Sandra is a writer, filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist and curator. She writes reviews of visual art, film, books, theatre and dance for Disability Arts Online. Sandra is co-editor, with Khairani Barokka and Daniel Sluman, of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches Press, 2017). She has also published three books of poetry, and won Canada's bpNichol Award for Naturally Speaking (about disability poetics, gender and AI). Sandra has short stories in anthologies from Manchester's Comma Press, including Protest: Stories of Resistance (on the history of working-class blind activism in the UK) and Thought X: Fictions and Hypotheticals (on Einstein, non-binary gender, disability and circus!). Her work is published internationally in magazines, journals and anthologies. Sandra recently co-curated and -made new video content for Disability Arts Online's Viewfinder (with Lisa Mattocks), including the short film series 'A Conversation With' featuring Robert Softley Gale, Bobby Baker, James Leadbitter, Tanja Erhart and Nadia Nadarajah. She has also made a series of shorts about queer and trans D/deaf and disabled artists in Scotland ('I'm Not Your Inspiration'), and programmed BFI Flare's first widely-accessible film programme of disabled and D/deaf artists. (photo by Tiu Makkonen)
Posts by Sandra Alland
Dream Job: Working with Matthew Hellett
August 8, 2019Listen to this article: I regularly scan the internet for disabled and D/deaf films – and make lists for next time I'm lucky enough to be a programmer. In 2016, I was thrilled to come across Matthew Hellett's 'Mrs Sparkle'. It's unusual to find disabled LGBTQI+ films, especially ones with excitingly ...
Ten Years of Disabled- and Skint-Led Queer & Trans Art in Scotland: An alternative LGBTQI+ History
February 22, 2019Ten years ago today, on 22nd February, 2009, I was part of the first ever Cachín Cachán Cachunga! As long-time curator of CCC's cabarets, art exhibitions and community events, I want to share a brief-ish history of the many milestones this anniversary celebrates. I'll also explain why we're closing our ...
‘Quality’ and the marginalised artist part 4: reframing the conversation
January 30, 2019In a series of four pieces, writer and critic Sandra Alland examines the state of disabled and D/deaf arts criticism, with input from artists and experts. The series has included statistics of reviews of marginalised artists, a case-study of reactions to an 'identity-based' publication, and suggestions for reviewing D/deaf artworks ...
‘Quality’ and the marginalised artist part 3: critiquing D/deaf artists
January 4, 2019In a series of four pieces, writer and critic Sandra Alland examines the state of disabled and D/deaf arts criticism, with input from various artists and experts. Last month, Alland used her experiences as co-editor of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches, 2017) as a ...
‘Quality’ and the marginalised artist part 2: reviews of ‘identity-based’ works
November 16, 2018In a series of four pieces, writer and critic Sandra Alland examines the state of disabled and D/deaf arts criticism, with input from various artists and experts. Last month, Alland dissected what's happening for marginalised people in publishing. Today, she uses her experiences as co-editor of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf ...
‘Quality’ and the Marginalised Artist part 1: But is it any good?
October 4, 2018In a series of four pieces over several months, writer and critic Sandra Alland will examine the state of disabled and D/deaf arts criticism, with input from various artists and experts. Future segments include a case-study on disabled literary criticism, a video on D/deaf writing and performance criticism (featuring Bea ...
Eli Clare on our relationship with ‘abnormal’ and the promise of cure
May 17, 2018Following on from writer and activist Eli Clare's visit to Scotland last year, Sandra Alland interviews him about his latest book from Duke University Press, 'Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure'. In Brilliant Imperfection, Eli Clare expertly blends memoir, political analysis, poetry and historical research. Coming together in what he calls a ...
Disability History Scotland present Bella Freak’s ‘Unwritten’
September 12, 2017Produced by Disability History Scotland, Bella Freak’s Unwritten traces the personal histories of three disabled writer-performers. It played at Surgeons Hall during Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Sandra Alland reviews. As the first production by disability-led company, Bella Freak, Unwritten lays a promising foundation for devised work to come. Uncovering neglected and fascinating ...
The Shape of the Pain: the joy and the pain
August 21, 2017Sandra Alland details the interlocking and complementary contributions from a group of talented collaborators in The Shape of the Pain at Edinburgh Fringe, where it plays at Summerhall until 26 August. Like the main character’s pain, each contributor to The Shape of the Pain is ever present. Unlike her pain, ...
History into Fiction: From Blind Asylums, to Glasgow Strikes and Riots (including Jujitsu Suffragettes!), to The 1920 Blind March
June 23, 2017In this (rather long, sorry!) blog I discuss the process – and accidental discoveries – of writing my first historically-based short story, ‘Kick-Start’, about the roots of blind and disabled organising and resistance in the UK. Comma Press has just launched the hefty, hard-cover, Protest! Stories of Resistance. In its ...
Sins Invalid: ‘Skin, Tooth, and Bone – The Basis of Movement is Our People: A Disability Justice Primer’
February 16, 2017Sins Invalid is a US-based performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralising artists of colour and queer and gender-variant artists as communities who have been historically marginalised. Their new book, Skin, Tooth, and Bone – The Basis of Movement is Our People: A Disability Justice Primer is ...
