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By Verónica Bayetti Flores • @veroconplatanos • 9 years ago

Feministing Jamz spotlight: Tifa

Maybe you didn’t know that you wanted to hear a female dancehall artist showing disabled pride and speaking frankly about her sexuality, but trust: you do. Tifa is your gyal.

Tifa has been making waves in the dancehall scene in Kingston since 2008, and has been confidently embracing her body in ways that flip the script on normative narratives on disability. Framing her disability as a superpower, proudly calling herself a handicap gyal, and celebrating her sexuality by addressing masturbation and oral sex, she’s breaking barriers and lifting taboos — as a woman in dancehall in general, but especially given the societal discomfort around people with disabilities as sexual beings.

She’s got a great interview over at The Fader that you should definitely check out, and a new mixtape (Stay Away) you should peep below.

You will not be disappointed that you got to know Tifa.

New York, NY

Verónica Bayetti Flores has spent the last years of her life living and breathing reproductive justice. She has led national policy and movement building work on the intersections of immigrants' rights, health care access, young parenthood, and LGBTQ liberation, and has worked to increase access to contraception and abortion, fought for paid sick leave, and demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color. In 2008 Verónica obtained her Master’s degree in the Sexuality and Health program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She loves cooking, making art, listening to music, and thinking about the ways art forms traditionally seen as feminine are valued and devalued. In addition to writing for Feministing, she is currently spending most of her time doing policy work to reduce the harms of LGBTQ youth of color's interactions with the police and making sure abortion care is accessible to all regardless of their income.

Verónica is a queer immigrant writer, activist, and rabble-rouser.

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