Join Disability Justice @ Columbia to explore the disability history (and present) of New York City! We'll be joined by Warren Shaw, creator of DisabilityHistoryNYC.com, who will share his work to document the history of the disability movement in the city and will discuss current issues at the forefront of contemporary disability activism. Dinner will be served following the program.

The program will take place on Wednesday, April 13 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in Lerner 505. 

More about Warren Shaw:

Warren Shaw was born and raised in the New York City Disability Rights Movement. His parents, Mollie and Julius Shaw, were well-known physically disabled activists who helped to pioneer the movement during the 1960s and 1970s—among other things, they engineered the establishment of what is now known as the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities. A writer, professor, practicing attorney and activist, Warren is an historian of the New York City Disability Rights Movement.

Warren lives in Brooklyn. He is currently working on a book about the history of disability and disability activism in the City of New York. The working title is “Never Stand Alone: Tales of the Ancestors.”

 

Warren’s life with his activist parents was a microcosm of the political ferment of the Sixties: “At home at night in our rent-controlled apartment,” Warren recalls, “I used to fall asleep to the yelling and arguing of disabled activists plotting revolution in the living room. I went to rallies and protests, saw my parents give speeches, helped them leaflet our neighborhood. I met and got to know all the City’s activists and leaders, not as political figures, but as my family’s friends and colleagues. So once the New York City history bug bit me, while I was in law school, it was inevitable that sooner or later I would turn to putting together the history of the City’s Disability Rights Movement.”

 

Warren has worked in the field of New York City history for 35 years. He has published hundreds of articles and appeared on dozens of television and radio broadcasts discussing New York City’s political, architectural and cultural history and policy. But his primary concentration has been the City’s disability history.