True Tales by Disability Advocates
Where advocates harness the power of storytelling to build community with their peers and hope to develop empathy in others. A team of disability advocates creates this True Tales podcast to share personal stories by disabled storytellers and add their voices to the growing community of podcast listeners.
True Tales by Disability Advocates
"Who Will Remember Us? The Warrior Spirit of Disability Advocates"
Laughter, Legacy, and New Voices
"Who Will Remember Us? The Warrior Spirit of Disability Advocates" is the kickoff episode of Season 3 of the True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast, coming to you during Disability Pride Month. The new host team of MsBoye, Jennifer McKinney, and Adam Griebel bring fresh energy and humor to the show. Together, they introduce listeners to the impactful legacy of early advocates celebrating the legacy of early disability advocates with heartwarming and playful storytelling. Featuring guest Chris Strickling, one of the original creators of Actual Lives Austin, the episode shares engaging and humorous stories about advocates who have passed, like Terrell and Felix Briones. Their personal narratives provide a raw and honest glimpse into their lives, highlighting the power of storytelling as an advocacy for the right of people with disabilities to live full adult lives. Produced by Art Spark Texas' Speaking Advocates Program, the podcast highlights the importance of humor and authenticity in advocacy through storytelling while underscoring the importance of reclaiming lost voices and celebrating the contributions of those who have paved the way for future generations.
Introduction to True Tales by Disability Advocates
Welcome to True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast, authentic voices of people thriving with disabilities, where individuals use the art of storytelling to change the world....
Meet the Hosts of Season 3
Hello, everyone, I'm MsBoye....
Honoring the Pioneers of Actual Lives Austin
We are starting Season 3 by looking back at folks who have paved the way for us ....
Chris Strickling on the Power of Storytelling
Tell us a little about those early days and the power of storytelling as a form of advocacy....
Terrell's Morning Routine
If you're ready, let's hear the first story. " Morning Routine" by Ter-rell...
Felix Briones' Speed and Humor
The next, uh, stories are from Felix....
Memories and Impact of Actual Lives Austin
Chris, do you have a favorite memory or story from your time with Actual Lives Austin?...
Final Thoughts and Farewell
Well, you know, this has just been so great....
Closing Remarks and Call to Action
Thank you for listening to episode one of the third season of True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast....
Click here to listen with the full transcript.
For more details about our programs go to Art Spark Texas, True Tales Podcast Page.
Segments of this podcast were read by an automated voice. Inconsistencies in pronunciation and tone may occur.
Welcome to True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast, authentic voices of people thriving with disabilities, where individuals use the art of storytelling to change the world.
John Beer:The True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast is produced by Art Spark Texas, Speaking Advocates Program. The free virtual training is open to people of all disabilities, no matter where you live.
Kamand Alaghehband:Keep listening to hear how life's challenges can spark a desire to speak out, and Advocate for yourselves and others.
MsBoye:Hello, you're listening to The True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast. Changing the world one story at a time. This is the show where advocates harness the power of storytelling to build community with their peers and hope that they develop empathy in others. Hello, everyone, I'm MsBoye.
Jennifer:I'm Jennifer McKinney,
Adam:I'm Adam Griebel,
MsBoye:and we are your hosts for season three.
Jennifer:In Season 3, we will continue to demonstrate the power of storytelling as a form of advocacy with more personal stories from the lives of disabled storytellers. We are starting Season 3 by looking back at folks who have paved the way for us You'll hear stories from advocates and storytellers who are no longer with us.
Adam:Right, and we have the perfect guest with us today. Chris Strickling, who will act as navigator on our journey back to the early days of the Actual Lives group. Chris was one of the three original creators of the Actual Lives Austin, Opening Minds, Opening Doors program, now, The Speaking Advocates Training Program, our spinoffs of some of the first works of Actual Lives, Austin.
Chris:Thank you for that introduction. Ummm...
Adam:Thanks for joining us, Chris.
Chris:Thank you for having me.
Jennifer:Tell us a little about those early days and the power of storytelling as a form of advocacy.
