Recording Artist/Manager Breaking Barriers for Disabled Artists

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hi everyone and welcome to the show today. I am so excited to be with all of you today. I, I want to thank everyone in North America but also around the world. I always say I have the greatest listeners. And by the way, this is the beginning of, yes, my 21st year on Voice America, longest running show for my executive producer, Tacey Trump, which is amazing. To me that I've been doing this 21 years, but now I have listeners around the world from China to Russia to Australia to Saudi Arabia. And I always say, even if it's just one person in a country, just one, you, you can be the one that makes the difference. You can be the one that starts telling other people with disabilities that they count, that they have value, that they have dignity, you can be that one. And Richard Roberts, I'm thinking you may be in Brazil already. And Richard Roberts is the most wonderful, awesome person. Let me tell you, I first met him with the embassy in South Korea, then in Japan, and this year in the spring, I'll be going to Brazil. So I just want to talk about the State Department for a moment. You know, if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be going to all these countries. See, what happens is someone from a country goes to the embassy and requests an expert on the employment of people with disabilities, and the State Department calls me and sends me, and I go for a week speaking everywhere to all groups. It's just such a wonderful thing, and I will I will tell you in a minute about Judy Heumann. But first, I also want to thank Gangyang Cho in South Korea for always standing behind me and all my friends that I visited in Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Panama. Such great people, such great disability rights advocates. And I must thank Highmark Oh my goodness, every year we kick off the year with the CEO of Highmark, one of the largest healthcare insurance companies that owns like 14 hospitals. And every year, first beginning of the month, we have, yes, David Holmberg. January is my power.

January is my power.

For example, We have in just a few weeks Valerie Jarrett. Yes, Valerie Jarrett, the assistant, as you recall, advisor to President Barack Obama, who's written books, on TV all the time, and became a close friend of mine. And she is the Toni Coelho Award recipient. So she is going to be on with Tony. Remember, that award is given to someone that has furthered the employment of people with disabilities or made it known. And you'll never believe who it's going to be this year, but it's going to be the great Judy Woodruff. So what a show. And next week coming up— wait a minute, hold it— Bob Kafka, one of the long-term greatest civil rights leader with ADAPT, starting that organization. Uh, oh, such an honor to have him on. But I must tell you how excited— you're gonna be so excited— that we have with us a celebrity. Yes, we do. We have Lachi, that great recording artist and disability leader. Can you believe we have her again? Yeah, oh, what a thrill, what a thrill to have, uh, to have you, this superstar. Lachi, even when you talk, you can tell you have a beautiful voice, even when you're talking. Yeah, no, not stopping. And I'm going to tell you what, we also have Arthur Gwynn with us, who is the operations manager for Lachi. And I want to tell you, I wanted to have him on because a lot of times people don't realize there's so much that goes on behind the scenes for any star. And that in this case is Arthur Gwynn, also a person with a disability, as Lachi has a disability, as I, you all know, live with epilepsy. But Arthur, I said, I'm gonna have Arthur also. Boy, and he is so nice. And he is always, you know, wanting to help me get things going with Lachi. So Lachi and Arthur, welcome to the show. Lachi, who has 1 million followers. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

Oh my goodness. What's up? Always a pleasure to be here. So comfortable here in this chair. In your, um, in your cozy studio, in your cozy virtual studio. So glad to be here.

Well, and with my great team, you know, they're headquartered in Arizona. That is where Voice America's headquarters, uh, is located. Well, Lachi, I am honored that I have you. I'm honored.

I'm so glad to be here.

Some, someday after she's received several Grammys, I'll have to be in the audience saying, "Remember me?

Remember me? You remember?

You knew me way back, remember?" Stop.

You're gonna be my first phone call when I win a Grammy, and you'll be my first phone call out of jail for anybody I beat up that thinks I shouldn't have got the Grammy.

