These are the announced public events for Kenny Fries.
On January 21, 2025, 7pm, Kenny will speak/read on “Stumbling over History: Disability and the Holocaust,” at Alumni Hall, University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of the “Representations of Disabiilty in Histories, Scientific, and Artistic Perspectives” lecture series.
On January 23, 2025, at 4pm, Kenny will give a talk, “Disability Justice and Queer Crip Art Curation,” focused on his curation of the exhibit “Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer.” The talk will be held at Carleton University, Dunton Tower 2017 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
November 15, 11:30AM (US Eastern Time): A Picture of Health Speaker Series with Simon Watney, British writer, art critic, and pioneering AIDS activist, who will discusses his history of organizing and advocacy in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, focusing on his shared work with the disabled artist and activist Jo Spence. Watney will reflect on the politics of HIV/AIDS then—and now. Q&A will follow. ASL interpretation will be provided. For other access queries, contact efrost@fordham.edu. Join for free here.
On November 4, 3:00pm, Japan Time: Concert and discussion of the In the Gardens of Japan song cycle, composed by Kumiko Takahashi, for vocalist Mika Kimula, and traditional Japanese instruments, text by Kenny, at Chihan Art Project, Izu, Japan. Special premiere of Alison O’Daniel’s film shot on location in the gardens. For more information: http://chihan-art.com/category/news/. For free tickets contact kenny@kennyfries.com.
October 24, 2pm US Eastern Time: Disability Poetics, a series of ten reading/interview videos curated and introduced by Kenny Fries. The launch event will be virtual, with ASL interpretation, and feature poets Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Meg Day, Stephen Kuusisto, and Noami Oritz, moderated by Kenny Fries. Supported by the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University and Canada Council for the Arts. Register for the free event here.
October 23, 3:00pm (US Eastern Time) : The second of the A Picture of Health Speaker Series with Pelenakeke Brown, a Sāmoan/Pakehā, crip artist based in Aotearoa (New Zealand), who will discuss her work, which explores the intersections between disability theory and Sāmoan concepts of time and space. Brown will describe her practice, which spans visual art, text, and performance, in relation to the experience of crip time, including the print series grasp + release, in which she used her medical records. Q&A will follow. ASL interpretation will be provided. For other access queries, contact efrost@fordham.edu. Join for free here.
October 2, 11:30am US Eastern Time, The first in the A Picture of Health Speaker Seres with German artist Yvonne Buchheim, who will discusses her multi-media exhibition Life Turned Upside Down (2021), developed during two years of breast cancer treatment and recovery. Buchheim will present her work and discuss the influence of pioneering artist Jo Spence on her project. Q&A will follow. ASL interpretation will be provided. For other access queries, contact efrost@fordham.edu. Join for free here.
On August 25, at 7:00pm, Kenny reads and will be in discussion as part of Literature in the Languages of Berlin 2023, at Literary Colloquium Berlin, in Wannsee. For event information and tickets go here.
On July 6, 7:30pm, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Kenny will talk about queer/disabled spaces at Nieuwe institute’s Queer Salon #3, part of The Critical Visitor project, and will engage in a conversation with Eliza Steinbock. Earlier in the day, at 2;30pm, the salon will feature Simone(e) van Saarloos, as well as selected archival materials around the topics of accessibility, cripping and queering. At 4:30pm, Kenny will join the “(De)Normalizing Bodies in and through Space” conversation. The event will be hosted by Dirk van den Heuvel. For more information click here.
On May 17, 7:30pm Eastern Time, online: Kenny will be a panelist for a onePulse Foundation conversation starter on queer/disability representation, including an online showing of the short UK film S.A.M. More information and free tickets here.
On May 12 and May 13, at 7pm, Kenny joins Perel in Life (Un)Worthy of Life: A Queer/Dis/Crip Talk Show, at HAU, Berlin. For info and tickets: https://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de/en/programme/pdetail/perel-life-unworthy-of-life-a-queer-dis-crip-talkshow
On March 19, at noon Eastern US time, Kenny will read from his work and talk with Nomi Eve, author of Henna House and The Family Orchard and director of the MFA in Creative Writing at Drexel University. This will be a free online event. Email nae28@drexel.edu to register.
On March 16 at 6pm CET, Kenny will read with US writer Elizabeth Graver and Irish filmmaker Mary McGuckian as part of the Maison Dora Maar/Dora Maar House salon in Ménerbes, France. Live event, no streaming. To reserve a free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/billets-salon-de-mars-a-la-maison-dora-maar-558630297257
On February 21, 8:30am, Eastern US time, Kenny will keynote the Inclusive Teaching and Learning Symposium at Penn State University - Lehigh Valley. You can register for Kenny’s presentation, “Beyond Access and ‘Inclusion’: Disability in Our Culture, Our institutions, and in Our Classrooms,” a free online event here.
On October 28, 3pm CET, live in Krakow, and online, Kenny joins Perel and Katarzyna Ojrzyńska for Life (Un)Worthy of Life: A Queer/Dis/Crip Talk Show: Season 4, Episode 1: Krakow, Poland, Eastern Europe, and Beyond, featuring a lecture by Katarzyna Ojrzyńska (“Remembering Lives (Un)Worthy of Life”) followed by a discussion with Kenny and Perel. Part of Disability Studies in Eastern Europe: Reconfigurations. Register, for either live or online here.
Kenny leads a curator guided tour of “Queering the Crip, Cripping, the Queer,” an exhibit on queer/disability history, activism, and culture, on September 11, 3pm, at the Schwules Museum, Lützowstraße 73, Berlin. Tour is in English. Medical masks required. Admission to museum, 9€; 3€ reduced.