Chris:Oh, I'd love to talk about this. I was thinking about it, so I wrote a little bit to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm going to tell you a story about stories. It's been about 20 plus years since Actual Lives Austin had its first performances. To me, it just feels like yesterday. Terry Galloway, the deaf performance artist, who first created Actual Lives in Tallahassee, Florida. Came to Austin just as the 1990s were fading and the 2000s were on their way in. Together, Galloway, Celia Hughes, and I created this particular version of the Actual Lives platform. It focuses on the lives of people with disability. The goal was to develop a group of people who live with disability and encourage them to share their life stories using comedy or movement or monologue or any way they could. Today we go back to the early years of Actual Lives, Austin, to share the contributions of members who have passed on. You can hear their thoughts though, you can laugh with them, feel the connections no matter how we move or think or wish.
Adam:That sounds great.
Jennifer:It sounds beautiful. I can't wait. Why is it important to reclaim these lost voices? Why did you choose these particular stories?
Chris:Great questions, Jennifer. Um, it's important to reclaim these lost voices because they were part of the beginnings of something that has lasted way over 20 years. Everyone who has a life has a story, and so often people with disabilities don't get their stories saved or celebrated. So that's why it's important. Yeah, and the reason I chose these particular stories was because they were people who had, you know, they, they were not particularly born to be actors or, any like thing like that. They were truly telling their personal stories. And I think their stories tell more than any of us could tell if we were telling it for them. So, that's why.
Jennifer:You know, Chris, I wasn't there in the beginning and I really can't wait to hear about these folks. I've heard so much through you and Adam and this is exciting for me.
Adam:If you're ready, let's hear the first story.
Ruth (2):Morning Routine" by Ter-rell I do take off my clothes to go to bed at night! We wake up and we try to remember where we put the glasses. I have to put my eyes on. Now I’m awake. Then I sit up, sit up at the side of the bed. Sit there a minute, before we do anything. Gotta pee, so, do I put the leg on or just scoot to the potty chair? I usually have some pajama bottoms on. If I ate a little something the night before, gotta do that, when you’re lopsided like that it throws you off! The toilet paper never leaves my side! We gotta try do that sitting down! We try to get back on the bed after that. Still sitting on the bed the handy little stuff from the hospital, I clean myself with that. Scrub those hands. Park my skin to stay alive. The insulin case is right there. Since I’m blind, I have this contraption, I draw my insulin up by sound. I’m supposed to take 10 milliliters of something. I’m the only one using this needle, only me in my bed last night! I don’t clean it. Needle goes back in the case. Eyes are kinda itching. Better put those drops in the eyes for glaucoma. Or I could self-medicate for that! No, I’ll do what the doctor told me to do, the whole bottle is running down my face, and I got one drop in! Gotta do the next eye now! Alright! now gotta put the leg on. Stump, sock, cuff.. since my stump is so skinny, put on two extra socks, male into female connection, put my leg on! Go in the back of the place now... maybe take it off to take a shower?
MsBoye:I love that story. I love the raw honesty and the reality of it. But, you know, at the same time, there's an underlying sarcastic humor, which of course, being English, I really appreciate.(chuckles) She's, she's, she's also being vulnerable by exposing the parts of her day that we are meant to keep, you know, are meant to be kept private, kept hidden, which, that must have been really challenging for many people to hear. You know, it's just not polite. So I am so glad you picked that story, Chris.
Chris:Thank you. I want to say one more thing about her. When I started this, when I, I, it was up to me to get the first, um, group of people to come to this and join it. And so I was just cold calling people at the, the, um, it was a festival, I think. But anyway, there's a lot of people, and I just had these little cards, and I was handing them out to people, and I went over to her, and I handed it to her, and she said, what's this? And I told her about the card, and she said,"You know, I can't see?" And I said,"I don't know that." And she said,"Well, you do now!" And she was the first person to sign up for Actual Lives Austin in Austin.
Adam:I rem..., I remember her.
Chris:Ahmm.
