Episode 3: Kimberley Drew

Cripping Ulysses

Sinéad Burke (00:09):

Welcome to the third and final episode of Cripping Ulysses. My name is Sinéad Burke and I have been your host and facilitator for the past three conversations. I've just finished recording with this week's guest and it's strange in some ways to be announcing that at the beginning of the episode. But well, to give you an insight into how these things are made, the introduction is recorded afterwards. The key theme that has come out of these three conversations has been questioning the notion of independence, particularly from a disability consciousness. In the first episode, Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh live at the Museum of Literature Ireland

(01:03):

Invited us all to interrogate why we need and require disabled people to be independent in order to be valid and exist. In episode two, a Alok V. Menon talked about the urgency for love, both in ourselves and in each other, which will in turn shape the world and how those mindsets and behaviors that we have around expectation or who we have to be or how the world sees us are barriers to how we love ourselves. And this conversation with Kimberly Drew brought out honest reflections from actually the first time we met as friends in 2019 and how we were different people then how we have evolved, become stronger, become more vulnerable, become more in need of care, more in need of community, but also how we learn from who the world wanted us to be in those moments. When I first set out to do this podcast, I had this ambition to introduce you to people that I love and admire.

(02:29):

I think in many ways I had a sense of confidence, but I knew what these conversations would be and probably in some ways an arrogance that I wouldn't learn anything cuz I knew who these people were and I knew who I was. Gosh, three episodes in that couldn't be further from the truth. These conversations have genuinely changed me, have given me new ambitions to seek for myself, have continued to remind me the work that needs to be done on myself. And actually in many ways has been a gift of time and grace with myself and with other disabled people and neuro divergent people to really reassess what's it all for.

(03:28):

And for me, I guess in many ways, it's for us all to have a disability consciousness and for us to feel a sense of energy, opportunity, obligation, and even more for us to feel accountable in making that tangible, measurable and real. While we're here, this is the final episode of Clipping Ulysses, and I could not be more thrilled to do this with such a dear friend and genuinely one of the people that I admire most in the world. Today we are going to have a conversation with Kimberly Drew. Kimberly is a writer, a thought leader, a curator, and somebody who has taught me so much about the art world, but just life in general. But before we go any further, I'm gonna visually describe myself. I have just gotten home off a flight to London and I'm more glamorous than I usually am in that my hair has been blow dried and quaffed.

(04:48):

So this visual description is unique in that I am wearing a black cashmere Burberry jumper. I am wearing a navy Dior new look, bell skirt with a belt that is difficult to difficult for my respiratory system is what I would say in terms of the level of cinching. But it looks good and a pair of slippers because I'm home and we can't be chic all of the time. But I identify as a queer disabled woman. I use the pronouns, she and her, and I am white and cisgendered and I have brown shoulder and hair. That was a reverse visual description, but thank you for your grace as I moved through that ensemble first and then identity. But before we get into the conversation, I would love Kimberly for you to visually describe yourself, please.

Kimberly Drew (05:37):

Yes. Um, I am a black person with a tiny little copper colored afro. Um, most of this conversation as you, um, might assume I will be smiling very big. Um, it is an honor to be joining you Sinéad. I'm currently wearing one of my favorite sweatshirts. It's this camouflage sweatshirt. And recently I learned that there are different type of camouflage that are based on different leaves. So you'll see different leaf types and I think that mine is decorated with the oak leaf if that means and resonates with anyone. Um, and I, I think that that sums my visual description.

Sinéad Burke (06:25):

I like it. You're also in LA? Oh

Kimberly Drew (06:28):

Yes. And I am reporting live from a closet in Los Angeles, California. sat on the floor, um, but very cozy .

Sinéad Burke (06:38):

How's LA treating you so far?

Kimberly Drew (06:40):

LA has been really good. I came here for the opportunity to work in a slower paced environment. Um, I am recently moving into um, more of an awareness of my own neurodivergence and some of the things that it requires. Um, I wanna use a word other than maintenance, but maintenance is the word that really resonates right now. And as part of that maintenance of my brain, um, I came out to LA just to be able to do maybe the same amount of things but um, with a different pace. So I've been able to slow down, get things knocked off the list, but not feel the same like rat race that New York sometimes can require of us.

Sinéad Burke (07:28):

Over the past three episodes, it'...