Forbes Library presents a Preview/Q&A of “Secret Lives of the Disabled," a unique documentary/podcast about becoming physically disabled in America featuring performance artist Sally Greenhouse as Interviewer/Monologuist (creator/writer/featured performer in the original long running NCTV series "The Greenhouse Effect"). This is a hybrid community event that can also be attended on Zoom. 

This project, awarded by The New England Foundation for the Arts under the aegis of their NEW WORKS NEW ENGLAND program with an experimental grant in "Diversity, Inclusivity, Accessibility” has, as its focus, individuals facing permanent disability due to catastrophic accidents, auto collisions, chronic illnesses, debilitating pain, often plunging them into poverty, housing insecurity, insufficient access to groceries, inadequate social welfare, extreme isolation, while stigmatizing them as “expendable” members of American society, discriminated against, despite the hard-won ADA Act.

Especially of interest for library patrons is the podcast portion, since not only did Greenhouse win the New England Women in Video award for “Best Host" on "The Greenhouse Effect” with her unique interviews and monologues, for which she won the  "Artist Fellowship” in Dramatic Writing from the Mass Cultural Council. Her podcast of nationally renowned fiction and nonfiction writers as guests, with books available through the library system online as well as in print include: Andre Dubus III, author of newly released novel Such Kindness; Jason Kander, current political commentator on podcast "Majority 54”, previous Democratic candidate backed by Barack Obama for the 2020 presidential primary, author of Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics & PTSD; Sarah Schulman, AIDS historian, author of Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York City; Porochista Khakpour, author of bestselling memoir, SICK, a story about incurable Lyme disease; and Robert Waldinger MD, author of New York Times bestseller The Good Life and Zen Priest.

Composer/Musician Dan Langa, Magna cum Laude alumnus of Amherst College and currently faculty at Mt. Holyoke College, who composed its theme music, joins Greenhouse in this engaging behind-the-scenes glimpse into how this politically relevant, artistically performative project is evolving, along with previews of her characteristic satirical perspectives on the trials and tribulations of becoming physically disabled, herself, mid-career, when her neck was broken while faculty and Capstone mentor at Commonwealth College, honors division of UMass, Amherst.

Greenhouse, an alumna of Sarah Lawrence College and Harvard Divinity School, was awarded the first endowed residential fellowship in Performance Art/Video at the renowned artist colony Yaddo. She also received fellowships at the Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony and The Djerassi Foundation. Her performance artwork has been archived at Franklin Furnace in NYC for her exposure of an NRA mandate to arm women, “Shooting in the Dark”.  Awarded seven grants by the Northampton Arts Council LLC, she also garnered two grants from the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund in Performance Poetry; the Jerome Fund for Performance Art; was Artist-in-Residence in Directing at the Williamstown Theater Festival; honored by the New York State Council for the Arts for “Outstanding Original Solo Performance”; and was part of the 21 artists of every genre commissioned by the Cambridge Arts Council federally funded “Arts on the Line” to create performance art events at MBTA Red Line construction sites "to ease passenger inconvenience". Her work has been featured in: The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Theater Week, Village Voice, San Francisco Weekly, Boston Phoenix, High Performance, Woodstock Times, Portland Press-Herald, Nantucket Beacon, St.Louis Post-Dispatch,The Boston Herald and numerous other magazines, media, radio, and television. Prior to her accomplished career in Theater/Video/Writing/Sound Art, Greenhouse trained and performed as principal dancer in both ballet and modern dance companies in St Louis, New York, and Cambridge.

“Razor sharp observations.” - Bay Windows (Boston)
“Mordantly funny... Swiftian humor” - The New York Times
“Thinking person's performance artist… harrowing and hilarious." -The Boston Globe

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83042925745

Meeting ID: 830 4292 5745