Okay. You know what? Now she's gonna— I'm gonna remind her if she forgets. I'm gonna say, "You won a Grammy? You called Arthur first." If you haven't heard this woman sing, you are missing out. You must immediately after the show's over go to Spotify and download one of her shows, although she's also a TV star and we'll be talking about all of that. But I'm going to tell you, from the first time I heard her sing and play the piano, I thought Oh my God, look out, look out! And I was right, she became a big superstar. So, Lachi, thank you, thank you. And you know what? Of course, here's what's happened. We have listeners, as you heard, around the world, but different people got in touch with me and they said, okay, this is all so good, but we want to know more about her. So, Lachi, do you mind sharing with all of our listeners how really you did not stop as a person because you're blind, and there isn't anything I can see that would stop you anyway, because you're like a 24/7 fireball.

Fireball.

But would you mind telling our listeners a little bit about yourself, because they want to know.

Sure, yeah, uh, one of my favorite things to talk about is myself, so I will get right into it. Um, so for those of you who may not know me that are listening, um, I am a touring and performing artist. I am a songwriter, charting songwriter. I'm also a writer, public speaker. People would call me a personality, I guess. I'm also what I consider a cultural activist, and I'm also a social entrepreneur. So I do like all of the things, but it's all in the name of I don't know, infiltrating pop culture with disability narratives, disability culture, disability identity. And I feel like I'm very lucky to be poised to be in a position where I can touch upon pop culture and touch upon disability culture and take those two things and allow them to meet in the middle. I was born legally blind, as Joyce Bender has said, and I use my platform in music, fashion, storytelling, humor, to tour globally doing shows and doing talks on identity pride and disability culture. I'm also the founder and president of an organization called Ramped, which I'm pretty sure we're going to talk about later. But we do a lot of work bringing disability inclusion, accessibility, and equity to the music and live entertainment industry. And as Joyce mentioned, I also do some acting and some hosting, and I've appeared in national accessibility commercials. I just do everything I can as long as it's in the name of bringing disability culture to the mainstream. It wasn't always this way. It took me a long time to really come into my disability and to really stand in front of the things society told me to be most ashamed of, which is my disability. While I could be a Black person activist, I could be a woman activist, I could advocate for the LGBTQ community, but the part of my identity I like to advocate for the most is the part society society tells me to keep the quietest. And that's why I advocate for disability, which I recently did in my latest TED Talk, which I'm very excited about. But that's me in a nutshell. And I'm really just— I feel very blessed to be able to have this platform to make this change in the way that I'm doing it. So I don't know if that answered your question.

Well, yes, it did. But you know, you identified yourself in many ways, but you forgot superstar.

I don't know, am I allowed to just call myself a superstar?

That feels a little—

yes, feels a little 2008.

You're a superstar and you have a shipper star cane. You have that glam cane. No one else forgets to mention the glam cane.

Yeah, so at any given time— at it— well, at any given point, if you come to New York City, you will see a 5-foot— well, in my heels, a 5-foot-11 Amazon in a glamorous designer dress walking around the streets with a cane that is bedazzled and bejeweled with rhinestones that match her outfit. Those are called the glam canes, and that woman you see is called Lachi. That's how I walk around the town. Big heels and glam canes, 100%, all the time, nothing different.

Oh, and they are beautiful, just like Lachi. And you know the last time I saw her? Guess where? The White House. That's when I last saw her.

Oh yeah, we did, we did meet at the White House. Okay, that's true.

Yeah, and I was able to get a photo with her. So if you go to one of her events, you may be able to get a photo also, maybe even an autograph. So remember, see that? I told you she's a superstar. Sad. Like a superstar. Isn't that what you would picture? Is this what you would picture? Well, Lachi, you know I love you, and I would do anything to promote you because you are not only talented and beautiful, you know what else? You're a good person.

That's— thank you so much. That means a lot. Good person.

Well, Arthur, I get to have you on the show for the first time.

I was gonna say, a good, a good superstar and a good person takes a great— Arthur on the show as well.

