"Disability has color, disability has gender, disability has sexual preferences, and disability is not a straight, white Central American male," Lachi recently told the New York Times.
The EDM producer, whose work spans drum & bass, trance and house music, has now founded RAMPD, a coalition of musicians and industry experts dedicated to disability culture.
"Disability culture is a celebration of people identifying as disabled while recognizing the wide variety of disability experiences and the inherent and equal value of every person," reads the RAMPD website. “It is uncompromising, creative, innovative, adaptable, imaginative and rooted in problem solving. It is based on the premise that disability needs to be seen, respected, included and celebrated.”
Other goals include improving the accessibility of the industry – such as the visibility of ramps on television during award ceremonies – and creating a professional network and database of disabled musicians.
RAMPD officially launches January 21 with a live stream from the GRAMMY Museum Experience in Newark. The program will include live performances by acclaimed disabled musicians, giveaways, messages of support from celebrities and the launch of the network's membership application. Singer-songwriter Gaelynn Lea, Vice President of RAMPD and violinist who won NPR Music's 2016 Tiny Desk Contest, will host the event along with Atlanta-based hip-hop artist Question.
"We want more leaders to come out of this and people to recognize them in the community because sometimes it's like I'm being asked to do so many events and it's partly because I feel like people don't know anyone to ask. ' said Leah. "This is something we need to fix."
You can tune in to the launch party via YouTube at 5:00 PM ET (2:00 PM PT).
FOLLOW RAMPD:
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/rampd
Twitter: twitter.com/rampdup
Instagram: instagram.com/rampd_up
Website: rampd.org
