Khadijah Queen and Jillian Weise Select Poetry for NYT Disability Series

Poets Khadijah Queen and Jillian Weise have curated two segments of poems for the New York Times's "Disability series" that focus on disability poetics and the questions that arise when curating around such a theme, such as "Who is the audience? Are we writing for other disabled people? For the nondisabled, or for everyone? How do we write for both while emphasizing the disabled poet’s aesthetic?" From their introduction:

Our goals here are many. In curating this group of poems, we want to show aesthetic range, thematic variety, and formal power. We don’t want to repeat the ableist claims that appear so often in the media, even sometimes in this paper, that disability is a condition to be cured; Deafness is a condition to be cochlear-ed. These claims are ignorant of disability pride, Deaf pride, and our culture. In offering this work, we reject the stereotypes and misconceptions disabled people deal with every day from nondisabled people, and even from other disabled people. We refuse to box the poems in by requiring a fidelity to subject. It is enough that the poets say: I am disabled and/or Deaf. The poems can do anything.

Read the first selection here. Poets included are Nina Puro, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Meg Day, Danez Smith, Cade Leebron, Kelly Davio, and Glenis Redmond.