That's right, that's right. Um, and you, well, just as Lachi said, you are key to her life, her success. Um, and you know what though, you aren't just operations manager. You know, you're so much more. You do so much, even keeping people away from her, all the paparazzi. So, um, Arthur, would you share with our listeners what you do and how you first met Lachi?

Sure. Yeah, thanks so much, Joyce Bender. I, I don't— I'm not usually the one in front of the mic. I'm usually more behind yelling at the people running the show, but I'm really excited to be on the flip side of it for this. Much for inviting me as well. But yeah, my name is Arthur. I'm a big and tall white guy with way too much red hair, and I identify as neurodiverse. I am Lachi's manager. Like, I guess it's best to call it like a business manager. I am also operations manager for her organization, RAMP. Which is Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities. And yeah, I mean, I like to call myself operations because it feels like it's as catch-all a business term as I could come up with because I really do involve myself with kind of all levels and aspects of the work that we're doing, and whether it's so I can figure out how to delegate or who to hire or which direction to take things or who to be working with. I always like kind of spinning the spider web together, making sure that everything that we're doing is fueling our very singular purpose. So yeah, so I work with Lachi, like, on the business side and the music side, arranging the events that she's participating in. In her speaking and performance engagements. I attend those events as her sighted companion, and so, like, you know, when we're traveling to airports or what have you, I'm there to help as well, although I got to say, half the time, I actually kind of have travel anxiety, so Lachi is helping me get to places sometimes a little bit more than I'm helping her, but, you know, we get there together. And it's been fascinating. My background is not music. My background is actually fairly corporate, like executive recruitment and stuff like that. But when I first started kind of dipping in and stuff, I was really struck by how the music industry— there is an industry behind it. Like a lot of times when we think music, we think like the— you know, people meeting in clubs at 2 AM making like million-dollar deals. And like, some of it is that, but all those people work for other people that just kind of work in an office. And once I discovered that more corporate side of the industry, I thought it was actually really not too hard to kind of plug myself into there. Um, and you know, whether it's networking or organization skills or logistics or what have you, All the skills that I've developed over the years in my more corporate life have really paid off well and integrated well with the work that we're doing. I think that's how we started, but it was during COVID actually. I— my office went remote, and it turned out that that was the best accommodation I could have ever gotten. Right, is working from home. I didn't realize just how much my social battery, or spoons as people are calling it these days, was depleted just from my commute and just from having to deal with like, you know, interpersonal office politics. And so I started— when I started working remotely, I mean, we all were, I suddenly found myself just so full of energy I hadn't had my entire career. I was like, I need to do something else. I need to go and do something impactful and real. At that same time, Laci's music manager had unfortunately passed away, and so she was rediscovering kind of where her career is going, and she wanted to start doing this advocacy work. And so, you know, when we first connected, I was really just helping quarterback on the back end, like setting up, you know, business infrastructure and building a small team and everything like that. But the work was just so fascinating. And so real and impactful, like real change was happening in the wake of the conversations even early on. I eventually kind of backseat drove enough to figure out the business model that matched Lachi's visions and efforts, and I just started kind of tinkering and building at it, and then suddenly we've got like what, We got about 20, 25 employees and contractors under Watsi Music. Ramped has 3 or 4 employees and 50, 60 professional members. The canes, I started making those a year or two ago. Now we're selling them on glamcanes.com, and I'm— we're doing a lot. I'm making maybe about 20, 30 canes in December. For customers all across the world, which is just really invigorating and exciting to kind of invent a fashion accessory to help blind and low vision folks kind of rebuild confidence and get away from the stigmas associated with the white stick. And I don't know, it's been a real wild adventure, and I Can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Well, you are great to work with, and you, you are doing so much to help Lachi. I see you all the time. I see what you do behind the scenes. So, you know, you are not just a helper but a friend. I can tell that you are a friend of Lachi, not just a manager. And Lachi, this brings me back to you. Oh my goodness, you travel, you travel, travel like at the speed of light. Uh, I mean, every time I'm looking on, you know, it's something about you, it's another new thing, and then it's another new thing. But I want to talk about last year. What, what would you say was your greatest accomplishment last year?

