VOLUME I

INTRODUCTIONS

An introduction is an invitation. A chance for connection. A new start. At times, introductions can be a time we share ourselves — whereas other times, introductions can feel like hiding. As we introduce ourselves to the world, we invited our community to share their experiences with introductions. What was an introduction gone wrong — or oh so right? What are times they have had to introduce more or less of themselves than they would have liked? What ways do they have to keep introducing themselves?

These are your responses.

The photos is of a pair of legs, medium-light skin tone. On top of the legs is a wiry mesh of bone-like substance, covering the legs ankle and upwards, out of view.
A medium-tone skinned woman stands back to back with a version of herself. In one version, her neck and hair are made of greenery -- sprouting trees in the shape of a brain cover her head. On the other side, her neck is made of tubes and machinery.
A Black male medical student sits with a Black male doctor, distinguishable by the length of their white coats (short and long, respectively) atop blue scrubs. They look to be deep in a somber discussion. They are on a bench outside a hospital scene.
A young woman with medium-tone skin and dark brown hair looks forward. She wears a white shirt and a heavily beaded necklace and blue and red scarf around her neck. Atop the scarf sits a monarch butterfly. Flying around her are many more monarchs.
A white brunette woman with glasses looks asleep, sitting in a brown leather chair. She wears a flowy dress that is light blue with golden embellishments. Her arms are lifted like she is floating. Around her is a painting of sun, clouds and sky.
A gender neutral person with medium-light skin and brown, curly hair looks straight at the viewer. Branching out of their chest are curly blue bronchi, which reach upwards towards their face and into puffs of blue-green smoke on beside of their face.
A Black woman with an updo sits in a garden, surrounded by plants of many colors. She wears glasses and is focused on reading a book about plants. She has empty and full tea cups beside her -- suggesting she has been sitting a while.
A group of 9 healthcare workers are painted in the style of a Renaissance painting. Many are wearing scrubs, but otherwise era-appropriate clothing and headdresses. All look calm. The group is diverse in age, gender and race.
The image is futuristic-looking. A white woman with blonde hair and an orange scarf holds a pair of orange-tinted glasses on her face. They are opaque-you cannot see her eyes. Her hands also cover her ears. Her face points up at many orange bubbles
A white woman with brown, wavy hair in a white T-shirt and jeans looks distraught. She is sitting in an apartment--you can see buildings out of the window behind her. She is surrounded by a mess of papers, books, a plant, and prescription bottles.
Two hands are engaging in a handshake. Both hands are dark-skinned, with the one on the left slightly darker-skinned. The hand on the right is on fire, with flames coming from all over the hand -- but it has not caught the other hand on fire.
A surrealist image of a heart. It is near-anatomically correct, but the L atrium looks like it is a clay house, and the R atrium has metal tubes sprouting from it. The heart is covered in root-like arteries. Background: unworldly steep mountains.
A nurse in blue scrubs with long, dark brown hair in a ponytail looks down a hallway that is lit by fluourescent light. Blurry images line the walls - they could be windows, but it is unclear. On the ceiling looms a huge brain.
A collage. The background are dominoes standing up and a calendar with appointments written in. Foreground is a skull, with a collage of flowers atop it.
One panel from the comic. A white person with short hair and glasses sits in a wheelchair at a doctor's office. The red-haired nurse in purple scrubs asks for the wheelchair user's weight. They think: She didn't even ask about my mobility.
A black-and-white photo of sand with small, foamy waves hitting it. In the sand are footprints and 2 long, parallel lines created by a walker.
A painting with an orange/brown background in a golden, intricately carved picture frame. In the foreground of the picture is a Renaissance bust -- a nude body with breasts and no head, arms or lower legs, colored blue.
A panel from the comic. A black and white image of a non-descript female figure comforting a similarly non-descript male figure. Around them are the words: "terminal and ever-present empathy -- symptoms: I feel too deeply."
A white woman with dark brown hair smiles up at the screen while she plays a ukulele. She wears a red bandana in the style of Rosie the Riveter, and wears a green shirt that says "don't propagate hate"
A collage. The background is neuroanatomy that has been colored red. A page from a textbook describing nociceptors is layered on top. At front is a cut-out from a lidocaine patch with a scratched off prescription. A diagram of a back lies atop it.

PERSPECTIVES

Welcome to our Perspectives section — a place for members of our community to share their stories and perspectives in a blog post-like format. These pieces offer a glimpse into the lives of some of our own.

Ifeoma Ikedionwu smiles at the camera. She is a young, Black woman with straight, black hair and square-framed glasses. She wears a suit jacket and a blue top.

How an MD Cannot Outrun a Broken System
Ifeoma Ikedionwu, Medical Student

Trans-cending the Chameleon Layers
Dr. John Orie, PT, DPT

Dr. Alice Riger smiles softly at the camera. She is a middle-aged white woman with chin-length, salt-and-pepper hair. She wears glasses with clear frames and a white shirt with a blue flower pattern on it.

