Jazz Legends for
Disability Pride NYC Benefit Concert, Winter Jazzfest NYC 2015
January 8th, 2015,
Quaker Friends Meeting Hall, NYC
By E. Joyce Glasgow, www.artsandculturescene.com
Winter Jazzfest NYC 2015 began with a jazz benefit concert
for Disability Pride NYC.
Disability Pride is “a movement to increase awareness about and establish
the civil rights of the disabled, both nationally and internationally. Chicago,
Philadelphia and other cities around the world already have a parade, but not
New York City. Disability Pride NYC was formed out of the desire to launch the
first NYC parade to support the rights of the disabled, set for July 2015, as a
way to highlight the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). This concert and
the eventual parade will champion people with disabilities and those that
support them. It is a celebration of a diverse and beautiful aspect of our
humanity.”
The concert was hosted by jazz pianist/organist and
President/CEO of Disability Pride NYC, Mike LeDonne, who himself is the father
of a 10 year old daughter with a disability.
A who’s who of jazz came together in support to perform. The
musicians played in small groups, each combo performing two pieces, mostly jazz
standards.
Renee Rosnes (piano) played “Another You” in a trio with Ron Carter (bass)
and Russell Malone (guitar).
Benny Golson (tenor sax) played with Jimmy Cobb (drums),
Buster Williams (bass), Eddie Henderson (trumpet) and Mike LaDonne (piano). To
introduce one of his personal compositions, Golson shared a wonderful, funny anecdote
about the old Birdland, where, playing as a young, naive musician, he was impressed
by the wealthy looking patrons who made grand entrances in fancy suits, with
smiling, glamorous women on each arm. They inspired him to write his iconic
song “Killer Joe”, which he composed in ten hours and started out with two
chords. He eventually got hip to the fact that these sharp looking gentlemen were
pimps!
Jimmy Cobb stayed on stage with his group “Cobb’s Mob”, with
Peter Bernstein (guitar), John Webber (bass) and Brad Mehldau (piano), for
“This Could Be the Start of Something Big” and “Love Walked In”.
The Bill Charlap Trio, featuring Bill Charlap (piano), Kenny
Washington (drums) and David Wong (bass) played an elegant “I’ll Remember
April” and a pensive, dreamy Vernon Duke/Ogden Nash ballad, “Round About”.
To close out the evening, a quintet, representing three
generations of jazz musicians took the stage, including George Coleman (tenor
sax), Harold Mabern Jr. (piano), Bob Crenshaw (bass), Eric Alexander (tenor
sax) and George Coleman Jr. (drums). They performed “Green Dolphin Street” and
the ballad, “You’ve Changed”.
Following is a brief
history of the Disability Rights movement from Disability Pride NYC:
Americans with
disabilities are a group of approximately 50 million people that today lead
independent, self-affirming lives and who define themselves according to their
personhood – their ideas, beliefs, hopes and dreams – above and beyond their
disability. Since the mid 1900s, people with disabilities have pushed for the
recognition of disability as an aspect of identity that influences the
experiences of an individual, not as the sole-defining feature of a person.
People with disabilities
have had to battle against centuries of biased assumptions, harmful
stereotypes, and irrational fears. The stigmatization of disability resulted in
the social and economic marginalization of generations of Americans with
disabilities, and like many other oppressed minorities, left people with
disabilities in a severe state of impoverishment for centuries.
In the 1800s, people
with disabilities were considered meager, tragic, pitiful individuals unfit and
unable to contribute to society, except to serve as ridiculed objects of
entertainment in circuses and exhibitions. They were assumed to be abnormal and
feeble-minded, and numerous persons were forced to undergo sterilization.
People with disabilities were also forced to enter institutions and asylums,
where many spent their entire lives. The “purification” and segregation of
persons with disability were considered merciful actions, but ultimately served
to keep people with disabilities invisible and hidden from a fearful and biased
society.
The marginalization of
people with disabilities continued until World War I when veterans with
disabilities expected that the US government provide rehabilitation in exchange
for their service to the nation. In the 1930s the United States saw the
introduction of many new advancements in technology as well as in government
assistance, contributing to the self-reliance and self-sufficiency of people
with disabilities.
President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, the first president with a disability, was a great advocate
for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities, but still operated under
the notion that a disability was an abnormal, shameful condition, and should be
medically cured or fixed.
In the 1940s and 1950s,
disabled World War II veterans placed increasing pressure on government to
provide them with rehabilitation and vocational training. World War II veterans
made disability issues more visible to a country of thankful citizens who were
concerned for the long-term welfare of young men who sacrificed their lives to
secure the safety of the United States.