Uh, oops, sorry. Hey, um, so last year was really big. Um, I consider last year sort of the year of— I think a good word would be leveling up. I guess it's two words, but it's the year of the level up. We did so much, and I do want to give a big shout out to the State Department as well. Somehow they got a hold— somehow they became aware of Lachi, and they've been calling us to do quite differently. You work more in disability and employment. They have been calling us to do shows on disability culture and focus on bringing music to certain places, focus on bringing fashion and art. And so we've been doing that. We've been doing a lot of traveling, not just with the State Department, but as you know, with our fabulous booking agent slash manager slash all of the many hats, Arthur. So we've done a ton, ton, ton of traveling across the globe, everywhere from in-state, out-of-state. One of the big highlights was what we did in Peru. We did a 6-day, 6-show, 4-city tour in Peru, and it was amazing. It was fantastic. We were in Canada. Obviously, we were everywhere in America, Maine to San Francisco, so from both coasts. We also hit the middle, so we were in Chicago, we were in Texas, so we just did a ton of shows everywhere. Of course, we worked the Grammys in the beginning of the year, uh, we did our TED Talk, we hit up the Barbie premiere— huge highlight. Uh, apparently not a lot of people got that invite, and it was funny because we were told about the Barbie premiere literally I don't know, maybe the day before that we got that invite. We were actually invited by Jim LeBrecht. So I said, "I'll do anything Jim LeBrecht tells me to do, especially if it's going to the Barbie premiere." So we dropped everything and we went to the Barbie premiere, which was great. We also, like I mentioned, met Joyce Bender at the White House, but we frequented the— I think, Arthur, how many times were we at the White House this year? At least 3 times.

Um, yeah, and then we were at the UN reception gala as well. That was really cool. We got to meet Dr.

Jill Biden and Kamala Harris. Uh, I think the highlight of the people we met at the White House, I gotta say, was Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is absolutely hilarious. Uh, we also got to hang out with Selma Blair. Uh, we went down to Puerto Rico and did some things. Um, but I would say the two biggest highlight— well, let's say that, okay, the two biggest highlights. Number one would be releasing Lift Me Up, which I, I hope we get more into because I will talk your ear off about that right now if I— if you get me going. Uh, but that was a song we wrote, um, a disability pride anthem that we wrote and released last year that made it onto television and the radio. And here we are just infiltrating pop culture with disability narratives. And I would say the other big, really amazing thing that happened last year was the book deal. So we got a book deal from Penguin Publishing, a Penguin Random House imprint called Tiny Reparations. And they want us to write a book talking about pop culture narratives, disability culture identity, and really taking those two concepts and elevating the disability identity that is already present within pop culture through the stories and perspectives of what we would consider icons and public figures that intersect with disability, neurodivergence, mental health conditions, and the like. So from TEDx's to book deals to charting songs to gallivanting at Barbie premieres and the White House, touring the nation and attending the Grammys, I can't tell you what would be my— maybe my favorite thing was hanging out with Joyce Bender and taking a picture.

Oh, what a saleslady she is. Okay, I'll take it.

I don't care.

I think I'd have to double down on the book deal though. Just to note, so Tiny Reparations is an imprint under— it was made for Phoebe Robinson, a comedian. And it's— I mean, the book itself is going to be fantastic. It's going to be another year or two before it hits shelves, of course. But I don't know. I think they're uniquely a suited partner for working on this project with Wachi, right? Like, it's not just some kind of churn, but they're really deeply invested in these kind of widening the narrative scopes. And so I'm really, really excited to be working with them on that.

And it would be released second or third quarter 2025.

I was just going to say, and you know I'll have you back to talk about that book so that everyone goes and buys it, which I will be one of the first in line. Láxhí. So, so—

I'm sure we can get you an advance copy, Joyce.

Oh, autographed, of course.

Signed, I watch. Of course.

