Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - donor profile

Longmore Institute Receives Important Gift to Support SF State Students at the Intersection of LGBTQ and Disability Worlds

Visitor — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 22:22:50 +0000

A seventeen-year friendship between two campus administrators has blossomed into a significant gift to the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University. Al Alston, Norma Siani-Alston, and Eugene Chelberg

Norma Siani-Alston, recently retired from her position as Director of Special Events for the Office of the President, announced the $10,000 gift on September 16 to honor her dear friend Eugene R. Chelberg, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs. The terms of her charitable gift annuity stipulate that "The Eugene R. Chelberg Fellowship will provide undergraduate and graduate students with an opportunity to gain valuable internship experience with the Longmore Institute on Disability. Preference in the award of the fellowship will be given to students active in both the LGBTQ and disability communities."

"This is an exciting breakthrough gift for many reasons," says Longmore Institute Director Catherine Kudlick. "It's the first in the country — and indeed the world — to openly tap students at this intersection; scholarships and opportunities tend to highlight one or the other of these identities, when in fact a significant number of people inhabit both." Kudlick points out that some of the most exciting scholarship in disability studies explores the intersections between queerness and disability.

Siani first met Gene in 2001 when he, as she put it, “was always haranguing me about ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) issues regarding the commencement ceremony and … was a pain in the butt!” One day Gene invited Norma to lunch to pick her brain regarding his upcoming wedding plans. “When Gene asked me for recommendations for where to hold their ceremony, for some reason, I said ‘let me be your wedding planner.’ He said ‘yes,’ and from then on we became the closest of friends.”

Siani also had a friendly teasing relationship with Paul Longmore who used a wheelchair. “We met when I worked for then-SF State President Corrigan. We always said hello to one another with Paul waving his foot at me and my waving mine right back at him.”

“When Paul passed, I was devastated, I lost a dear friend. I decided in his memory to donate to the Paul Longmore Institute. And now with this gift to Gene, I get to give to two dear friends at once!”

Siani’s husband Al Alston passed away in 2013 but his memory lives on through her generosity.

“And now thanks to her gift,” director Kudlick stated, “we’re well on our way to making sure a future Gene Pool keeps pushing for LGBTQ and disability rights.”

Donor Profile: Alisha Vásquez

Visitor — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 18:24:58 +0000

Why Someone in Tucson, Arizona Supports the Longmore Institute...

Before Alisha Vásquez was teaching as the first person of color in Earlham College's Border Studies Program in Tucson, Arizona, she was a grad student at San Francisco State University. A 5^th generation Tucsonan, Alisha was the first in her family to go to college after receiving a scholarship to the University of Arizona. A queer Chicana with a disability who grew up on welfare, she now draws from her own personal experiences to make her a better teacher, as she educates students about the history, politics and identity of the US Mexico border; “My body is a textbook” she says.

She moved to San Francisco to get a Masters degree in History in 2010, and even managed to find an apartment three blocks away from where her grandmother, a polio survivor, grew up.

And then, during her second week in the city, she heard the news that Paul Longmore, who was to serve as her advisor, had passed away.

Yet, she still managed to learn from Paul during her time at SF State. When the university decided to archive Paul’s papers, they turned to Alisha for help. “I was in HSS for hours and hours with his boxes, and he was present with me. His spirit was there, and I did get to know him by seeing what comics he cut out or what mementos he kept... I had to go through each box and sort out what mattered and what didn’t, and that was really hard.”

After hiring archivist Kate Tasker to pick up where Alisha left off, we launched the Longmore Papers in the J Paul Leonard’s Special Collections in 2014, and we flew Alisha out to join us for the celebration. She recalls how meaningful this was to her:

The time I was at SF State was such an intermediary between Paul’s time there and really getting the Institute going, so it felt hard to accomplish anything ... So to be recognized and be invited back and see what came out of that early time in Paul’s office, I felt it was very generous, very meaningful that maybe my efforts were that bridge that kept it going. And also seeing all the folks who showed up, his friends from the History department, administrators that remember him so fondly, and the Bay area community. Remembering that I had a tiny part in that was huge.

She still follows the work coming out of the Institute because she knows firsthand the importance of what disability scholarship as well as spaces like the Institute can bring to college campuses. She remembers her first day of college at the UA: “It was disorienting seeing how much wealth some students had, I felt like a foreigner in my hometown. Every day someone would ask ‘What happened?’ because I walk with crutches. If I wore shorts or a dress, showing my scars, people stared even more. I almost dropped out. But I read Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde for the first time in my second semester, and it was the first book I saw myself in, as kinda having a disability. I was still on the fence about returning, but that summer I read a small part of Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s Extraordinary Bodies with a grad student. I was vulnerable and talked about my fears with her and started to see myself as a part of something bigger. Then my next year I found Chicana feminist studies as well.”

