The release of âMy Baby Rides the Short Bus: The Unabashedly Human Experience of Raising Kids with Disabilities,â the groundbreaking anthology written by counter-cultural parents of kids with special needs. This collection provides a dose of laughter and authentic insights into the experience of folks often ridiculed into invisibility.
Reading: Jennifer Silverman âMy Baby Rides the Short Busâ With Ayun Halliday, Sabrina Chapadjiev and Sharis Ingram Bluestockings Bookstore, NYC 14 November 2009
The release of âMy Baby Rides the Short Bus: The Unabashedly Human Experience of Raising Kids with Disabilities,â the groundbreaking anthology written by counter-cultural parents of kids with special needs. This collection provides a dose of laughter and authentic insights into the experience of folks often ridiculed into invisibility.
My Baby Rides the Short Bus: The Unabashedly Human Experience of Raising Kids with Disabilities edited by Jennifer Silverman, Sara Talbot, and Yantra Bertelli https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=158
In lives where there is a new diagnosis or drama every day, the stories in this collection provide parents of âspecial needsâ kids with a welcome chuckle, a rock to stand on, and a moment of reality held far enough from the heart to see clearly. Featuring works by âalternativeâ parents who have attempted to move away from mainstream thought--or remove its influence altogether--this anthology, taken as a whole, carefully considers the implications of parenting while raising children with disabilities.
From professional writers to novice storytellers including Robert Rummel-Hudson, Ayun Halliday, and Kerry Cohen, this assortment of authentic, shared experiences from parents at the fringe of the fringes is a partial antidote to the stories that misrepresent, ridicule, and objectify disabled kids and their parents.
Reviews:
"This is a collection of beautifully written stories, incredibly open and well articulated, complicated and diverse: about human rights and human emotions. About love, and difficulties; informative and supportive. Wise, non-conformist, and absolutely punk rock!" --China Martens, author of The Future Generation: The Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends and Others
"If only that lady in the grocery store and all of those other so-called parenting experts would read this book! These true-life tales by mothers and fathers raising kids with "special needs" on the outer fringes of mainstream America are by turns empowering, heartbreaking, inspiring, maddening, and even humorous. Readers will be moved by the bold honesty of these voices, and by the fierce love and determination that rings throughout. This book is a vital addition to the public discourse on disability." --Suzanne Kamata, editor of Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs
"This is the most important book I've read in years. Whether you are subject or ally, My Baby Rides the Short Bus will open you--with its truth, humanity, and poetry. Lucky you to have found it. Now stick it in your heart." --Ariel Gore
"Disability is a uniquely humbling and equal experience, sometimes expected, often striking without warning. These parents are honest about both the distressing and illuminating facts of their lives; the stories are caustic, exhilarating, fierce, funny, harrowing. Yet despite the intricate and often overwhelming challenges they face, these parents and children never succumb to maudlin stereotypes, because, as one contributor learns, 'it isn't saintly to take care of someone you love.'" --Bee Lavender, author of Lessons in Taxidermy: A Compendium of Safety and Danger
About the Editors:
Jennifer Silverman is an optimist in a pessimistâs clothing. She lives, writes and agitates in NYC, where she is raising two boys, one of whom is autistic. Jennifer has most recently been published in Off Our Backs and Hip Mama, but has written for a variety of parenting publications and community newspapers. She has spoken about her experience raising her son while being an activist at conferences in Washington DC, Minneapolis, Providence and New York with m*a*m*a, a now defunct collective of radical mothers.
Sarah Talbot has been raising an autistic deaf punk-rocker since 1994. She and the other five members of her family reside happily in Seattle, Washington where she makes a living as an Assistant Principal at a comprehensive High School. She has come to be comfortable embodying contradictions--pleading for more services while recognizing progress, advocating for inclusion and protecting teachers, being the mom and being the writer. Sarah has been published in Breeder: Stories from the New Generation of Mothers, and Best Books For High School Students, among numerous alternative periodical publications.
