My name is Brooke and I am a grad student intern with the SF Bay Area
disability justice and sexual freedom performance project *Sins Invalid*.
We are seeking interns who know they have skills to contribute, are
passionate about social justice, understand the importance of cultural work
as a means of making change, and are excited about putting their beliefs
into practice!
Last summer I was very fortunate to work alongside two amazing undergrad
disability studies students who traveled to the bay from the east coast
just to work with *Sins* - they were also fortunate to get stipend/funding
through their colleges to support their internships. I say this because
this internship should not be limited to students who only live nearby.
Can you help us spread the word by posting this to your department
listservs and/or e-newsletters, and making announcements about it in your
classrooms? Thanks so much!
Sincerely, Brooke Willock
Intern @ *Sins*
http://sinsinvalid.org/blog/internships
**
*Are you a ROCKSTAR?*
*Do you want to be a part of a team that creates GROUND BREAKING WORK?*
*Then apply for an internship with Sins Invalid!*
*Cultural and Political Programs Internships for Summer 2012*
*Sins Invalid *is a San Francisco/Bay Area based performance project that
incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of
color and queer and gender-variant artists as members of communities who
have been historically marginalized. Our performance work explores the
themes of sexuality, embodiment and the disabled body. Conceived and led
by disabled people of color, we develop and present cutting-edge work where
normative paradigms of “normal” and “sexy” are challenged, offering instead
a vision of beauty and sexuality inclusive of all individuals and
communities.
We are seeking interns who know they have skills to contribute, are
passionate about social justice, understand the importance of cultural work
as a means of making change, and are excited about putting their beliefs
into practice!
The Cultural and Political Programs Internship will give you hands-on
experience with community relations and outreach, organizational
development and fundraising.
*Requirements*:
- A minimum commitment of 3 days per week, from 1 – 6pm; shift
days/times are negotiable for a minimum of 3 months.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office programs; our hope is that everyone
has their own laptop/computer to work on.
- A strong attention to detail and ability to work independently.
- An interest in disability justice, racial justice and disrupting
heteronormativity.
- If you are in school, either at a junior or senior level in college or
the equivalent in life experience.
- Professional behavior at the worksite.
*Benefits*:
- Opportunities to build relationships with people from a wide variety
of justice and performance related fields.
- Opportunities to learn deeply about the intersections of disability,
race, gender and sexuality.
- Experience in non-profit administration.
- Opportunities to engage with Disability justice praxis.
*To apply*, please send an email to
info@sinsinvalid.org. We will send you
an intern application to be returned to us along with a current resume.
*Our Summer 2012 projects open for intern involvement include:*
*Film Distribution Planning*: We are completing a 41-minute film that
reflects our one-of-a-kind performance work, weaving interviews of artists
and co-founders alongside unreleased performance footage to serve as an
entryway into the absurdly taboo topic of sexuality and disability. We
will be premiering the film in Fall 2012 and are currently developing a
distribution strategy that includes self-distribution, partnering with a
non-exclusive distributor and screening at film festivals.
*Webstreaming a Sins Invalid Performance*: Many *Sins Invalid *community
members who have connected with us through our web presence or our
education work around the country are unable to attend a live *Sins Invalid
*event. Additionally, due to the isolation of ableism, even local
community members may face difficulties attending a live performance. In
response to these challenges, we will offer our 2009 performance to be
viewed on-line 24 hours/day during an allotted time.
*Community Workshops*: We organize performance workshops for community
members with and without disabilities. In the past, these workshops have
included poetry, dance, storytelling, erotic writing, dance, and
vocalization workshops.
*Movement Building*: Through our invite-only series of “MAKING CONNECTIONS:
Conversations Within and Between Communities,” we bring together political
artists, cultural activists, and movement-building allies involved with
radical social justice projects to cross-pollinate our politically and
creatively informed works.
*What a past intern had to say about their experience at Sins Invalid:*
“Nothing short of fabulous… *Sins* pulls the pain and traumas from ableist
oppression and turns it inside out into a complex celebration of beauty and
sexiness. This doesn’t just happen on the *Sins* stage, but also in our
program work: I’ve had exciting opportunities to interview on behalf of *
Sins* live on the radio, learned invaluable lessons about what it takes to
make base building happen, helped plan and launch a successful fundraising
campaign to finish *Sins* – The Film (we surpassed our $15k goal!), I’ve
developed my networking skills, I’ve participated in political dialogues I
wouldn’t otherwise have been exposed to (like developing best practices for
being a politically radical mixed ability organization, or how we negotiate
the legacy of the freak show in disability performance)… Interning is
nothing short of fabulous, sure, but don’t get me wrong—it’s also hard
work. But that’s what *Sins* is about as a performance project *and* a
disability justice movement-building organization: collaboratively building
an approach towards increasing accessibility, towards making a space where
we can co-exist as uniquely embodied subjects as we work to maximize our
own skills—*as they are*—and develop them as such in a way that is
sustainable, accountable, responsible, and interconnected. Whew. Might
sound ambitious, and it certainly is but that’s the kind of hard work of
historical pains and revolutionary pleasures.”
—Brooke, Intern @ *Sins* from June 2011 – June 2012.
