Disability Arts in the North East – A Living Archive
A tribute to all the disabled artists and groups who have made up the Disability Arts Movement past and present
About Lindsay and her work
Lindsay was the festival poet for the month long Mimosa Festival held across the North East by Arcadea in 2006. She performed this piece at The Metamorphosis Ball which was a cabaret to close the Festival at Sage Gateshead.
Mimosa Festival by Lindsay Carter.
Wallsend’s Buddle hosted transition
writ large there was Ceitach’s mission
one by one, he restored identity, and more
to the genocide victims of T4
To the disabled people whose bodies
were tossed
onto the fires of Hitler’s Holocaust
Stark contrast then to explore the trees
In the beautiful photography
of Aileen Hay who found a way
to calm us before our head’s turn
to the scratch republic of
outlaw artist sean burn
Dhorothya
Gave us 13 relics in WombMan
Strange Creatures stared out from pre-op
Scans
Herstory not history was pagan and grand
Newcastle’s sparkling new dance city
Mimosad with strawberries and
champagne, very glitzy
Pauline Heath made us laff, but did she
Leave without a man?
Wayne Hooks pluffed the feathers as
Only Wayne Hooks can
Rachel Kay gave us Tear or Tear
I don’t care which
because it was beautifully choreographed
by Caroline Bowditch
Who even in her absence made us watch
her on the screen
whilst Fiona Wright of Girl Jonah might
just have been seen
sitting in the audience
watching Common Ground’s Sign Dance
They gave us Breaker, Breakdown and Breakthrough
No music just movement, communication
and a take through
Deafworld beauty
At Mushroom Works just up from Spillers
Unseen was packed out by pseudo-Wellers
It was Up Close and Personal with Twink
Who gave us the bright white corridor of fame
spread with Jam
And Inside Out by AJ Moesby
whose analytic cabinet shows me
the remedy
to who I am
Get over it!
At the top of the Ouseburn behind the
Tanners Pub
Is the Star and Shadow, which embraced
Mimosa Club
The space has the spirit of the people
who fill it
and the mimosa flower
reverberated artist power.
Girl Jonah were tray steamy
This Two gave us dancing with mermaids
different dances taking chances
Giovanna Maria Casetta showed how an
exterior self
can hide a taboo state of health
She lay her fragility bare
As she sat and slowly plucked out her hair
sean burn gave us the voice
that oppressors never captured
his bandwidth let it out
tattoed apple pips were scattered
Tom Shakespeare and Topsy Qur’et
Were an asymmetric duet
Who fell for each other and stood for each
Other
And skated the process of death.
Mimosa Screen took Sage Gateshead by storm
Seven epics were seen in short film form
Milner/Minter aired a newscast that
thumbed its nose
Sally Pearce revealed what stick people
wear under their clothes
Roaring Mouse showed us how to
spruce up when cupid calls
while sean burn’s checkov spoke the
quiet truth of it all
Terence Healy drew a line and verbal
portrait of an actor
whose advice was very simple – use
what you have to
Liz Crow splashed a swimming pool tale
of Nectar
a Deaf youth’s life decision – choose
what you love
writing changes lives said sean burn in
stealing brecht
a red tulip startled from the depth of
his text
It wouldn’t fit ’Through the Buttonhole’
Writ by Karen Sheader
The disablist host of her gameshow was
An obnoxious oily bleeder
Divine Divas grabbed Sage Gateshead
by its tits
Mistress of Ceremonies was
Ms Caroline Bowditch
Minika Green was born to sing and she
left us ‘Feelin’ Good’
She sang the language of jazz and
had ‘The Look of Love’
Silent Diva Caroline Parker swung her
rainbow pants
that trademark twirl, that lip, that curl
she had us all entranced
Karen Sheader took us to a place
where we were all accepted
via Venus Mars and Lourdes whose
water was rejected
A place where lust will know no bounds,
a magic land waiting
for a drop dead gorgeous sound and
bolshy agitation
Mimosa Stage at Sage Gateshead
Tom Shakespeare’s family tree
showed the way heredity shapes us
the ologies that for the ‘me’
Laurence Clark had a wonderful claim
to fame
as a child he was on TV
when he proudly refused to wear the
patronising badge
which simpered ‘Jim fixed it for me.’
So Liz Carr is MCing Metamorphosis Ball
She’ll camp up our culture and rip up the hall
Now down to the cocktails they’re chic
Slash pokey
Make prats of yourselves with the karaoke
but before we get drunk I’d like to say a
Very happy first birthday to arcadea
Lindsay Carter 2006
Lindsay left us in 2009. Rest In Power.
View the On Whose Shoulders We Build online exhibition