BG Graphic
Right
Left

2 minutes, or the time it takes to take a few deep breaths

Contents

  • play
    • 3 minute listen


    Disability Festivities

     

    In the following reflection, Jen Deerinwater ruminates on bringing their Disability community out to play, party, and perform at Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride. What emerges is a clear commitment to holding joyful spaces across a myriad of circumstances and differences.

    A Q&A WITH JEN DEERINWATER

    What are the expected and unexpected joys and challenges in bringing disabled creatives and audiences out for Disability-centered festivals?

    When Crushing Colonialism hosted our two-night event, Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride (DBIWP), we experienced many joys and hurdles to creating a space that was welcoming to all and rooted in Disability justice.  

    DBIWP was held on May 30 and June 1, 2025 on Piscataway Land (so-called Washington, DC) during World Pride. We brought together Indigiqueer and multiply-disabled artists, performers, and community members from across the globe — so-called Brazil, The Gambia, Fiji, Palestine, Canada, Finland, the US, and more. While DBIWP wasn’t specifically a Disability event, many of our event staff, volunteers, speakers, performers, and attendees, are Disabled. Challenges we experienced included everything from serious funding issues that impacted our ability to provide a wide range of Disability access, conflicting access needs, and numerous technical issues. However, the joys were also endless. Bringing together people from such diverse backgrounds and disabilities came with many laughs, deep conversations that grow our bonds and collective resistance as community members, and knowing that Disabled queer people were provided with a free, safe, and joyful space to celebrate World Pride. 

    Our programming is meant to unite each other across communities, movements, borders, and oceans, as well as to educate and entertain.

    What desires do you have for future iterations of the work you do in bringing Disability communities together through festival programming?

    Crushing Colonialism hopes to take our Decolonized Beatz event series on the road and tour the so-called US and abroad. We’re currently in talks to host a smaller version of DBIWP at World Pride 2026 in Amsterdam. Our programming is meant to unite each other across communities, movements, borders, and oceans, as well as to educate and entertain. Our commitment to Disability justice adds a depth to this mission that wouldn’t occur otherwise. Through our work, we also aim to help lead and teach others planning festival programming how to create spaces that nurture our Disability community and provide professional opportunities to Disabled people.

    Portrait photo of Jen Deerinwater by Eleanor Goldfield.

    [ID: Jen, a white-coded, femme presenting Native, sits in the park with their left arm in the air making a fist. They’re looking at the camera definitively with their wavy shoulder length brown hair worn down. They are wearing red lipstick, black glasses and a shirt, large yellow earrings, and a Native beaded medallion with the Crushing Colonialism logo.]

    More

    Jen Deerinwater
    They // Them // Theirs
    Piscataway land (“Washington DC”)

    Jen Deerinwater is a bisexual, Two-Spirit, multiply-disabled, citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and an award-winning journalist and organizer who covers the myriad of issues their communities face with an intersectional lens. Deerinwater is the founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism and has been awarded several fellowships, including the 2019 New Economies Reporting Project and the 2024 Disability Visibility fellowship at the Unexpected Shape Writing Academy. They are a 2020 Disability Futures Fellow.

    They are a contributor at Truthout and their work has been featured in a wide range of publications, including the anthologies Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty First Century and We Organize to Change Everything: Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice. They are the editor of the anthology Sacred and Subversive: Queer Voices on Faith and Spirituality (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) due out in early 2026.

    They have been interviewed for numerous outlets on their work and The Advocate named Jen a 2019 Champion of Pride. Jen is also a 2022 member of the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.

    Deerinwater is a current member of the board of directors for the Disabled Journalist Association and a Senior Advisor for the Disability Culture Lab.

    jdeerinwater.com
    crushingcolonialism.org
    Instagram: @jendeerinwater @crushingcolonialism

    BG Graphic