Parisian Phoenix Publishing

Our editor and one of our resident poets, Nancy Scott, appeared in the online publication, Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine. Here’s the link to her piece, “My Castle”, which discusses not only her experience as the first congenitally blind person at her independent living facility, but also offers a humorous look at why she made the decision to leave her apartment while she was still able to care for herself.

The comments from the first 24 hours of the piece’s publication have applauded Nan’s honesty and her ability to put into words a decision that many of with which a certain generation must grapple. It’s a decision that too many people postpone until infirmary or disability forces the choice, whereas Nan recognized that as a blind person she had to have her wits and her physical capabilities still about her to make the transition. She had to be healthy to learn her new space.

Nancy was one of seven, maybe even eight, of the dozen or so authors who attended Lehigh Valley Disability Pride on July 22. This inaugural event featured music, games, art and vendors at the Penn State Lehigh Valley building in Center Valley. Disability Pride PA and the Lehigh Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance partnered to bring forth the festivities. Here is the electronic Zine they created for the event.

By far, the best performer of the day was Gooch and the Motion. But the music drowned out any other conversation or activity in the event. We decorated our tent with quotes from Not an Able-Bodied White Man with Money and we even attracted the attention of Molly Bilinski, a reporter with LehighValleyNews.com. Her story can be read here. She threatened I would never get rid of her, and I look forward to hearing from her again as she’s an MFA student at Wilkes. I think.

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