Jennifer:What do you remember about her?
Adam:She was a slight lady. Um, I just remember how you were very active in working with different members of our group.
Jennifer:How did she work as a storyteller with you, Chris?
Chris:Well, um, I think she did this"Morning Routine" because she wanted people to see what her life was like, because she had had a very different kind of life. She was, um, a video wizard. She made videos to teach people skills. Uh, about writing and cultural issues. And she was a, you know, she was a very proud, lovely African American woman. And she wanted to show people what had happened to her body when she got sick. I think it was, maybe she wanted to warn them or something. And so she just let...she would just like take off her, her, uh, leg you know, and put it down on the ground. Just to shock people, to get their attention and to make them like have a conversation with her about that. And I saw her several times and we'd go out to lunch or something and she take her, er leg and put it up on the table and people would just go, You know, they were just, and she just loved digging on that. And saying that this may not be the life that I wanted, but this is life and I want you to see it. So I think that was the whole reason she wanted to come and do this, because she couldn't do her video work anymore, but she could get on the stage and really get some, some work done there
MsBoye:It sounds like Terrell had quite an impact on you. Like, have you got any stories about that?
Chris:oh God. I have learned more from Terrell than I've learned from anyone ever in a, in a situation like this, in an art kind of thing, because she was so, uh, willing to be real and when she needed someone, she would call me. I used to live way far away from her, like 45 minutes away And she would call me and she'd say,"I got up this morning, I woke up." And I said,"Well, good for you Terrell." She said,"Yeah, that's a good thing. I don't know about tomorrow." And she said, she would say,"I need you to come do this." You know,"I, I need some groceries or I need to go down to the clinic because my, I think my, my, um, leg is...", and she called it her leg. Her leg wasn't fitting right or something. And I would have to stop what I was doing and go do that. I just compel to do that. And every time that probably. Maybe four or five times I would drive into town and go get her and she'd be just a mess and with the biggest smile. And she'd offer whatever she had in her house and to eat. And sometimes I actually ate it with her. And, uh, I learned that this whole line that I was working with, which was that everybody is just the same, even we just in different circumstances. And we need each other and we can give to each other no matter how much we have to give, materially or time or anything. So she, ran me for quite a while and with my complete, you know, I was completely aware that we were doing that. And I was, deadica... I was so happy for that because at her end days, she also wanted me to be around. And I, it was a bunch of her African American friends and me. We together went over a bunch of barriers. And it was a lovely thing.
MsBoye:That's such important work in the world. Chris, I know you have other folks you want to tell us about and their stories to share. I think we've got time for one more today.
Jennifer:Yeah. You know, um, let's hear the next story.
Chris:The next, uh, stories are from Felix. He and, um, he had a stroke and a, a car accident. And he was not able to drive, not able to make, to drive anymore because he couldn't make a left hand turn. And he would try to drive just with his right hand, and that didn't work very well. So this is his one of this is one of his first things that he wrote:
Oliver:Speed" by Felix Briones I can’t ever seem to get the speed right. In 2001, I went to my first Nascar Race at the Pepsi 4000. I started driving my motorized chair on the track, but was told to get off because I needed to go LEFT... and I couldn't! I went with my brother and some friends, and we camped for a week in the end field. I tried to take my chair onto the track for a try out, but then they told me that cars go about 240 Miles Per Hour on the track.... Instead of the 8 miles per day, I can do in my chair! Then, not long ago, I was coming out of the Capital cafeteria, when I HIT SOMEONE!! I looked down and all I could see were these two FEET sort of caught there. I looked up and in the hallway there are these DPS officers running in my direction. I said to myself,"oops, I’m in trouble now!" The DPS gets there to help pick up the guy whose feet were under my chair. I’m thinking I’m in big trouble now! The officers say,"You all right, Governor Perry? And they pick him up and dust him off! I'd run over Rick Perry! The Governer of Texas! Now when I’m up at the capital with ADAPT, the DPS officers always say,“Slow down Briones! every time I get inside the building. Seems I’m either too slow or too fast!
