LAB is an online community that offers a series of monthly gatherings for disabled artists and creatives. Our community is made up of and welcomes anyone who experiences disability, including but not limited to those who identify as chronically ill, neurodivergent, with learning or intellectual disabilities, MAD, Deaf/deaf/HOH, Blind, low vision, having learning or intellectual disabilities, and so on. This cross-disability space welcomes all who are unsure or who might not yet identify with disability identity.

Get involved 

LAB Co-Producers morgaine de leonardis and Camisha Jones welcome you to join the LAB community mailing list, through which you will be invited to monthly events. You do not need to be based in NYC to join LAB.

Join the LAB mailing list by filling out this google form or
by emailing the Co-Producers at LAB@KineticLight.org.
We hope you will join us in disability community!

Gatherings

We currently offer several types of zoom gatherings: Hangouts, Open Calls, and Incredibly Chill Art Shares. For all LAB gatherings, attendees are welcomed to come and go as they please. LAB Co-Producers morgaine ann de leonardis and Camisha Jones collaboratively hold space with participants, fostering an environment that strives to be as safe and accessible as possible.
• Hangouts
• LAB Hangouts offer open-structured virtual social space for disabled artists and creatives to connect. There’s space to talk about disability, art making, creative practices, personal experiences, dreams, desires, and more. The space is held loosely so that participants can bring up topics, ask questions, share something, or do a dance – anything really. LAB Producers hold space and offer topics around artistry and disability as needed.
• Open Calls (Work-Shares, Conversations, and more)
• Each Open Call session offers a platform, support, and access resources for a disabled artist to share their work, facilitate a workshop, lead a conversation, or something else of their choosing within a virtual gathering of other disabled artists. Attendees have a chance to experience the work of those leading the sessions.
  • Sessions can be on any topic or artistic practice that the facilitator desires and can be up to 2 hours long.
  • Sessions are flexible to support the creative interest, desires, and access needs of each facilitator.
  • Sessions provide space, support, and access resources for facilitators.
  • A stipend is provided to Open Call session facilitators to compensate for the labor of the role.

  For information on how to facilitate a session, email the Co-Producers at LAB@KineticLight.org.

• Incredibly Chill Art Shares
• Incredibly Chill Art Shares provide open-structured space for a few creatives within the LAB community to informally share their work within a gathering of other disabled artists. Art Shares provide an opportunity for creatives to practice making their art more accessible for disability communities. Creatives can share a song, a painting, a poem, a dance, a video performance, a draft of a new work, an idea, or something else! LAB Co-Producers are available to offer guidance, access resources, and support for presenters as the artists share in the responsibility of centering accessibility at the gathering.
• The registration process for Incredibly Chill Art Shares provides an opportunity for creatives to sign up to present. Space for presenters is limited to ensure there’s enough time for each presenter to share and engage with attendees in a chill fashion.

LAB History

Kinetic Light began these online gatherings with a small pilot group of New York City-based disabled artists in 2020 as a way to regularly offer casual, access-centered, and creative spaces for disabled artists to connect, share work, share ideas, and meet. Now LAB welcomes any disabled creatives who are interested in connecting in this way!

Accessibility at LAB events

Access is shared and held at the center of LAB's social ecology. All gatherings include:

• ASL
• CART
• open description of visuals
• reading chat messages aloud
• Audio Description, when visuals are part of event content
• Coming and going is always welcome!
• Full access information and the opportunity to make specific requests are provided as part of the registration process. You’re always welcome to contact the LAB Co-Producers at LAB@KL if you have any questions or specific access needs and/or desires.