Medical Memoir
Dr. Alice Riger, PhD

Community

This is a list of resources and opportunities to experience art, literature and music beyond this journal. Art, events, content, and opinions expressed below are not a part of the Didactics Journal, but serve to inform our readers about opportunities to engage beyond our pages.

A museum exhibit. There is a large wall of text and description beneath a header "AFROFUTURISM" in white neon lights. The photo shows a few photos of Black men and a book entitled "COMET."

Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures (Washington D.C., USA; Online)is on exhibition at the National Museum of African American History and Culture through August 18, 2024. Much of the exhibit is viewable online with accessible features.

A clay, painted statue of a St. Bernard rescue dog, with an oversized wooden barrel around his neck.

Animal Style: (Oakland, CA, USA) Creative Growth’s latest exhibition in Oakland, CA, featuring “artwork devoted to the animal ‘purr-suasion’”, with over 100 artists featured. On display through November 11. Docent-led tours for low-vision patrons available.

"Bouncy Bear Number 5" by Sheila Smith and NoonSlaps. A colorful statue of a bear, carved in such a way that it looks like it is inflated -- almost like an intricate mylar balloon. It is red, covered in abstract swirls and dots of purple and blue.

Bouncy House: (Chicago, IL, USA) A collaboration between Sheila Smith and NoonSlaps, for sale and on display at Project Onward, Chicago

Untitled (Eneight Eneight Vase) by Valerie Byrd. Bold, bright watercolor vertical lines make up the majority of hte piece -- green, light blue, yellow, light pink, red, aqua, and purple. Atop read words in typewriter font: Eneight Enieght Vase.

Creatively Explored (SF, CA, USA) will drop its holiday art exhibit on November 3rd. They will also release an art book, Art is Art, featuring their artists’ work, available November 7.

Felicia Griffin looks calmly to the left of the viewer. She is a middle-aged Black woman. She wears large, round glasses that have a brown and blue speckled rim. She wears intricate earrings that look made of cloth pompoms with a flower pattern.

Don’t mind if I do: (Cleveland, OH, USA)artist Finneagan Shannon presents “an experiment in more deeply colaborative exhibition-making, demonstrating  how even temporary changes in power structures create pathways of access.” The exhibit features artists with disabilities, such as textile artist Felicia Griffin (pictured). On display through January 7, 2024.

Dark colored green jewels set in gold hang from gold chains, slightly out of focus. The image is from the OMCA website.

Into the Brightness: (Oakland, CA, USA) Artists from Creatively Explored, Creative Growth, & NIAD Art Center on display at the Oakland Museum of California through January 21, 2024

Bacon: Scream (detail), 2019, by Takashi Murakami. A cartoonish animal with rounded features looks right with its tongue sticking out. Its feaures are made of many different bright, bold pattern cut-outs of diverse colors. Bright pink background.

Murukami, Monsterized: (SF, CA, USA). The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco offers an exhibition of the work of Takashi Murakami, an artist known for bold colors and wide global pop cultural influence. On display through February 12, 2024.

The RAMPD logo atop various images of people playing musical instruments, including multiple with mobility aids such as wheelchairs. The logo looks like a sharp music note with a head atop it, so that it looks like a person in a wheelchair.

RAMPD (online) is a global network of professionals in the music and entertainment industries with disabilities, neurodivergence, chronic illness, and communication differences. They frequently host online events and webinars.

'Red Is Beautiful', a painting by Robert Houle. A pattern emerges from layered rhombi, with a small dark rhombus on top of increasingly large and lighter colored rhombi. The pattern is flipped upwards to create parallel images.

Red Is Beautiful: (Washington D.C., USA; Online) an exhibition of the work of Robert Houle (Saulteaux Anishinaabe, Sandy Bay First Nation), known for his bold, emotional work. On display in DC through June 2, 2024. The National Museum of the American Indian also offers numerous online materials and exhibitions. They also offer in-person exhibitions in NYC and DC.

"The Rebel" by Shelley Niro. A photograph of a middle-aged Native American woman with short black hair and medium skin tone. She lies atop an old, blue Cadillac, her hand behind her head. She smiles candidly.

Shelley Niro: The 500 Year Itch: (NYC, NY, USA; Online). Celebrates the diverse work of Shelley Niro (Six Nations Reserve, Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Turtle Clan), with an exhibition of her paintings, photos and mixed media work on display in NYC until January 1, 2024. The National Museum of the American Indian also offers numerous online materials and exhibitions. They also offer in-person exhibitions in NYC and DC.

A Sin Wai Kin drag persona. They wear a bleached jean jacket and white turtleneck. Their face is painted like a sunset (yellow fading to light blue), with a red flower on their forehead and blue squiggles framing their eyes/nose.

The Tate museums (UK, online) offers video and audio collections elevating artists from our communities. View their online portfolios for Disability and Art and their LGBTQ+ Artists and Art page, which includes art by Sin Wai Kin (pictured above).