‘The Future Is Disabled’ Author Speaks at Kean’s Common Read

Author Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha spoke to students via livestream and gave a reading of their book, The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs, today as part of Kean University’s Common Read program.

Piepzna-Samarasinha, a nonbinary, autistic writer and disability justice activist, read a passage about the “things I love about being autistic,” and told the students in the audience that “knowing myself without shame” has liberated them as a person and a writer.

Kean’s Common Read is an annual event in which students across campus read the same book focusing on a societal issue, and then hear from the author. This year’s theme is disability justice. 

Piepzna-Samarasinha spoke via streaming at Wilkins Theatre on Kean’s Union campus about the book, written during the early days of COVID-19.

The author said they were thrilled Kean chose their book, as “it's not always common that disabled books by queer people of color are selected as the one book people read and think about.”

“I'm hopeful that in this moment where we're all sitting with what to do with, you know, the future of the world – in the face of an ongoing pandemic, eugenics, fascism and white supremacist movements rising, climate crisis and more – that reading about disabled, Black and brown, queer and trans people organizing to keep ourselves and communities alive and thriving gives people space to see their own struggles,” Piepzna-Samarasinha said.

Students led the book reading at Wilkins, preparing and asking questions of the author, including the question, “How do you remember to be kind to yourself?” The key, Piepzna-Samarasinha responded, is “love, patience and compassion.” 

“I get to be brilliant and screw up. I get to make mistakes. I get to be on this planet like other people. I don’t have to get it right the first time,” Piepzna-Samarasinha said.

The author also had a conversation with four freshman classes in the morning.

Piepzna-Samarasinha’s book is a collection of essays with titles such as Disabled Secrets and The Free Library of Beautiful Adaptive Things. It was chosen from among recommendations made by the Kean community and dovetails with Disability Employment Awareness Month and with Kean’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

“The themes of this book challenge us to see the world through Leah’s eyes,” said Kean Acting Associate Provost for Special Projects Jonathan Mercantini, Ph.D., who gave a welcome at the event. “The book is hard and I’ll tell you a secret – that’s the point.”

Kean Lecturer Abriana Jetté, Ph.D., Common Read coordinator, said the overarching message of The Future Is Disabled is to value individuals whose voices and experiences are often silenced.

“Leah’s candid cadence and immaculate perception prompt readers to care, to really care, about the world they live in,” Jetté said. “To read Leah is to be moved by Leah.”

More than 1,000 copies of the book were provided to Kean faculty, staff and students, and copies are still available. Freshmen read it as part of the general education course, and many upperclass courses also study it.

“The author opened my mind to the plight that disabled individuals face daily, how tiring and draining it can be, and how it can riddle your body and mind with stress and burnouts,” said Emily Contreras, a junior elementary education major from Elizabeth, who read one of her own poems at the event. 

Zachary Medeiros, a junior elementary education major from Matawan, described the book as “a futuristic revelation. A truth.

“This book of memoirs, pondered thoughts, and other autistically enlightening info dumps brings out the unconscious stigma of the word disabled,” he said. 

Desiree Anderson, a freshman theatre student from Plainfield, attended the event. Her class listened to the audiobook of The Future Is Disabled together.

“It was like they were having a sit-down conversation with us about their life and the things that they have gone through,” she said. “A lot of it is hard, and that made me appreciate it more.”

The College of Liberal Arts, General Education and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion supported the Common Read. Copies of the book, The Future Is Disabled, are available in Townsend Hall, Multicultural Center, Suite 112, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

To watch a recording of the conversation with Piepzna-Samarasinha, please click on the link.