She recently showed her support by donating $10 to the Institute with the request that it be used to support POC disability studies. Alisha agreed with the Institute’s philosophy that what’s important is not how much someone gives but rather that they are giving at a level that’s personally significant to them, as this gift was for her. Finding that many disability spaces are not inclusive to people with disabilities who are further marginalized by race, sexuality, and economic status, Alisha says, “I’ve followed the work Emily and Cathy are doing and I’m just happy how much more color has been part of it. So I’m thrilled to contribute to that in even the most modest of ways.”

Alisha was humble during the interview about what she did for the Institute, both with her donation and also in sorting through Paul’s boxes, but we know how important her contributions are. How fortunate the Border Studies Program is (which has grown increasingly more diverse thanks to her efforts) to have an instructor who can guide students coming from marginalized backgrounds to find their place in higher education, reminding them of their right to be there. While she might not have gotten to work closely with Paul Longmore, they certainly share this in common.

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Donor Profile: Ellen Longmore Brown

Visitor — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 17:30:12 +0000

Before Paul Longmore met any of his honorary “brothers” and “sisters” in the disability movement, he had Ellen Longmore Brown - both sister and ardent supporter - at his side. An American Baptist minister, Ellen has been crucial to the success of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability.

Ellen was five when Paul became disabled at age 7, and her early memories are hazy. However, she recalls that his amazing sense of humor developed AP (After Polio), as he’d previously been a shy child. Case in point: when a botched tracheotomy procedure left him with a hole in his neck, he told the neighborhood kids that he fell into the Grand Canyon and was saved by a tree branch that punctured his neck. Ellen believes, “The humor was something he had to develop because of how people reacted. It used to make me so mad as a child, I reacted with anger, he with humor.”

When Paul passed away, fortunately Ellen knew the importance of preserving Paul’s scholarship. She immediately supported SF State’s efforts to archive his papers and publish his magnum opus Telethons posthumously. She even arranged for all future royalties of Paul’s books to go to the Longmore Institute. She explains, “I wanted to see what he’d started continue, and I do what I can financially to support that too because it’s so important. It’s grown and blossomed beyond his imagination but I want to be sure that the work he started continued.”

Though she lives far away from the Longmore Institute in Pickerington, Ohio, she closely follows the Longmore Institute’s work. Seeing Telethons published was particularly significant for her. She shares, “The group that came together to use all their knowledge and resources to finish it, I don’t know how often that happens. I’ve always known the impact Paul had on people, but just to see that in action, and people saying this has to be done not only so that it can be written and read but also to honor Paul was a highlight for me, “ she chokes up, “Because he worked on it for 20 years. Every conversation we had he’d be talking about it. He used to say that he hoped Jerry Lewis died before the book was published or else he feared the Muscular Dystrophy Association mafia would come after him!”

When asked to describe why she values the Longmore Institute’s work, she felt that her answer brought out her “preacher-side.” She explains the impact in three ways:

The institute is celebrating disability when for so many years [disability] meant pity.... The Longmore Institute celebrates who people are, and people in the disability community might not have heard that before, especially when you look at movies coming out that show people with disabilities wanting to die. The Longmore Institute is also empowering … telling people that they do have a voice, and even though there are some that can’t talk for themselves, to know that someone else is doing it for them. That’s something Paul did that the Institute is carrying out. Lastly, educating the disability community about things that people might not be aware of, but also educating society. Your message needs to get out.

Ellen is grateful knowing that Paul’s work continues to make a difference. Please join the Longmore Institute and Ellen Longmore to take a moment to remember Paul on Sunday, July 10, which would have been his 70^th birthday.

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Donor Profile: Anthony Tusler

Visitor — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 18:04:58 +0000

This week we sat down to talk to longtime friend of Paul Longmore, Anthony Tusler, at his house in Penngrove, CA. Disabled since the age of five, Tusler is a motorized wheelchair user. Describing Anthony’s contributions to disability rights and advocacy takes some time. In addition to over 20 years as director of disability services at Sonoma State University, he has led important work to draw attention to the higher rates of alcoholism and drug use in the disability community, he has researched and published about technology and access, and he also promotes disability in the arts, through his own photography and studying disability in music.

He first met Paul Longmore back when Paul was a graduate student writing about George Washington. A shared colleague recommended they meet, and Anthony remembers thinking then that Paul would some day be a leader in the disability movement. Shortly after, Anthony arranged to have Paul give a lecture on euthanasia for The California Association for Post-Secondary Education and Disability (CAPED) because he knew Paul had a voice and perspective that needed to get out there. While many of Paul’s friendships were more academic and bonded in disability theory, Anthony recalls that their connection was rooted in a shared love for disability culture. When Paul Longmore almost poisoned himself by taking too much Zinc to fight off a cold, Anthony just laughed to Paul’s relief, both agreeing that such a mistake was standard “crip stuff."

