I am honored and delighted to announce that I have been awarded the 2015 Leeway Transformation Award. The Transformation Award is a $15,000 unrestricted grant given to women and trans* artists who create art for social change and demonstrate a long-term commitment to social change work.
 
A tremendous thank you to the Leeway Foundation and to the panelists who selected me as an awardee: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Annie Mok, Portia Cobb, Lynnée Denise, and Maria Bauman.
 
From the Leeway Foundation website:
“Kerri Radley is a writer who aims to increase the visibility of disabled persons by creating cultural artifacts that document and affirm lived experiences while also acting as informational resources for abled bodied allies. Most notably, since 2010, Kerri has written the acclaimed zine, Deafula. Through writing for zines and other publications, embarking on national reading tours, and organizing panels and discussions, Kerri aims to raise consciousness about disability struggles, challenge mainstream narratives of ability, and loudly demand a more accessible, just world.”
 
Read more here.

Announcing Deafula #8: THE RELATIONSHIPS ISSUE.

The issue explores what it is like to be a deaf person married to a hearing person. I look at my past relationships with hearing persons and then trace the journey my hearing husband and I took to come to a place of mutual support and understanding when it came to my deafness. 

When only one person has a disability in a relationship, it can complicate things. You want to retain your independence, but also be able to rely on that person in the way that partners do – except your version of “relying” looks a lot different than an abled bodied person’s does. Where is the line? What is “too much”? When do you move from “this is what partners do for each other territory” and into over-reliance and being a burden? 

On all of this and more: ableism, protection, expectations, feeling like a burden, resentment, and the joy of mutual support. Includes a special Q&A with my partner (the light of my goddamn life!). 

Quarter-legal-sized, 44 pages pages, photocopied, cut and paste. Cover art by Sara Bear. (Bonus pics above of me and the dude, himself). 

Join me as I read from my new piece for Collide #3 at a release reading on February 13, 2015 at 7:00pm at St. Stephen's Church in Washington, DC. Collide is a super important comp zine on the intersection of physical disability and mental illness. Joining me will be JC, Hannah, and Jeff Okay.

The reading will be followed by a crucial discuss on accessibility in the DC DIY community, fostered by Sean Gray, creator of “Is This Venue Accessible?” (itva.tumblr.com). I love the city of DC (and its zine community) and am pumped to talk about accessibility and interdependence.

$5 donation suggested, no one turned away for lack of funds. The event is going to be in the dining room of St. Stephen’s, which has its own entrance on the ground floor and is fully accessible. RSVP HERE. If you have any accommodation requests, please please get in touch with JC! 

Guess what!!! DEAFULA #7 is almost here! Come to the Philadelphia Soapbox on April 25, 2014, at 7:00pm for the release reading of the newest issue of Deafula!

Here is a writeup of the event:

"Kerri Radley, a deaf Philly zinester, was awarded the Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant, and as a part of her project, she created the newest issue of her zine, with handprinted covers created at the Soapbox. Deafula explores deaf identity, discrimination, and ableism, as well as queries the very label of disability itself. Kerri will read from her newest issue, which aims to raise awareness of inaccessibility at community events and explores how we can make these events more inclusive.

Kerri will be joined by JC, a DC-based zinester who writes the perzine Tributaries and edits the comp zine Collide, which focuses on the intersection between physical disability and mental illness. JC writes about her experiences growing up with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Please come out for readings and discussion on a truly important subject: how can we better our approach to accessibility in Philadelphia’s arts, zine, and radical spaces / communities.”


Facebook event HERE.

Lots of fun stuff happening in Deafula-land this winter.

First, my newest issue of Deafula is finished! Deafula #6 is TOUR STORIES, and covers my experience of going on my very first zine tour out to the Chicago Zine Fest in 2013. Available on the BUY page, or get at me to trade!

Also, I will be doing a few readings and tabling at the Brooklyn Zine Fest! Check out the upcoming appearances page for more info. 

Deafula #7, funded by the Leeway Grant, is already in the works! Pumping out zines like nobody's business, ftw.

Happy new year, y'all!

I'm delighted to announce that I have been selected as a recipient of the 2013 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant! Leeway is an amazing organization that provides support to women-identified artists in Philly, and with their help I'm going to be putting out a big, beautiful, badass issue of Deafula, AND a related rad project, the details of which I'll be divulging as it draws closer. I'll be partnering with with Philly Soapbox for my grant project, and I am so totally excited to have been selected. 

More details forthcoming about new issues and new projects!
 

Deafula zine has a new mailing address! Write it down, don’t forget! Please send all future correspondence, letters, zine trades, and garbage pail trading cards to: 

Deafula 

PO Box 18013

Philadelphia, PA 19147