Jennifer:Laughing That is a great story I love that one.
Chris:I do too.
MsBoye:So, so, tell us about Felix. He sounds like a laugh a minute.
Chris:Oh he was so funny, funny He he just loved being alive and he had this you know pretty traumatic injury car injury and he was it's still just completely devoted to cars as you can see as a person he was one of the kindest people I know He never said a bad thing about anyone He would give you anything he had he and he did often give things to people in the in the group that needed help. And he he was always there mostly to make us laugh it was really. Um Something that he felt like he had to offer and he certainly did. And the last thing he wrote about was about someone asking what he wanted to learn first when he went to a rehab. And he said, I want to know how to, um, uh, I want to learn how to a woman's bra off with only one hand."
MsBoye:A vital life skill, I would add.
Jennifer:(Laughter)
Adam:A.D.L's
Chris:Yeah!
Oliver:One handed Bra” When I first got to therapy, I thought it was going to be hard. The therapist asked me,“What do you want to learn how to do first?” I said, I want to learn how to take a woman’s bra off, with only one hand.” So, she went into the other room and came back wearing a bra on the outside of her shirt! Well, it took my own hand, teeth and a little imagination, but off it came. That put a smile on my face
Adam:Let's go.
Jennifer:What effects did Felix have on you and the group
Chris:Felix was just a, the, the sweetness that came in from somebody accepting this quote unquote bad thing that happened to him and just moving right through it. Oh, he just became the Go Guy for when you wanted to be cheered up. And he would catch you if you were complaining and make a joke. He always could make a good joke, and he, he wanted to be in that group, and he came in with Danny Sines, and, um, Danny was the same kind of guy, and, uh, but Felix just, the things he wrote were so hilarious, and, and they were all true. So it was just great a gift that he gave us, and we all felt it
Jennifer:That's beautiful. I found myself laughing out loud during this first story. So, yeah, I'm glad you shared. Thanks, Chris.
MsBoye:Yeah. He seems like he would have been a great standup comedian, you know?
Chris:He would have. He didn't last very long, so he wasn't with us for very many years. But I think it was maybe two or three years he performed with us, and then he got too sick to do that, and then he left. But we didn't let him get very far. He's still in our hearts.
MsBoye:That's right. And now he'll come to life in the hearts of all of us who didn't get to meet him in person. Did you know him Adam?
Adam:I did, I did not, I knew him, I, what I remember is, maybe he was a poorly Hispanic guy.
Chris:He was.
Adam:In a wheelchair. With Danny Sines.
Chris:Yeah. Yeah. He was.
Adam:But I didn't, I didn't put it on my hard drive, so.
MsBoye:(Warm gentle laughter.)
Jennifer:Chris, do you have a favorite memory or story from your time with Actual Lives Austin?
Chris:I do. I, um, I don't remember what year it was Celia knows, but, we got invited, Actual Lives Austin got invited to be in a, um,
Adam:Uh, there was a VSA International Arts Festival in Washington, D. C. in 2004.