You know what, um, when I went with the State Department, do you know, no matter where I was, I'll give you an example. I was in Indonesia and I was with a group of people that were poor people with disabilities in this, what you would call a village. And guess what the first thing they said to me was? Do you know Judy? Oh, you know Judy? Do you know— no matter where I went, I'm not kidding you, they knew Judy Uman. They knew Judy.

I believe it. I believe it.

Yeah, no surprise that they would know her. So guess what, Lachi? I am going to have you talk right now since you brought it up about that tremendous, wonderful song that you wrote, "Lift Me Up." So, go ahead and talk about it.

All right, everybody, get ready. I'm going to see how fast I can do this because this is— you're ready for a treat. So, in 2018, I realized that I needed to figure out what I was going to do about my music career and my disability. I was getting into really big rooms and I was not asking for the accommodations I needed, right? And so I was like, "I need to find a role model," because nobody— ever since I was 8 years old, it's been 20 years, and I still haven't found a role model, right? So I remember one day, I was just flipping through television, and I was watching Drunken History on Comedy Central, of all shows. They started talking about the 504 sit-ins, which is basically— those were the sit-ins that eventually led to the Rehabilitation Act, which eventually led to the Americans with Disabilities Act of today. And I was like, "Hmm, this sounds interesting. I want to learn more about this because it has to do with disability." That was the first time in 2018, watching Drunken History, meaning drunk people talking about history, that I heard about Judy Heumann. Played by Ali Stroker. Judy Heumann was just a fierce woman that had a 26-day or 28-day sit-in until the bill was taken seriously and passed. And I thought to myself, "Wow, what a badass." Like, "Oh my God, I just found my hero. I finally found a hero in disability, and it's a woman. Oh!" So I was really excited, and I just started reading up on Judy, and I started following her on social media, and I just this, and I saw her TEDx, and blah, blah, blah. Not up to fully 2 years later, why do I get a DM from Judy's human, this assistant, going, "Dear Lachi, Judy's a fan of yours and she wants your music in her podcast." I like to fainted when I got that DM on Twitter, or the formerly known as Twitter, right? And so I ended up just jumping out of my seat. I met with Judy, we both became just 2 badasses that would gab all the time. Joyce knows this. Judy would call me at any time in the morning, just like she would call everybody else, whenever she just had the whim of calling them. And it was just great. It was great to be in her inner circle. She gave me a lot of advice. I gave her advice on fashion and everything else. And it was such a great, beautiful relationship. She would make me call people at, you know, when it was somebody else's birthday, she'd put me on speaker to sing to them, which was ridiculous and weird. But she did that all the time, and I loved her for it. So, it was a really big blow when she passed away in March of last year, and I didn't know how to grieve. So, I, as always, wrote music. I took to my piano and I started writing a song. As I was writing the song, I got a call from my friend James Ian, who was also a mentee of hers, who she would also make sing all the time. He himself was a member of Ramped. And by member of Ramped, I mean someone who has a disability and is a professional musician. That's what all RAMPT members are. So, he calls me up, he says, "I hear you're writing a song about Judy. I want to be a part of it." So, we begin to co-write in order for us to cope. We get a call from Galen Lee, and Galen Lee is also a RAMPT member, and she goes, "Someone told me you and James are writing a song. Why am I not part of this? I need to be a part of this song about Judy." So, the 3 of us are writing a song. Then we get a call from April Rose Gabrielli. She has epilepsy. She calls, she says she wants to co-write with us, and she's like, helping us turn it into a pop song, because at that point it was just us really just crying on the page and just writing our emotions. It just wasn't a song yet. So she helped us turn it into a pop song. Then we get a call from Kulick, who is a Sony engineer who is actually half deaf, also a member of R.A.M.P. He wants to be a part of the song. So this is blowing up in the community way beyond just me trying to cope. We're making this amazing song. It's turning into this movement. So then all of a sudden we get like this idea that we need to make this a music video as well. And we need to release it in July to celebrate the 50 years of the Rehabilitation Act and all of that. And mind you, this is— we're trying to get this all done in April and May. So we meet up with Day Al-Mohamed, who is a blind film director who had just left working at the White House, and we became her first project. So she starts to direct. She gets co-director Kat Rubina Stevens, who has worked on tons and tons of Easterseals Disability Film Challenge projects. And we are all working together behind the scenes and in front of the scenes. Everyone is diverse. There are so many disabilities. And we have this idea. I am like, I want to have an idea where we have ASL in the front and, you know, we are just in the background singing in like a little box. And they were like, well, there will be no boxes. So we end up having authentically deaf ASL performers performing as us, the singers, in the front, and then we're projected in the background. And I can't believe the ASL performers that we were able to get. We got Amber Galloway, who is an internationally known ASL performer. She's done everywhere from Snoop Dogg to just famous people left and right, done the Super Bowl, etc. If you want to look up Amber's interpretation of Twista, it's ridiculous if you know who Twista is. Yes, it's really, really good. We also got Otis Jones, who is a TikTok star influencer who I'm 100% in love with. I hope he doesn't hear this because now I'm embarrassed because I said that. And then we also got Nell, R. Nell Richards, who's also an Instagram and TikTok influencer. They were authentically deaf. Authentically Hard of Hearing, and they performed the ASL front and center. James, Galen Lee, and myself were projected in the background singing the lyrics and the song, and we were doing just great trio. The song from all of the people in the background that put it together were, like I said, disabled, diverse, et cetera. And we also incorporated audio description right at the top, and the person who did the audio description was Ali Stroker, who had played her as— so we came very full circle. The song blew up as soon as it was released. It was all over the community. Everybody was talking about it. It started to go viral. MTV aired it. BET aired it. It started to play on the radio. We hit the charts at 41. We peaked on the charts at 29 on the adult contemporary charts. Google got wind of it. Google said, "I wanna be a part of it." They ended up help underwrite a lot of things, and they used it in a lot of their disability pride accessibility commercials. It became a whole influencer campaign. It led to more work with Google. And the only reason it worked, Joyce, is because Judy was right there. She had a hand in everything. She even told us who to— the person who did all the artwork, she had CP. This was somebody that I had met at yet another Judy event. Everybody knew Judy in some way, had been touched by— Genevieve Ramos had been touched by Judy in some way. And I gotta say, I guess one of the highest— the two highest praises that we got for this music video, one was from Jim LeBrecht, who said, this, um, every time I hear this song and watch this video, it brings me to tears. For just the love from Judy that I see within it. And the other high praise we got was from Haben Girma, who said, "We're setting the standard to the music industry, letting them know that we can make really high-production, great art that includes accessibility and that has disability front and center and behind the scenes." Everybody got paid. And it was just a beautiful thing, and I have only Judy to thank.

