D. Allen

This piece originally appeared on D. Allen’s website, The Body Connected. 

Last week I had the pleasure of talking with Patty Berne, director and co-founder of Sins Invalid, a Bay Area-based organization and performance project that centralizes artists from historically marginalized communities. If you are remotely interested in (A) disability justice, (B) sexy and smart performance art, (C) spaces centered around people of color and queer, trans*, and gender non-conforming folks with disabilities, or (D) humanity–you need to know about Sins Invalid. They are in the process of releasing a new documentary about their work, called Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility, which will become available for purchase and screenings in the coming months.

Since geography prevents me from attending the documentary’s first screening in Oakland this Wednesday, I contacted Patty to hear more about the process of making the film. Our conversation was all heart, covering everything from the challenges of translating live performance to film, Patty’s own experience with body- and disability-related shame as a child, and liberating beauty from the ties that prevent us from seeing it in ourselves and each other.

As a queer writer and performer with a genetic condition that affects my body’s connective tissue, making my joints very flexible (read: a human pretzel) but also very painful and prone to injury, I have more than a passing interest in Sins’ work. My disability is largely invisible until I choose to share it ...