“Going Beyond Inspirational” was a great success. Nina G. drew about 30 people, including UVA students, faculty, and administrators from diverse areas. Students from Curry, faculty from the College, and staff from the Office of Diversity of Equity were in attendance. This performance also drew members of the Charlottesville community, including several members of the local Deaf community and some stutterers.

For this event, we partnered with the Office of the Provost and the Vice Provost for the Arts, as well as Student Council, the Disability Advocacy and Action Committee, and The Disability Studies Initiative.

Nina performed for thirty minutes, then opened up the event to Q&A, where we discussed deafness, stuttering, stigma, and many other topics. This performer was able to use her art form, comedy, to reflect on social justice issues and educate the community on a wide range of disability-related issues. This show was a wonderful culmination of Disability Acceptance Week (DAW). You can find an explanation of the concept of DAW in this piece by The Cavalier Daily.

Angela Nemecek
Program Manager at OpenGrounds