It is outstanding. It is so beautiful. Listen, if you haven't heard it, you have got to go download this song. You've got to get it, "Lift Me Up." And if any of my listeners around the world, if you know Judy, you'll understand what Lachi meant when she said Judy was part of this song. And with that, we're going to go to our news break with Perry Jude Radesik. Perry, are you with us?

I am, Joyce Bender. It's been a wonderful show.

Oh, thank you, Perry. So Perry, what news do you have for us today?

Joyce Bender, I want to talk about the work that's being done by the EEOC to pave the way for a more accessible Federal workplace. We know how important workplace accessibility is. It's not just a buzzword, but it's a fundamental civil right that has to be upheld, and a truly inclusive workplace ensures that people with disabilities can fully participate and contribute to the mission of their employer. In December, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released an article to provide an overview of the laws that federal agencies must comply with to provide people with disabilities accommodations to ensure our full participation in the federal government workforce. This article is an easy read. It's in 4 sections. Section 1 introduces the reader to President Biden's Executive Order 14035. Which was insurance that the federal workforce was to serve as a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. It also introduces us to Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act, which created a legal obligation for the federal government to provide reasonable accommodations Section 2 focuses on the physical accessibility to federal buildings, facilities, and spaces. Section 3 focuses on 508 of the Rehab Act that requires federal agencies to make all of their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. And then, of course, the EEOC always has additional resources. We know advocacy matters. And workplace accessibility is absolutely a legal requirement. If you are a federal employer, HR staff in the federal government, an applicant for a federal job, or even a current federal employee, you should review and understand the guidance provided by the EEOC as well as the internal complaint process. Now, where do you get this? You go to disabilityrightsPA.org. That's our website at disabilityrightsPA.org. Scroll down to the middle of the page, click on today's advocacy matters segment. It's right there on our homepage for all of the information I just talked about and to find links to the EEOC, their article, how to file a charge of discrimination, as well as Disability Rights PA's resource page, which has lots of information on combating employment discrimination. So Joyce, thanks for the opportunity, and let's pave the way for workplace accessibility.