Khairani Barokka moves access from the stage to the page, with multiple versions of her long poem, ‘Indigenous Species’
February 7, 2017Sandra Alland talks with colleague and fellow poet, Khairani Barokka, about her recent poetry book, Indigenous Species, available in several accessible forms. I am of the same blood as the sanctioned mess of invasion That was Javanese transmigration, And I shampoo my hair with oil crafted From dead-end social experiments And gargantuan-scale domestication of hectares, Cemeteries ...
Birds of Paradise’s Miranda and Caliban: The Making of a Monster
November 15, 2016Sandra Alland assesses the scratch performance of Birds of Paradise’s new work, Miranda and Caliban: The Making of a Monster which showed at Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow and Kwai Tsing Theatre in Hong Kong on 5-6 November 2016. Content Note: discussion of sexual violence. Not all experiments immediately yield ...
Arika Episode 8 – Refuse Powers’ Grasp
November 1, 2016Sandra Alland highlights some of the events, speakers and performers from this year’s Arika in Glasgow, including We Will Rise, Mujeres Creando, Sondra Perry and Miss Major. Episode 8: Refuse Powers' Grasp took place at Tramway 21-23 October 2016. The first thing you notice about Arika is radical care. Okay, if ...
Tangled Art: Point of Origin
September 2, 2016Point of Origin is the second show to grace the walls at Toronto's new disability-focused Tangled Art Gallery. Sandra Alland explores artist and poet melannie g campbell's complex and accessible multimedia textile exhibition. Point of Origin, melannie g campbell's stellar new exhibition, features eleven new textile works and a small shrine. ...
Equivalence
August 22, 2016Following on from my last blog post, I've continued to develop the staged reading of my short story, "Equivalence". While receiving choreographic/movement mentorship from Claire Cunningham and Caroline Bowditch, I was also planning a film shoot at my new flat (uh-oh time to unpack!) with nine performers, a filmmaker and ...
Flying and Falling
August 3, 2016I have been very unlucky and very lucky this year. One of my pieces of luck was a commission from Manchester's Comma Press to write a short story around the idea of 'Einstein's Elevator', a thought experiment of the Equivalence Principle. I was lucky, also, to have Chilean-Canadian physicist and artist, ...
Blog Launch: Surgeons’ Hall Horror Show
July 22, 2016Today I’m launching my DAO blog, which will mostly feature information and updates about my ongoing disabled- and Deaf-themed art projects and collaborations. I also like to write about other artists who create, interrogate and interrupt narratives around disability, Deaf culture, (a)gender, class, (a)sexuality, colonialism and race – and my ...
Edinburgh International Film Festival: ‘My Feral Heart’ introduces Steven Brandon
June 28, 2016Recently featured at Edinburgh International Film Festival, My Feral Heart is an exciting and surprising new film from director Jane Gull and writer Duncan Paveling. Sandra Alland reviews. My jaw is clenched when the lights dim. Though Edinburgh’s Odeon has level access, people who can’t climb stairs must sit in the front ...
Mark Smith’s Deaf Men Dancing presented Let Us Tell You a Story as part of Exceptional & Extraordinary
June 24, 2016Let Us Tell You A Story is a commissioned performance by Deaf Men Dancing for the multi-partner project, Exceptional and Extraordinary. Artistic Director Mark Smith was asked to critically engage with the collections of several medical museums in relation to Deaf people, and has been touring the fascinating and provocative ...
Nothing About Us Without Us: An Overview of Disability/ Deaf Representation in Film
June 24, 2016Sandra Alland contemplates the importance of the notion of ‘nothing about us without us’, critiquing and highlighting non-disabled productions alongside an exciting collection of disabled and/or Deaf artists and films. Most films are available free online (follow the links), and all have subtitles or transcripts. When faced with having to digest ...
Arcola Queer Collective: ‘The Little Prince’
June 3, 2016Arcola Queer Collective‘s sell-out production is back. This unique take on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic speaks to the castaway in all of us, challenging our perspectives and bringing us back to what truly matters. Review by Sandra Alland After Arcola Queer Collective’s stellar adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year, ...
Birds of Paradise present ‘Role Shift’
May 28, 2016Birds of Paradise teamed up with Òran Mór to produce Role Shift, written by Lesley Hart and directed by Garry Robson, to play as part of the Glasgow venue's A Play, a Pie and a Pint series, both in Glasgow and at Ayr Gaiety Theatre and Arts Centre. Sandra Alland reviews this ...
SICK! Lab In Conversation: Launch of DAO’s Viewfinder
March 18, 2016Unapologetic Self-Portraits will be the first playlist to be introduced via Dao’s new Viewfinder platform later this Spring. It was previewed for two days at SICK! Lab on a continuous loop in the Contact Theatre foyer, as well as being shown in a one-off screening at SICK! Lounge. Disabled film-maker Sandra ...
