiser sitcom

You may recall the casting call that went out for a young boy who uses a wheelchair for a pilot TV show Paul Reiser was working on for NBC. It’s cast, and has been picked up for the fall season. Brock Waidmann (pictured here with Paul) will star as “Zeke.” The networks are in the middle of “Upfronts” right now, where they present shows to advertisers.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Para

Ziggi — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:41:24 +0000

The author had the urge to create, and a spinal cord injury was not going to get in her way.

By Beth Livingston

Beth Livingston (and Max) in her Montana studio. (Photo by Mike Coil)

“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.”~ Theodore Dreiser

I met with the social worker in the quiet, stale-smelling office among a maze of grey-cloth cubicles at the Rehab Institute of Chicago. Fidgeting with the trinkets on the edge of her desk, there I was, in my chafing back brace and my dollar-store wheelchair, to talk about my future.

There was a dizzying amount of paperwork in [...]

Selected Retreats for Artists and Writers with Disabilities

Ziggi — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:46:13 +0000

This list represents a selection of retreats and colonies around the US for artists and writers that welcome people with disabilities to apply. Their inclusion here is not meant to be an endorsement or a recommendation but to give an idea of the programs available for artists nationwide. They are included here because their materials explicitly address accommodation of people with disabilities. Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to inquire directly about those accommodations.

The Millay Colony for the Arts, 454 East Hill Road, PO Box 3, Austerlitz, NY12017, 518-392-3103, apply@millaycolony.org. The Millay Colony offers one-month residencies to visual artists, composers and writers [...]

Two Poems

Ziggi — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:36:55 +0000

By Linda A Cronin: A Practical Life and September in the Rehab

A Practical Life

By Linda A. Cronin

I don’t live a very practical life.
Working a nine to five job with a weekly paycheck,
married in a house in the suburbs,
with a mini-van sleeping in the driveway
waiting for the buzz of morning carpool.
Instead, I have spent my days
in and out of hospitals and chairs,
waiting, waiting, waiting,
for some doctor who will come along and fix me,
like a car waiting for the mechanic
who tinkers under the hood
tightens a thingamabob here,
changes a whatamacallit there,
and rotates [...]

World Enough and Time: At a Writer’s Retreat

Ziggi — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:58:57 +0000

A studio complex in Vermont’s Green Mountains accommodates writers and artists with disabilities.

By Linda A. Cronin

My byline has appeared in Action before, but what readers may not know is that, in addition to freelance articles, I am a published poet. Like most artists and writers, I often dream of having uninterrupted time to devote to my work in my own studio. At home, I work in my bedroom which is cluttered with books I’ve collected, and, all too often, my inspiration disappears when something or somebody interrupts me.

My dream came true last September when I spent a month at Vermont [...]