Despite these initial
advancements made towards independence and self-reliance, people with
disabilities still did not have access to public transportation, telephones,
bathrooms and stores. Office buildings and worksites with stairs offered no
entry for people with disabilities who sought employment, and employer
attitudes created even worse barriers. Otherwise talented and eligible people
with disabilities were locked out of opportunities for meaningful work.
By the 1960s, the civil
rights movement began to take shape, and disability advocates saw the
opportunity to join forces alongside other minority groups to demand equal
treatment, equal access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The
struggle for disability rights has followed a similar pattern to many other
civil rights movements – challenging negative attitudes and stereotypes,
rallying for political and institutional change, and lobbying for the
self-determination of a minority community.
Disability rights
activists mobilized on the local level demanding national initiatives to
address the physical and social barriers facing the disability community.
Parent advocates were at the forefront, demanding that their children be taken
out of institutions and asylums, and placed into schools where their children
could have the opportunity to engage in society just like children who were not
disabled.
In the 1970s, disability
rights activists lobbied Congress and marched on Washington to include civil
rights language for people with disabilities into the 1972 Rehabilitation Act.
In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act was passed, and for the first time in history,
civil rights of people with disabilities were protected by law.
The Rehabilitation Act
of 1973 (Section 504) provided equal opportunity for employment within the
federal government and in federally funded programs, prohibiting discrimination
on the basis of either physical or mental disability. Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act also established the Architectural and Transportation
Barriers Compliance Board, mandating equal access to public services (such as
public housing and public transportation services) to people with disabilities,
and the allocation of money for vocational training.
In 1975, the Education
for All Handicapped Children Act was passed to guarantee equal access to public
education for children with disabilities. This act of legislation specified
that every child had a right to education, and mandated the full inclusion of
children with disabilities in mainstream education classes, unless a
satisfactory level of education could not be achieved due to the nature of the
child’s disability.
The Education for All
Handicapped Children Act was renamed in 1990 to the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which further elaborated on the inclusion of
children with disabilities into regular classes, but also focused on the rights
of parents to be involved in the educational decisions affecting their
children. IDEA required that an Individual Education Plan be designed with
parental approval to meet the educational needs of a child with a disability.
In the 1980s, disability
activists began to lobby for a consolidation of various pieces of legislation
under one broad civil rights statute that would protect the rights of people
with disabilities, much like the 1964 Civil Rights Act had achieved for Black
Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis
of race, religion, national origin, or gender, but people with disabilities
were not included under such protection.
After decades of
campaigning and lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed
in 1990, and ensured the equal treatment and equal access of people with
disabilities to employment opportunities and to public accommodations. The ADA
intended to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in: employment,
services rendered by state and local governments, places of public
accommodation, transportation, and telecommunications services.
Under the ADA,
businesses were mandated to provide reasonable accommodations to people with
disabilities (such as restructuring jobs or modifying work equipment), public
services could no longer deny services to people with disabilities (such as
public transportation systems), all public accommodations were expected to have
modifications made to be accessible to people with disabilities, and all telecommunications
services were mandated to offer adaptive services to people with disabilities.
With this piece of legislation, the US government identified the full
participation, inclusion and integration of people with disabilities in all
levels of society.
While the signing of the
ADA placed immediate legislative demands to ensure equal access and equal
treatment of people with disabilities, deep-rooted assumptions and
stereotypical biases were not instantly transformed with the stroke of a pen.
People with disabilities still face prejudice and bias with the stereotypical
portrayal of people with disabilities in the movies and in the media, physical
barriers to schools, housing and to voting stations, and lack of affordable
health care. The promise of the ADA is yet to be fully realized, but the
disability rights movement continues to make great strides towards the
empowerment and self-determination of Americans with disabilities.
Glossary
Advocate: a person that argues
for a cause, a supporter or defender.
Allocation: to set apart for a
special purpose, to distribute according to a plan.
Marginalization: to confine to a lower
social standing.
Mobilize: to assemble, prepare,
or put into operation for a purpose.
Rehabilitation: to restore to good
condition, health, and capacity.
Self-determination: freedom of people to
determine their own status and independence.
Sterilization: the act of making a
person infertile, or unable to conceive a child.
Stigmatization: to characterize as
disgraceful.
Vocational training: training for a job.
Sources:
- Disabled
Rights: American Policy and the Fight for Equality by
Jacqueline Vaughn Switzer (Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press,
2003).
- The
Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation by
Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames (Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 2001).
To learn more about Disability Pride NYC visit: www.disabilitypridenyc.com
