Mia Mingus ~ Leaving Evidence

Our stories of survival expose us and unite us

Through complex discussion we find

Understanding, acceptance and empathy

Diversity allows us to see beauty

Interview between Mia Mingus and Alice Wong

23 August 2014

This is a short audio clip from an interview of Mia Mingus, activist, and writer, conducted by Alice Wong, Project Coordinator of the Disability Visibility Project at StoryCorps San Francisco on August 23, 2014.

Text transcript:

Alice: In your blog, Leaving Evidence, this passage really resonated with me. You write:

“We must leave evidence. Evidence that we were here, that we existed, that we survived and loved and ached. Evidence of the wholeness we never felt and the immense sense of fullness we gave to each other. Evidence of who we were, who we thought we were, who we never should have been. Evidence for each other that there are other ways to live--past survival; past isolation.”

And, you know, I have to say that some of these ideas really, you know, must have given me the impetus to do this project [Disability Visibility Project] because it is an extension of leaving evidence that people coming together, having conversations like ours, and having this archive at the Library of Congress. This is something that we're going to pass on to other people when we're nothing but dust. And hopefully, when we are becoming dust particles, in the environment, then there will be lots of other queer disabled women out there doing things. And then they can say, “Hey, there’s Mia and Alice.”

Mia: [LAUGH]

Alice: But what are your thoughts about leaving evidence and why you wrote that and how you came about that?

Mia: I mean I wrote that because I couldn't find any other things and it has been a cornerstone of like my work is that like the reason why I do it is because I want to leave evidence for other people and I want us to be recognizable to each other. I want them to know that I was searching for them even long before they were born and that I'm, I don't know how they have survived, but I'm happy that they're here. And whether they're queer disabled people of color, whether they're queer API, whoever they are like I..whether they're adoptees like, I, I am happy that they have made it this far in their life or what have you. And I hope that they leave evidence too because I know had other people left more evidence. I, I was like, so hungry to find it and it was so hard for me to find. I also think that like, our lives are so much more complex than anything gives us credit for and so I don't wanna be in this like horrible like disability pride like machine where I have to be like wearing my I heart disability sandwich board and like ringing my bell everyday, and like “Disability is great.” I wanna talk about the hard parts of it. The days where it's not great, and the days where I have so much pain that it's like hard to get out of bed. And I wanna be able to talk about that without people saying like. “Oh, you must, you must wish you were dead instead of being disabled.” Like I want to be able to have complex conversations around what it means to be a disabled queer woman of color and be trying to have loving relationships where access intimacy exists and where I don't have to hide parts of myself in order to receive access and that I can have the kind of like fullness and, and loving relationship and kind of, like, queer liberatory love that we talk about in queer, queer political theory but that doesn't seem to incorporate, like, understanding of ableism, and, and how ableism functions and how it, like, impacts our lives so deeply. As a queer person, like, I wanna be able to talk about that as a disabled person.