Yantra Bertelli is the mother of four children and an unlikely pet owner. She lives and works in Seattle with her wife and family and thinks up different ways to manage transitions 250,000 times a day. She tends to nudge her children a bit softer than she pushes herself and she always stays up until they have finished their homework or they finally succumb to sleep after putting them to bed over and over again. Yantra was one of the founding publishers of Rag Magazine, was a moderator for Hip Mama website, and has essays published in Breeder: Real Life Stories From the New Generation of Mothers and The Essential Hipmama: Writing From the Cutting Edge of Parenting.
The Buzz:
"A groundbreaking bookâ¦a collection of beautifully written stories, strange and familiar, incredibly open and well articulated, complicated and diverse: about human rights and human emotions. Wise, non-conformist, and absolutely punk rock!â --China Martens, author of The Future Generation: The Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends and Others
"This is the most important book I've read in years. Whether you are subject or ally, My Baby Rides the Short Bus will open you--with its truth, humanity, and poetry. Lucky you to have found it. Now stick it in your heart." --Ariel Gore
"Smart, diverse, inspiring. My Baby Rides the Short Bus reminds us of what we all have in common and how much more work there still is to be done." --Vicki Forman, author of This Lovely Life: A Memoir of Premature Motherhood
"For the collectionâs diverse and candid discussion of such topics as diagnosis, education, family, community support, respite and re-learning to stand up in order to be seen, heard, respected and believed, I hereby declare this book required reading for outsider parents of all stripes, their allies, school psychologists, therapists, social workers and child advocates!" --Jessica Mills, author, My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us
"If only that lady in the grocery store and all of those other so-called parenting experts would read this book! These true-life tales by mothers and fathers raising kids with "special needs" on the outer fringes of mainstream America are by turns empowering, heartbreaking, inspiring, maddening, and even humorous. Readers will be moved by the bold honesty of these voices, and by the fierce love and determination that rings throughout. This book is a vital addition to the public discourse on disability." --Suzanne Kamata, editor, Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs
"The contributors of this important and necessary anthology span a range of decades from a time when "defective babies" were institutionalized, to the nascent civil rights movement, straight on to a new era of independent living. The families sharing these stories live and often struggle with the consequences of illness, injury, genetic inheritance, or sometimes a perplexing and mysterious combination of factors, insisting that the world recognize a basic fact: "We are not science experiments.
Disability is a uniquely humbling and equal experience, sometimes expected, often striking without warning. These parents are honest about both the distressing and illuminating facts of their lives; the stories are caustic, exhilarating, fierce, funny, harrowing. Yet despite the intricate and often overwhelming challenges they face, these parents and children never succumb to maudlin stereotypes, because, as one contributor learns, "it isn't saintly to take care of someone you love." --Bee Lavender, author of Lessons in Taxidermy: A Compendium of Safety and Danger
Related Media:
Radical Parenting: Raising Kids and Creating Community http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/48649
No Families, No Justice: Building a Family-Inclusive Left Movement http://www.archive.org/details/LeftForum2009NoFamiliesNoJustice
Anarchism & Supporting Parents and Children http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/2697
Jennifer Silverman: My Baby Rides the Short Bus http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/37481
The City From Below - Children In the City (video) http://www.archive.org/details/CityFromBelow_ChildrenInTheCity
NYC Anarchist Book Fair 2010: Radical Childbirth www.archive.org/details/NycAnarchistBookFair2010RadicalChildbirth
Links:
Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: http://dontleaveyourfriendsbehind.blogspot.com/
issue #1 of Don't Leave Your Friends Behind as a pdf download: http://bengal.missouri.edu/~maxwellr/DontLeaveYourFriendsBehind.pdf
issue #3 of Don't Leave Your Friends Behind as a pdf: http://issuu.com/strongwindsahead/docs/don_tleaveyourfriendsbehindzine3.bw.final
Kidz' City (Baltimore childcare collective): http://kidzcitybaltimore.blogspot.com/
CRAP! (Child Rearing Against Patriarchy) Collective in England: http://feministchildrearing.blogspot.com/2009/08/london-radical-childcare-collective.html
"Bringing the Next Generation Into Struggle: The Children's Social Forum" http://www.leftturn.org/bringing-next-generation-struggle-children%E2%80%99s-social-forum
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