Fall 2018 Fellows
Fellows: Mel McIntyre & Adelaide Matthew Dicken

ABout

During the Fellowship for Utopian Practice, Mel & Adelaide are gathering communities fighting for disability justice and trans justice to envision solidarity economy endeavors rooted in these connected liberation struggles. The principles of both disability justice and trans justice--as developed particularly by queer people of color--point us towards humanizing values of physical self-determination and autonomous uses of shared space. We recognize tremendous potential for cultural organizing that aligns the efforts of our communities towards developing cooperative working models in which we can take democratic control of our labor.

The pair is hosting gatherings of varying sizes to engage in collaborative group learning and visioning, including mapping collective assets around some key questions and goals:

• How can political education & participatory problem-solving support the undoing of barriers between people working for disability justice and trans justice?

• What creative outlets will allow us to deepen into the practice of several types of sustainability: collective care, regenerative environmental practices, equitable labor?

• What seeds can we plant by engaging interdependent community, creating radically accessible space, and reclaiming material for ecological use?

Artist BIOs

Mel McIntyre is a fat, queer, crip, femme, white Brazilian-American latinx; Adelaide Matthew Dicken is a fat, Euro-descended white, non-binary transwoman. Mel & Adelaide are artist-organizers in the early stages of working cooperatively to create a worker-owned green gym that is accessible to all bodies, with particular focus on supporting liberated healing & movement space for people with disabilities and trans people.