Summer / Fall 2019 Interns

We are so lucky to have this amazing team of interns that are rocking their political analysis, developing new projects, and stepping into leadership as our organization responds to the flux and flow of living in and working with these crip bodies.

Sins Invalid runs a year-round internship program for community members and students who want to develop leadership skills and provide necessary labor within our radical crip POC-led organization. You can download an application to become a Sins Invalid intern here.

[Image Description: A young white woman with long reddish-brown hair smiles at the camera, her hand extended on the surface in front of her. There is a wheelchair in the background.]

Blair Webb, Intern (Berkeley, CA)

Blair obtained her sociology degree from UC Berkeley in May of 2018, and was fortunate enough to start interning for Sins Invalid shortly afterwards. As someone who identifies as a person with a disability, she feels honored to support an organization that fights for justice for people of all abilities, bodies, and identities. Ultimately, her goal is to have her own after-school theatrical program for children with different abilities, because she believes that every child should have the opportunity to express himself, herself or themselves creatively.

[Image Description: A nonbinary femme Chicanx/white person with blunt-cut bangs, eyeliner and lipstick looks at the camera, leaning their head on their hand, wearing a black shirt. ]

Dana Garza, Intern (East Bay)

Dana Garza is Bay Area-raised by way of Corpus Christi, Tejas. As an intuitive and conjurer they studied and practiced several healing modalities and the dharma while living in New Mexico for 15 years before moving back to the Bay in 2013. Most recently she studied Creative Writing and Ethnic Studies at Mills College; and informally how to survive academia (and life) as an aging, sick & disabled, non-binary, queer-fat-femme, of mixed ethnic, class and ability experience. They miss the heady sounds of cicadas mating in the summer and the heavy smell of piñon after a monsoon - but alas access to affordable quality healthcare in New Mexico sucks! As a Sins intern they’re excited to work and collaborate with an amazing group of people!

[Image Description: A white person with brown hair wears round glasses and a hoodie, and is looking up at the camera and smiling. They are standing on a river bank next to moss, ferns, and rushing blackish water.]

Francis Sutphin, Intern (East Bay)

Francis is a multimedia arts student and landscaper from southern california. They study community archiving, video production, and web-based design. Francis is greatly appreciative of the opportunity to work with Sins Invalid, where they hope to deepen their understanding of wholeness and liberation.

[Image Description: A white person with brown hair, glasses, and facial hair smiles at the camera, wearing a long-sleeved black t-shirt and jeans, holding up a black banner with white text that reads “Beauty Always Recognizes Itself - Sins Invalid - www.sinsinvalid.org.”]

Gordon Brown, Intern (Berkeley, CA)

Gordon (he/him) is a disabled, queer, white person slowly chipping away at his undergraduate degree. He is humbled to be interning at Sins Invalid where he has focused on assisting the program team in producing beautiful disability justice centered content, like the bimonthly Crip Bits show and Making Connections political education sessions. He is excited to continue learning and growing through the infinite wisdom of the disability community.

[Image Description: A young white woman with a brown ponytail sits at a white countertop. She is holding a cup of coffee and smiling at the camera.]

Haley Parsley, Intern (Claremont, CA)

Haley Parsley is a Junior at Pomona College, and is majoring in Gender and Women's Studies. She uses she/her pronouns, and is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Haley is passionate about disability justice, and excited to begin working with Sins this summer! She also loves to try new foods, swim, and be outdoors. Haley identifies as a person with anxiety and depression.

[Image Description: Aa curly haired woman looking at the camera with a small smile, sitting outside with wooden furniture and and leafy vines in the background.]

Maricela Delaluz Altán Kata, Intern (Berkeley, CA)

Maricela is a young person of color who grew up between Guatemala, Poland, and the U.S., and officially joined Sins Invalid in 2019. Always artistically inclined, Sins has been a constructive outlet for her creatively.

[Image Description: Trans white Jew looks into the camera unsmilingly. They have on a black, sleeveless turtleneck dress, bright red tichel, black glasses, and the parted lips cerebral palsy has gifted them. The sky’s blue is brilliant.]

Rafi Darrow, Intern (East Bay)

Rafi is a queer, trans, multiply-disabled, white, Jewish femme. Ze is passionate about making the arts accessible to disabled youth, and facilitating solidarity between all of the chronically ill, neurodivergent, and mobility- and sensory-disabled communities they are a part of. They are working to trouble the conventions of disabled dance, and continue zir involvement as an accomplice in anti-zionist advocacy. They believe in plants, sex worker justice, and the joy and intimacy of inter/intra-disability identification.

[Image Description: A young, light-skinned Asian woman with wavy dark brown hair; a short, white floral dress; and Brown University’s graduation stole is laughing with the beach and ocean in the background.]

Yema Yang, Intern (Alamo, CA)

Yema is a psychiatrically disabled / mentally ill / Mad, first-generation Chinese-Burmese woman of color. In 2019, she graduated from Brown University with a degree in Critical Mental Health Studies, an independent major rooted in Critical Disability Studies and Mad Studies. During college, she delved into disability activism, eventually leading a peer support and mental health advocacy student organization called Project LETS at Brown and soon co-founding another organization, Disability Justice at Brown (DJAB). She hopes to create systemic change out of radical, community-based love and is honored to be working with the beautiful and empowering Sins family.

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