About
Accessibility is one of the Nashville Feminist Collective’s core values. Conversations in the Collective have highlighted the need for greater attention to issues of access, particularly for disabled and chronically ill feminists, trans and gender non-conforming people, and people who are unhoused or unemployed. It has become clear that how the Collective imagines meeting spaces in turn defines what kinds of people are able to participate in feminist activism in Nashville. The Collective’s desire to create more inclusive spaces requires a process of dialogue about the churches, bars, classrooms, streets, and homes that it uses for planned events each month. We have a small, short-term grant to begin this project and would like to use it to facilitate accessibility at our meetings, including developing an accessibility map and providing accommodations when this is possible and within our budget.
The Nashville Feminist Collective is working toward practicing the principles of Disability Justice. The Disability Justice Caucus will meet to discuss why Disability Justice and accessibility are feminist issues.
Mapping Access
In recognition that access is an ongoing, participatory process, the Nashville Feminist Collective has partnered with Mapping Access to work toward more accessible meeting spaces and events. The collaborative project has two goals: first, to encourage critical dialogue about disability and access among members of the Collective; second, to understand and challenge the role of built and social environments in the exclusion of marginalized people.
Below is a map of all of the spaces the Collective has held events in since its founding in 2014. Our goal is to eventually provide detailed accessibility information for each of these spaces.
[Image: embedded Google map shows points with “pop-up” links in blue. Note: the finished map will include text descriptions of all spaces]
This project was inspired by groups like Vancouver’s Radical Access Mapping Project‘s access map and the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project in the SF Bay area.
For further questions about the project, or if you would like to get involved, please contact Beth Thielman beth.thielman@gmail.com or Aimi Hamraie aimi.hamraie@gmail.com.
This program received support from the Humanities Working Groups for Community Impact Initiative, a project of the National Humanities Alliance Foundation supported by the Whiting Foundation.
[Image: Circular logo with the letters NHA inside next to text that reads National Humanities Alliance Foundation]
Nashville Feminist Collective 