Description: Gaelynn Lea will share her personal experience of living, learning, loving, and working as a touring artist with a disability. She will discuss the barriers disabled artists and audience members still face and highlight activism and social efforts that can help further the goal of equality for all. Gaelynn will discuss why disability education, coupled with inclusion in the arts are so important, and how the concept of Disability Pride can help transform our culture. She will close the workshop by sharing how the arts can be made more accessible online and off in order to facilitate this cultural shift.

Presenter: Gaelynn Lea won NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest in 2016. Since then, she has toured in 45 states and 9 countries, captivating audiences around the world with her unique mix of haunting original songs and traditional fiddle tunes. She's also opened for well-known bands such as Wilco, The Decemberists, LOW, and the industrial rock supergroup Pigface. Gaelynn Lea is currently creating original music for a Broadway production of Macbeth starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. This iconic Shakespeare play is being directed by Sam Gold and opens in April 2022 at The Longacre Theatre in New York, NY.

Gaelynn also does speaking engagements about Disability Rights, finding inner freedom, and accessibility in the arts. She has shared her perspective on PBS NewsHour, On Being with Krista Tippett, The Moth Radio Hour, NowThis, The Science of Happiness Podcast, and via two widely-viewed TEDx Talks. She is the Co-Founder and Vice President of a change-making group called RAMPD -Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities, which aims to amplify Disability Culture, promote inclusion, and advocate for accessibility in the music industry. She joined the Recording Academy with the class of 2021.

This webinar is supported with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the New York State Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). 

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