The opening of “Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer,” exhibit on queer/disability history, activism, and culture, for which Kenny is curator, opens at the Schwules Museum, Lützowstraße 73, Berlin, on September 1, 7:00pm. Medical masks required. DGS interpretation.
On March 30 at 1pm Eastern Time, Kenny will be a panelist on disability history, “Disability and Justice: The Evolution and Revolution” at Temple University’s Disability and and Change Symposium.
On March 29, 2022, at 2pm Central Time, Kenny’s online talk, “Beyond Access and ‘Inclusion: How Can We Best Represent Disability in Our Institutions and in Our Culture,” sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee at the University of North Dakota: https://und.zoom.us/j/98723714643. To request accommodations contact: donna.smith@und.edu.
On February 27, 2022, at 10:30am Pacific Time, Kenny will headline Ohr Shalom’s Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month programming with a talk titled “Life Worthy of Life: A Jewish, Disabled, Gay Poet and Holocaust Writer Reflects on His Life.” Please email River813@aol.com for the passcode to the Zoom event room. Event will be sign language interpreted.
On January 26, 2022, at 6pm Atlantic Time, the University of King’s College’s Contemporary Studies program will host Kenny Fries for an online lecture entitled “Disability Can Save Your Life: Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer.” This event will be held on Zoom. For more information, and to RSVP, visit here.
On October 20, 2021, at 4pm ET, Kenny will give the keynote for Mary Washington University’s Disability Awareness and GSMA (Gender and Sexual Minorities and Allies) celebration, sponsored by MWU’s James Farmer Multicultural Center. Attend the event live in the Chandler Ballroom A/B, University Center, or register to attend online here.
On October 18, 3pm, EST: “On Being a Vicarious Witness: Aktion T4 and Contesting the Erasure of Disability History” is a discussion between three disabled queer Jewish writers and artists (Kenny Fries, Perel, and Quintan Ana Wikswo), moderated by Julia Watts Belser, sponsored by the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University. Register for the free event here.
On June 27, 2pm Central/3pm Eastern/Noon Pacific/9pm Berlin. Bodies of Work presents the premiere of Perel and Kenny’s Life (Un)Worthy of Life: A Queer Dis/Crip Talk Show, Season 3, Episode 1: Chicago and On the Zoom Ramp of the Universe. The 35 min online video premiere will be followed by a Q&A with Perel and Kenny. ASL and captioning provided. Free event registration here.
Kenny presents a keynote, “Metaphors, Bibles, and Canes: On Re-Contextualizing and Creating a Personal Canon,” at the Breaking the Canon Conference, June 12, Noon (Germany time), at Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany. Online, in English with simultaneous interpretation to spoken German, as well as English and German subtitles. Information and link here.
On June 8, 6pm Berlin Time, Kenny will present another version of “Disability Can Save Your Life” as part of the Differenz Gestalten (Shaping the Difference) series at Folkwang Universität der Kunste, Essen. The event will be in English. To register for the free event email: differenzgestalten@folkwang-uni.de.
As part of Freie University’s “Diversity Affects/Troubling Institutions” conference, Kenny is on the panel, “Undoing Discrimination? Diverse in Berlin?” with Sanni Est, Miriam Camara, and Rhea Ramjohn, moderated by Samie Blasingame. May 29, 13:00 - 14:30 Berlin time (online).
Kenny will present “Disability Can Save Your Life,” a reading and talk about how societal views of disability, most importantly eugenics, has come to the surface once again as the COVID pandemic confronts us. He makes the connection between his research on Aktion T4, the Nazi program that mass murdered disabled people, and how it resonates today, as well as the importance of how disability representation affects all of us. You can join the live webinar with Q&A to follow by the Zoom link: https://bard.zoom.us/j/89507339718?pwd=cHBWL25zWGJlMit5RUROQW1lSUdydz09
On April 13, 2021, 11am PST, Kenny will be a panelist for Pomona College’s Oldenburg Luncheon Colloquium’s “Writing about Disabilities and Gender/Sexual Identities in East Asia,” moderated by Angelina Yanyan Chin (Pomona College). Fellow panelists will be Sarah Dauncey (University of Nottingham) and Hangping Xu (UC-Santa Barbara). This is not a public event but a recording will be available after the event.
On Monday, November 30, 6pm Berlin time, which is noon EST, Kenny will be giving a Fulbright Lecture, "Bridging the Silence," about his Aktion T4 research that led to his video project "What Happened Here in the Summer of 1940?" and his forthcoming book Stumbling over History: Disability and the Holocaust. The discussion will be moderated by Susanne Hamscha, Fulbright Regional Diversity Coordinator Europe). Free, but you need to register at alumni@fulbright.de.
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On Oct. 8, 9, and 10, 8pm German time, Kenny joins Perel for Life (UnWorthy of Life at Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany. The Oct 9 performance will be live-streamed.
October 1, 4pm EST: “Access in Content and Form” is a conversation with and between Creative Capital Awardees writer Kenny Fries and visual artist and filmmaker Alison O’Daniel. As artists who identify as disabled, Kenny and Alison know the importance of access to buildings, sound, films, books, websites and, especially during the current pandemic, protection and care. However, what is most important to their practices is work that focuses on disability in both content and form. Kenny and Alison will talk about how their intersectional identities enter their work, the importance of disability representation and role models, and their upcoming creative collaboration on a film based on Kenny’s poem sequence In the Gardens of Japan. Register for the event here.
ASL interpretation and live-captioning will be available for this event.
