Stacey Park Milbern, Disability Activist, Dies at 33

June 7, 2020 11:43 AM

Milbern, a Korean-American who identified as queer, was a well-known advocate and organizer for disability justice and in particular for insisting on the importance of decentering whiteness and heterocisnormativity within the movement. In her last few months, she worked on organizing mutual aid and support for the homeless in the face of the coronavirus, as well as serving as impact producer for the recent Netflix documentary Crip Camp. "Oftentimes, disabled people have the solutions that society needs,” Ms. Milbern told the San Francisco public radio station KQED. Stacey Milbern, a Warrior for Disability Justice, Dies at 33

Loving Stacey Park Milbern: A Remembrance

What Disability Activist Stacey Park Milbern Taught Us

Stacey Park Milbern: Pushing Limits

In Loving Memory of Stacey Milbern Park

Milbern's Twitter

(The links refer to her variously as "Park Milbern" and "Milbern Park." I've gone with the NYT but if that needs correcting I hope someone will let me know so it can be fixed.)

posted by praemunire (25 comments total)

Crip Camp is currently running a great free series of webinars every Sunday! Today's is "All the Feels: Incorporating Trauma-Informed Care Strategies into our Work", I'm looking forward to it.
posted by ITheCosmos at 12:14 PM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

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posted by Fizz at 12:44 PM on June 7, 2020

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posted by roger ackroyd at 1:08 PM on June 7, 2020

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posted by Sheydem-tants at 2:54 PM on June 7, 2020

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posted by arachnidette at 3:41 PM on June 7, 2020

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posted by moonlight on vermont at 3:58 PM on June 7, 2020

Thank you! I am embarrassingly unfamiliar with the movement for disability justice and these links are wonderful. What a life and what a loss.
posted by purenitrous at 4:15 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

If you're interested, the Disability Visibility Project (linked in the post) also has a really great syllabus and list of her work.

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posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:30 PM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

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Questions I’m wondering — How do we practice justice and equity within finitude (limited resources)? For example - what do you do if you have 5 masks and 10 people who want them? 10 ventilators and 100 people who need them? (2 of 4)

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Questions I’m wondering — Hopefully we will take shelter in place seriously & prevention works. If it doesn’t, what r u ready to do to keep high-risk ppl surviving the next few months? If we r barred entry from the hospital, r we building communities that keep us alive? (3 of 4)

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Questions I’m wondering— An ally whose ppl don’t practice safe behavior is, at best, an ally down. What will it take to get more ppl on board w precautions? How do we shift our culture, esp parts of us that hate restrictions? Also: what can we push the system on now? (4 of 4)

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What #StaceyTaughtUs is that we’re never “done” creating the world we need. At our best, we are always in an ongoing collective effort of transforming ourselves and our communities. This requires deeply attuned listening to the people for whom things are not working, the people on the edges of the room, or those who are not yet even in the room. It requires a shift in power — from asking for things, to having the power and resources within a space to create what you need and desire. And it requires holding, with care, the balance between protected, autonomous space and participation in a larger, complex, and messy whole.

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Reflect on why we must combat capitalism, racism, classism and ableism that thinks so little of humanity that some people are reduced to expected losses. There is a lot to do and it’s going to take all of us.

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posted by katra at 5:08 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

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posted by amusebuche at 5:22 PM on June 7, 2020

What a great collection of resources. Thanks for posting, Praemunire. I'm sorry I didn't know about Mlibern before. What a formidable human. Looking forward to sampling Crip Camp.
posted by amusebuche at 5:30 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

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posted by wintermute2_0 at 3:30 PM on June 9, 2020