Liverpool based arts organisation DaDa returns to the Museum of Liverpool next month to present its annual Edward Rushton Social Justice Lecture.
Award-winning theatre maker, activist and writer Kaite O’Reilly will deliver the lecture at the waterfront landmark on Tuesday, 3 December from 1-3pm. It will also be available to watch online.
The annual event, held on the United National International Day for People with Disabilities, is named after the blind Liverpool poet, bookseller, activist, abolitionist and disabled man.
Kaite O’Reilly will speak about ableism and audism in ‘RAGE ON: The Uses of Anger’ which connects her talk to DaDa’s 40th birthday celebrations in 2025 which have the core theme Rage.
She describes ableism and audism as the discrimination of and social prejudice against people based on the belief that other bodies, senses and neurology are superior, thereby giving the right to dominate, patronise and try to ‘fix’. The assumption that disabled, Deaf and neurodivergent people are lesser, require medicalisation and normalisation, or be made to disappear.
O’Reilly adds: “As an artist and an individual, my reaction to ableism and audism? Rage.
“Rage gets a bad press. We’re fearful of it, distrust it and are encouraged to consider it as always destructive. Whereas when tempered and directed, it can be a transformative energy. In my talk I’ll address some of the uses of anger by disability artists, campaigners and cultural activists to address social injustice.”
O’Reilly will then be joined by panelists, award-winning playwright, performer and documentary film-maker Julie McNamara, Red Ladder Theatre Artistic Director Cheryl Martin and former DaDa Artistic Director Ruth Fabby MBE, to discuss the topic. The panel will be chaired by independent cultural consultant Lara Ratnaraja.
The lecture is presented in conjunction with Disability Arts Online and will also be live streamed on the day and then made available on demand.
DaDa interim Chief Executive Zoe Partington says: “The annual Edward Rushton Social Justice Lecture is an important part of our calendar and a chance to keep alive the passion and fire demonstrated by Rushton himself.
“I’m absolutely delighted we’re able to welcome the fantastic and insightful Kaite O’Reilly to deliver this year’s lecture which also coincides brilliantly with the core theme of our 2025 DaDaFest, Rage, and will open the discourse around disabled rights, injustice and activism. Next year marks our 40th anniversary and I know it’s a conversation which will continue through our wider DaDaFest 40 programme.
“We’re thankful for the support of Museum of Liverpool and to collaborate with Disability Arts Online to host the event. We welcome everyone to come along to this free lecture with some wonderful speakers, highlighting disability as a social justice issue that all of society needs to address.”
The award-winning, cutting-edge multi artform charity was founded in 1984 and since then has become an integral part of the campaign for greater equality and access for disabled artists across the arts and cultural sector.
It develops and presents excellent disability and Deaf arts through an artistic programme which includes high quality festivals, interventions and events, fed in to by a year-round calendar of engagement work with developing and established artists, young disables, Deaf and neurodivergent people, their families and the wider community.
The inaugural Edward Rushton Social Justice Lecture was held in 2015, and previous guest lecturers have included actor and comedian Liz Carr talking about ‘Death, Disability and Issues Around Assisted Suicide’, theatre-maker Nickie Miles-Wildin on ‘Disabled Women in Arts and Culture: Who’s Calling the Shots?’ and Falklands War veteran Simon Weston CBE on ‘The Impact of Being Disabled’. Last December, neurodivergent multi-disciplinary artist, writer, researcher, activist and curator Ashokkumar Mistry spoke about ‘Reclaiming Nonchalance’.
DaDaFest International 40 will run from 8-31 March 2025, with an official launch event revealing the programme set to take place at the Unity Theatre on 29 November.
Free tickets for the Edward Rushton Social Justice Lecture can be booked via the website on www.dadafest.co.uk
