Here & Now‘s Elissa Nadworny talks with Yomi Young, a friend of disability activist and author Alice Wong, who died Friday at age 51 in California. Young tells us about Wong’s legacy of building community.
Full interview transcript
Elissa Nadworny: Friends and loved ones are remembering disability activist and author Alice Wong. She died last Friday in San Francisco. She was 51. A MacArthur Genius Award winner, Wong was the founder of the Disability Visibility Project. The effort started out as a partnership with the nonprofit Story Corps to collect the oral histories of people with disabilities. The group grew into an online community.
In 2016, Wong joined our show to talk about raising the profile of disability issues in the presidential campaign.
(Soundbite of Alice Wong on Here & Now: You know, people with disabilities are seen as this kinda vulnerable, you know, ‘Oh, we can’t bully them. We, you know, we’ve got to protect them.’ And I feel like there’s also another aspect that, you know, people with disabilities can speak for themselves, can defend themselves. We just need to kind of listen to them.)
Nadworny: We just need to listen to them. Now let’s listen to disability and social justice organizer, Yomi Young. She was a friend of Alice Wong. Yomi, welcome back to Here & Now.
Yomi Young: Thank you for having me.
Nadworny: So Alice Wong brought her advocacy to the nation’s capital. She served on the National Council on Disability from 2013 to 2015. What current issues was she most passionate about that she would want you to draw attention to?
Young: Alice’s magic was in her ability to skillfully use technology and social media to build community and challenge structural oppression. And I would say most recently, she spoke a lot about her terror of losing Medicare benefits, which is a fear that millions of sick and chronically ill people are dealing with right now.
And also, Alice called the situation in Gaza a disability justice issue and organized to raise millions to help Palestinians maintain digital connection to the rest of the world. She spoke up for Palestinians, and some people were not happy about that, and there were people who challenged her voice, that maybe her Genius Grant should be rescinded. And Alice stood firm, and she was unflinching, and she would not back down.
But what was lovely about that is, you know, Alice never talked about that when she was with her friends. Alice was known by friends and those of us in the Bay Area for throwing really elegant parties, like super elegant.
Alice lived in a really beautiful apartment in San Francisco. She was able to move out of her family home and live independently for the first time, for the last couple of years, and she really flourished socially during that period. I might have lost track of your question, but I think this is what’s going to be missed.
Nadworny: That’s OK. I mean, at the end of the day, she was your friend. I mean, this is what you’ll remember about her.
Young: Absolutely. And this is what I will miss. It’s not, you know, Alice the luminary, Alice the MacArthur Genius, whatever that means. We kind of teased about that.
But it’s Alice, the gorgeous, generous friend. It’s the signature red Chanel lip. It is her bougieness. It is her tenderness. It is the way that she practiced care. It’s, you know, the brownies that she brought to my house a few weeks ago so that we could decorate pumpkins with my daughter. It is the unexpected packages you would receive from Alice. And, it’s not just me.
People all over the country in the world whom Alice connected with, some whom she’d never met, would receive an Alice Wong care package. It’s just the generosity of spirit, of the exchange of ideas.
Alice was my peer, and it feels like many of our generation with disabilities are not seeing old age, and it’s a lonely feeling, and it’s scary. And it’s also, for me, it’s precious, you know, holding onto these relationships, and just having had this friendship with Alice. To live in the time of Alice Wong and to have experienced her camaraderie, her trust, her care, and her friendship was truly amazing.
Nadworny: How can we honor Alice going forward?
Young: I think we can honor Alice by speaking truth to power, and I would say just keep pushing.
You know, Alice wrote her own death announcement, and the kicker to that death announcement was, ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down.’ I think I’m quoting that correctly. And I would say, ‘Don’t let them grind you down.’
Nadworny: Yomi Young is a disability and social justice organizer helping us remember activist and author Alice Wong, who died last week. Yomi, thank you so much for sharing with us.
Young: Thank you so much for remembering Alice.
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Ashley Locke produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Mark Navin. Grace Griffin produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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