Chris:Yeah! And we were invited and we could, I think we picked like 15 of the people. And so there was a 15 people with disabilities and, you know, some of us already had disability, too. I went and Celia and the woman that did the lights, Olivia O'Hare, and Terry Galloway, and we er, did one of our best plays. We had one of our, you know, we had really good shows and, you know, this one was our, our most fun. We got to Washington and we had a very small time to get on the stage and just stage it, so that they everybody would know where to come in and when to go out and with you go out in the piece which door you go you know all that stuff has to be. And There was like 12 groups like that. Local theaters that had been, given to the VSA so they could make these things, and so ours was a really nice one, a really nice theater. And there's plenty of time, we had several people with wheelchairs, and we had people with, you know, who were signing, and all kinds of stuff, people on the stage. So you needed a pretty big stage, and we did our best, our best work in its best way we, it's the best time we ever did it. And it was a standing ovation from people who lived in that community. And they'd come up and hug us and tell us how wonderful that we were. All these people had everything that they had worked for validated, you know, by that one night. I don't think any of us that were there will ever forget it. It was just... And Terry and I and Celia were just jumping up and down. It was just... You know, you hope, you hope sometime that everything you've helped people learn and they, they, that they just do it really good. All of them one night. They just did. That was something that I think everybody agrees is our, was our high point
MsBoye:Oh, wow. I love that. You know, as a writer and a director and even as a as an actor, we live for that moment when everything that you've worked for comes together better than you could ever imagine. I mean, that moment's magical. It's brilliant. When actors bring your words to life and, or as a director, when you see or feel even the impact your actors are having on the audience, I mean, that's, that's that's what keeps us coming back and, and doing it again and again. You know, there's this brilliant theater company in London called Graeae, and, and they've been around for about 40 years now. But when they started, no one had done what they wanted to do, like y'all, they had no template to follow. So when they did their first tour, they did what you did, which is like,"Well, we've got all these people and some of them are using wheelchairs and, and, and other people are needing interpreters, et cetera, et cetera. And, and well, uhhh, we've got these plays and we're taking them on a national tour and we're just going to get them there and we'll make it happen and see what happens." You know? And that, that, that, It's like, it's the warrior nature of Disability Advocates, you know? And, and that comes through in all of our stories. In their own way, each, each story displays that warrior nature.
Adam:I'll never forget"Crip Tango" to the, to the, to the tune of"Cell Block Tango" from"Chicago".
Chris:Yeah.
Adam:Wow, that was just incredible.
Chris:It was over the top.
Jennifer:The whole thing sounds amazing. Again, I wish I had been there earlier.
MsBoye:Hmhm!
Adam:You would have been like 12?
Jennifer:(Explosive laughter) What year was this?
Adam:'04.
Jennifer:Oh no, I would have been out of high school.
MsBoye:Well, you know, this has just been so great. Thank you, Chris, for joining us all the way from Mexico,
Chris:My pleasure.
MsBoye:uh, but we do have a few final questions for you.
Chris:Okay.
MsBoye:Okay, Chris, if you were doing this interview, if you were the host, is there anything else you would have asked yourself?
Chris:Not really. I think, I mean, we could talk all day about the things but what I was interested in with these stories is, for people to understand, get an idea about what, who these people that are on paper with us instead of in a chair, and I think we did that. I think that we've we enjoyed and questioned and listened, and that is the, when you do something that's important to you and you can do, you can let people understand things that happened way before them in this kind of way, I'm very happy with it, I wouldn't change it.
MsBoye:You know, Chris, we both know Disability History is lost history, you know. We've been invisible. And so to have uh, not, not only stories about disability, the lives of people with disability, but also their personal stories, their human stories in their own words.
Chris:Yeah!
MsBoye:And to keep them alive, that's, that's one of the things we wanted to do. You know, I know when Celia came up with this idea of the podcast, she was like,"We have so many stories and, and we don't, I don't want them to be lost." Right?
Chris:Yes, and I want to say one other thing that I don't talk about very much that I was in Graduate School when we did that. I was basically a, um, literary person and, um, not a performance person, so I got sort of moved over into that, you know, the things that happen in theaters and, um, I ended up using, uh, exploring more theater"in your body" kinds of stuff. I wrote, I wrote my, uh, doctoral dissertation in three chapters and the first chapter was about Actual Lives
MsBoye:Wow!
Chris:It was about how, you can take, a group of people who don't know each other and who are already having troubles, uh, being in this situation that they're in and find places where that's funny and where that's helpful to say out loud and er, to meet each other in different places and stuff. And it still is such my, my pleasure that I got that chance to do that for so, so long
MsBoye:UHmmm.
