Brianna Albers (she/her) is a crip cyborg storyteller living in Minneapolis-St. Paul. In 2016, she founded Monstering, a magazine for disabled women and nonbinary people. She consults as a patient ambassador for SMA My Way and writes the column “The Wolf Finally Frees Itself” for SMA News Today. She is currently revising THE SAINT AND THE SPIDER, an adult space fantasy with #OwnVoices disability representation. Find her on social media @briehalbers.
I went to therapy this week for the first time in, get this — 14 months. I talked about loneliness; a familiar creature, at least to me. I’ve always felt its dark shadow, heavy and suffocating — even as a seventh-grader, during what…
I’ve been trying to resist my depression ever since I wrote my column on disability, mental illness, and my inability to pretend that everything in my life is OK. When I say resist, though, I don’t mean that I’m ignoring it…
I’ve been depressed on and off for over a decade; I’ve what is called persistent depressive disorder or “dysthymia.” I still feel hopeless, I still lack productivity, I still struggle to enjoy my favorite activities — they’re just intermittent, and…
I’ve been an Apple user since my senior year of high school. And before that I was an iPhone user — and before that, an iPod user, and by iPod I mean the literal brick that was the first generation iPod Classic. Apple…
Guess who spent the last several days in the hospital with the stomach flu! I think I mentioned in a previous column that I haven’t been sick in — well, years. Somehow, for some reason, I’ve managed to stay pretty healthy, so…
#CripTheVote sprang up during the election campaign of 2016 to make sure disabled people vote and to try to influence public policy on disability. Founded by Alice Wong, Andrew Pulrang, and Gregg Beratan, it achieved considerable fanfare as the first organization aimed at making the disabled…
I’ve been home for over a week now from my Amtrak residency, and while I wish I could say it’s been a relaxing couple of days, it hasn’t. I always forget how many things are pushed to the wayside when we’re on vacation. By the…
We won’t die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come. Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one. And I bless you: More Life. The Great Work Begins.
On Saturday, May 27, I’ll be boarding an Amtrak train at Union Depot in St. Paul, Minnesota, at some god-awful time in the morning. You can tell my mom was the one in charge of the trip itinerary. We have a layover in Chicago, and…
I don’t want to spend too much time talking about video games — mainly because I know some of my readers have never played one. However, for my last installment (for a while, at least), I want to discuss how video games and their inaccessibility have forced…
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