The Disability Pride and Power Ball - an article

Off to the Inaugural Ball
By Mike Reynolds

I never thought I'd ever make it to any sort of inaugural ball, I've been offered tickets in 1997 to one when Clinton was sworn in for his second time, but it was literally two weeks after I had just gone to DC for a few days for an action, and while my best friend was interning in DC. I was in college and at that time I didn't even own a suit, let alone a tuxedo or knew where to rent one. So when the opportunity came to attend the Disability Pride and Power Ball, I knew it was one ball I could not miss. The Ball was held at the National Press Club, a place I revere as a journalist, right in downtown DC.

From the first moment I entered, I knew this was going to be a memorable night. There were people everywhere, as I went to will-call to get my ticket, seeing how awesome the ticket itself looked, I was at an amazing event. Armed with my ticket to the ball, and two free drink tickets, I rolled in and saw so many folks from the disability community that I knew, and seeing a bunch of folks I never had met, it felt like an historic celebration. It was wall to wall people looking incredibly dressed up and jovial.

The Disability Pride and Power Ball was historic for a number of different reasons. It was the first time that the Disabled as a political power could have their own inaugural ball, where folks using assistive technology probably out numbered folks who did not. It was kind of chaotic, in that the halls of the National Press Club was quite narrow in their hallways, but people coped fine. In fact, if anything, the biggest issue was that so many folks were there, it was impossible to fin d anyone easily. There was a dance floor populated with all sorts of crutches, canes and wheels (myself included).

When Marcie Roth, CEO of ADAwatch and one of the organizers of the event, insisted I follow her. I'm one who knows that Marcie enough to know it is probably worth seeing. Marcie's insistence paid off, I got a great seat to Geri Jewell's stand-up comedy act, and a dance routine by performance artist, dancer Bill Shannon. Jewell is best known for her character on the 80's sit-com “The Facts of Life” where she played a student with Cerebral Palsy. More recently she has been in the HBO series “Deadwood.” Jewell also made it a point to discuss the “Iampwd.com” campaign, a push to get actors with disabilities equitable percentages of roles as the prevelance of disability in film and television. Shannon has danced in prestigious festivals throughout the world, and often integrates a skateboard and modified crutches for his dancing. He did a residency at the Bates Dance Festival, and I have seen a video of his performance, but this night was my first time seeing him live. I captured his performance and uploaded it as he was nothing short of incredible. The Evening's MC was none other than Tony Coelho, one of the architects of the ADA.

Several political folks were at the event, but there were over 900 people there and it was the inauguration where over two million people were scheduled to show up for events two days later. I heard Sen. Tom Harkin was there, but didn't see him myself. Christina Tchen, White House director-designate of Public Liason, and Kareem Dale, special advisor on disability issues for President Obama. Also addressed the crowd, and the promised to engage the disability community in policy concerns. I think given the crowd, many will take him up on the offer.

Unfortunately the Metro was shutting down at midnight, so the majority of folks were leaving at 11:30. However, the folks I stayed with told me they'd pick me up, so I got to chat with several good friends for an additional amount of time. As I was leaving, I was grinning from ear to ear, thinking that I'd been at one of the best events of the weekend. While I was right, The inauguration was far from over, and I would realize that the events of Tuesday would be pretty incomprehensibly awesome.