Chris:And I just finished a book, about one of our other people that we didn't talk about today Her name was Joyce Dowieczek and she was a real fireball. I've written a book about her, her I stayed with her after Actual Lives, and she, she and I wrote, I helped her rewrite, write... write stories that she wanted to give to people, and she, I was with her right to the time of her death. And I was her guardian for a while, and so I did everything from wiping her bottom to signing, all kinds of papers and screaming at nurses. And you know, this thing with Joyce was for me, uh, something new. I was an occupational therapist, so I could help her, you know, around at that level for free. And I, I think the book is ready to go now, so I'm going to try again to see if I can get it published, but she deserves that. And really everybody in the group deserves that kind of attention of the community. Actual Lives itself changed me, but I got more out of it than I ever gave in it I think. Coz it was my, my luck that Celia would let us do that and that Terry would come in and start it and come back and come back and back several times to reshape us and make us more. Because I'm still not a theater person. We had to ask her, beg her come, you know, please come And she, she did it for many years and she just like, okay, I got a real life to do.(Laughs) So...
MsBoye:Mm
Jennifer:For OMOD, Opening Minds, Opening Doors, when Eric was running it, you came back from Mexico a few times.
Chris:So worth it.
Jennifer:And it was so much fun.
Chris:Yeah. I want to help anybody who wants to get their story out. And right now I want to, get me to get my story out....
MsBoye:Yeah, May it be so!.
Jennifer:Um, if you had the attention of the whole world for five minutes, what would you say?
Chris:Oh, gosh, I think I would just start out with saying."You're, you're just fine like you are and you have something to offer and if there's any way that you can figure out a way to show and give to other people who you are and what you have that's your life. That's, that's it. That, to me, that's the big it. If you, you get focused enough to understand what you can do and then you actually do it, it changes people and it changes you. It doesn't matter what you think about yourself, you know, there's every, there's a spark in everyone.
Jennifer:Oh! Wow! I love that.
MsBoye:Yeah! Yeah, maybe so. Yeah, so, to the final Adam, you want to do that final question number three?
Adam:Oh, ha, ha How do you wanna be remembered? That's pretty existential.
Chris:It is pretty existential. Yeah. I think that I want my friends to speak about me as a person who um, was funny and did most of what she wanted to do. And was usually interested in helping other people because that's just what's inside of me and that's what gives me pleasure and a sense of being, having a reason to stay here. So, I, and that I'm just grateful for everything. And if I die tomorrow, it's fine with me. You know, I, I've done so much more than I've ever thought I would do. And I have great kid and great granddaughter, grandson, and I have everything I've wanted. And I think the way you live shows how you go. So....
Jennifer:Yeah, I'm glad you shared. Thanks, Chris. Thank you for being here with us, Chris, all the way from Mexico. We really, really appreciate it. It's been amazing, eye opening, just delightful.
Chris:Me too. Thank you.
Adam:And me, thanks.
MsBoye:You know, before we go, I want to thank Celia, Celia Hughes, for making this happen, um, and getting you here, and helping us, and helping you curate the stories. Um, I mean, in Season 3, we're going to be focusing on those older stories, and it was important for us to, in a way, you know, honor our ancestors. Uh, what do they say? You live as long as you are remembered. So, thank you, Chris, for helping us keep these folks alive. I've heard about you for so long, it's been great finally meeting you.
Chris:Thank you. And I just want to say last thing, none of this would have happened without Celia.
Adam:Yay Celia.
Jennifer:Yay Celia. Thank you.
MsBoye:Yeah, maybe we need to interview Celia for this show sometime. She's got plenty of stories to tell.
Chris:She does
Jennifer:True.
MsBoye:Yeah...
Jennifer:Bye everyone
MsBoye:Thank you for listening to episode one of the third season of True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, oh, please share it with your friends and talk about us on social media. If you're feeling particularly adventurous, consider leaving us a review on Facebook or even on your favorite podcast platform, and of course, don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Goodbye, everybody, and have a wonderful day
Kamand Alaghehband:All episodes of The True Tales by Disability Advocates are free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere you get your podcasts.
John Beer:The program is funded in part by a grant from the Texas State Independent Living Council, the Administration for Community Living, and individuals like you.
Kristen Gooch:To learn more about The Speaking Advocates Program, sign up for our newsletter at artspark T X dot org. That's A R T S P A R K T X dot O R G.
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