Since Paul passed away and the Longmore Institute reemerged in 2012, Anthony has been a vital supporter, both with his time and as a donor. In 2013, he hosted a concert at his home to benefit the Longmore Institute. He played a number of roles to support the Patient No More exhibit, which featured his photography from outside the building on the first day of the 1977 504 occupation. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the exhibit could not have happened without him. In particular, he convinced photographer and 504 protester HolLynn D’Lil to share her historic collection of photographs, primary sources, and notebooks, previously kept private. If Anthony had not vouched for the Longmore Institute’s integrity and recognized the importance of making this collection public, “Patient No More” might not have had enough materials. Anthony poses before giving a photography lecture at the Patient No More exhibit. Photo courtesy of Anthony's Facebook page.

Anthony disclosed that his first work with the Longmore Institute was less successful than he’d have hoped. In 2012, he gave a talk on disability and music that he felt just didn’t hit the way he wanted it too (he teases that Associate Director Emily Beitiks having her water break and needing to head off to have a baby minutes before the event was partially to blame). But this experience only strengthened his bond to the Longmore Institute. Afterward, Director Catherine Kudlick pushed him on how he could tighten the presentation and offered to help. He said, “This moment exemplified what makes you guys unique. We don’t critique each other’s work enough in the disability community, so it touched me that Cathy was not only willing to speak honestly with me but also offer to help guide it forward. No other organizations are offering this sort of support for the development of disability culture and scholarship. The Longmore Institute is in a unique position, being a part of a university, to do this work that invests in the long-term.”

He urges other people to start volunteering with or donate to the Longmore Institute because “Disability culture is essential to our efforts to improve the lives of people with disabilities. It can’t just be about services.” Anthony’s friendship with Paul Longmore was based on this belief, and he is grateful to see that the Institute’s recent work supports it as well. Anthony has supported our annual Giving Tuesday efforts for the past two years. Photo courtesy of Mr. Tusler's Facebook page.

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Donor Profile: Advisory Council Member Eugene (Gene) Chelberg

Visitor — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 20:54:59 +0000

San Francisco State University’s AVP for Student Affairs Gene Chelberg has held a variety of leadership positions in higher education over the past 24 years and is proud to have counted Paul K. Longmore among his mentors and friends. Blind since the age of 13, Gene cofounded the Disabled Student Cultural Center (DSCC) while an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota. He first met Paul Longmore when he keynoted the Center’s grand opening in 1992.

Gene’s personal journey to embrace his disability is inseparable from his identity as a gay man. “The full coming out process really informed my experience as a disabled man, and even though I’ve been … aware of my disability more than my sexuality and was defined more externally by my disability than my sexuality, when I had the opportunity to define myself as gay, I then was able to later look at that experience and take the opportunity to redefine for myself what it means to be disabled and come out as disabled in a way that was about pride and culture and community.”

After Gene started the DSCC, Paul Longmore became an ongoing presence in Gene’s life as a mentor and his “disabled uncle” in his disabled family of choice.

When Paul Longmore died without a will and without any family in town, Gene and fellow advisory council member and SF State history professor Trevor Getz got together to "defend and protect" Paul’s intellectual legacy. After finding a safe space on campus to store his papers and books, they then started talking to folks who Paul was very close to on campus, like then President Robert Corrigan and Provost Sue Rosser. With the support of Paul Longmore's sister, they decided to donate and archive his papers to SFSU and rename the Institute he had initiated in 1996 in his honor. Gene says, “Those conversations all happened pretty rapidly, and there was just such good will because of the relationships that Paul had on campus.” After participating in the search to hire a new director, which brought Catherine Kudlick to SF State, Gene agreed to serve on the Institute’s advisory council. He shares, “I just love the way in which we’re taking disability and the work of the institute to the next level. Before, the Institute was really a mechanism for Paul to focus on his latest project … to be that igniter, that fire starter… but … other than his personal vision, it didn’t really have a broader intentional mission, vision and goals. I really think that the leadership of the Longmore Institute has embraced Paul’s personal vision and now made it more of a community vision [that] continues to honor Paul’s mix of academia and activism but is really taking it to a new and unanticipated level.” When Gene calls Paul a "fire starter," he means it both literally and figuratively! He articulates what makes the Institute unique: “The thing that’s really great about working with an institute that’s housed within higher education is there are opportunities to leverage the academic profile of the university to develop partnerships that you might have a greater difficulty doing otherwise.” Gene particularly enjoyed working with the Longmore Institute when he decided to host a fundraiser that invoked and inverted the Telethons, an event which he called “Loot for Longmore.” For 20 years, Paul had been writing a history of disability telethons, which did more harm for disabled people than good (this work was published posthumously by Oxford University Press this January). From a giant “March of Dimes” donation tin to the oversized dimes with a superimposed image of Paul Longmore’s face to the oversized checks from “Disability Activists” and “Academic colleagues of Paul,” the whole event playfully critiqued the telethon. Being led by a disabled person and having disabled people as the donors, rather than cast as the pitiful as telethons did, Gene felt, “It really was empowering, sort of reclaiming negative symbols, not reclaiming but CLAIMING them, that was a lot of fun.” He encourages more people to get involved:

If you want to make a difference in redefining what it means to be disabled, and tapping into the creative energy of disability, then the Longmore Institute is where it’s at.

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