The future is crippled... prophecies, love letters and songs of lamentation

In her book, “The Future for People with Disabilities,” Leah Laxmi Piepzna-Samarasinha poses some thought-provoking questions: What if the majority of people become disabled in the near future? What if that's not a bad thing? What if justice for people with disabilities and their wisdom are essential to creating a future in which fascism, climate change, and pandemics can be survived, and liberation achieved? Building on their groundbreaking book, “Care: The Dream of Disability Justice,” Piepzna-Samarasinha tackles disability justice in the furthest corners of the Earth, documenting the many ways people with disabilities have preserved their lives — and the lives of the entire world — during the era of Trump, fascism, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Other topics include disability interconnectedness, care and mutual assistance in real life, building disability communities, and practicing art as a means of survival and joy. Written over two years of disability isolation during the pandemic, this book is a love letter to LGBT people with disabilities (and to those interested in issues of disability justice, the care crisis, and how to survive this catastrophe); Tribute songs for departed relatives; Recipes for resilience; Explicit questions and dialogues about care, organizing, families of people with disabilities, and networks and communities of people with disabilities; There is overwhelming joy among black women with disabilities in the face of death. With passion and power, “The Future for People with Disabilities” remembers our dead and affirms our future.