A searing critique of the disability rights movement from within, and a call for collective liberation that is pro-Black and centers disabled people of color.
For over 20 years, Dara Baldwin has often been the only person of color in the room when significant disability policy decisions are made. Disenfranchisement of people of color and multi-marginalized communities within the disability rights community is not new and has left many inside the community feeling frustrated and erased.
In To Be a Problem, Baldwin candidly shares her journey to becoming a disability activist and policymaker in DC while critiquing the disability rights community. She reveals the reality of erasure for many Black people and people of color in the disability community and argues that, in turn, many white disabled people center themselves within the movement without addressing their own white privilege.
Disability rights groups have been centering white, straight, cisgender people while racial justice groups often fail to center disabled people, leading many Black and Brown disabled people to start their own Disability Justice organizations. Drawing from her unique vantage point, Baldwin calls readers to understand the shortcomings of the disability rights movement while inspiring us to push all movements towards a more inclusive and authentic liberation.
Dara Baldwin is an activist, a scholar, and an author with over 20 years of experience in policy and social justice work. She currently runs her own equity consulting firm, DMadrina, LLC. She formerly held the position of Director of National Policy for the Center for Disability Rights, Inc. (CDR). Baldwin has led multiple national and international advocacy campaigns as an expert in disability laws and policy. She works on Housing and Transportation equity, Criminal Justice, and many other issue areas.
Dara Baldwin will be joined in conversation by Sunu P. Chandy.
Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a social justice activist as a poet and a civil rights attorney. She is the daughter of immigrants from Kerala, India, and lives in Washington, DC with her family. Sunu’s award-winning collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, was published by Regal House. Sunu’s work can be found in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Indian Poets and The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. Sunu is currently a Senior Advisor with Democracy Forward, and serves on the board of the Transgender Law Center. Sunu has been named as one of the Washington Blade’s Queer Women of Washington.
The event will be held in the Lyra & Lynx rooms of The Line Hotel. The space is accessible by the hotel lobby entrance at 2468 Champlain Street. (Pass by the hotel's front desk; take the elevator to Level 1; then Lyra & Lynx will be down the hallway and on your right.)
If you use the entrance with the big stone steps at 1770 Euclid St.: go straight back, pass through the dining/lounge area, and the rooms will be on the left.
Please contact events@lostcitybookstore.com with questions or concerns.