Hey, Perry, the news for what, 6 years? Is that about right?

Yeah, I think so, Joyce.

Yes, you have been the anchor for 6 years, and we are the only podcast or show that every week bring our listeners the news of what is happening in the disability community. And Perry is the CEO of Disability Rights PA. I'm so honored to be on the board, and make sure you go to disabilityrightspa.org and look at Advocacy Matters, and you can read all about it whatever the news is every week. Perry, thank you so much.

Thanks, Joyce.

Take care. All right. Hey, Lachi and Arthur, do you know we're the only one that does this every week? We have the news of what's going on in the disability community every week.

I love it. I love it. I'm here for it. There needs to be more places like that, like this.

Yeah, yeah, I am. Wanna keep everyone— sadly, people with disabilities can't turn on CNN or MSNBC and see what is happening to us. And you should know, so that's why we do this. Lachi and Arthur, both, let's talk about Ramped. I mean, Lachi, you founded it.

Ooh, my favorite thing.

You founded it, right, in 2021. And it is so awesome. You talk about it first, and then Arthur, I want your opinion about it. So it is Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities, founded in 2021 by who else? Superstar Lachi. And Lachi, you helped make the 64th Grammy accessible. So why don't you share with our listeners what made you do this? Like, how did you get this idea or get in this direction? And one thing I don't want to forget, can our listeners donate to this? So take it away, take it away, Lachi. Let's hear about it.

For sure, for sure. So in short, RAMP, Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities, has really established itself as the premier professional platform equipping the music and live entertainment industry with tools, inclusive programming, and strategy, right? So we are the premier platform doing that. RAMP also connects the industry to a growing directory and network of peer-vetted music and sound creators, industry-side professionals with disabilities, neurodivergence, other chronic conditions, mental health conditions that are navigating the industry. So Ramped puts together that directory and allows the music industry to be able to find folks who identify in this way and find, source, and hire that talent, whether it is for booking, whether it is for studio work, or whether it is to hire someone for behind the desk, anywhere from the mailroom to the boardroom. We also advocate for more accessible spaces. And I'll get into exactly who we've worked with and some of the really cool things that we have accomplished. But before I do that, I'd be remiss in letting you folks know exactly why I founded Ramped. I mean, at the end of the day, I am a recording artist and a touring performer navigating the music industry, right, as a woman in America, as a Black woman in America. And it's the is not the easiest thing, not just because of the generalized discrimination that I would get as a woman, as a Black woman navigating in America, but because of the stigma of disability. I, myself, am legally blind, and I also have different anxiety conditions. And one of the problems is that there's a lot of egotism, machismo, a lot of different facets that coalesce within the ecosystem of the music industry that you really have to navigate and kind of brush under the rug to try to get ahead. And it's a dog-eat-dog industry. So one of the things that a lot of folks with disabilities, neurodivergences, mental health conditions, what they do is that they hide this, right? They try to see how much they can pass for not having these things so that they can get into these rooms and be taken seriously and seen as competitive. and I was no exception. I did that all the time. I downplayed my disability as much as I could because I had a lot more vision even just as short ago as 2018, 2017. And as my vision continued to deplete, I was getting in better and better rooms, right? But I was shooting myself in the foot by hiding my disability because it was keeping me from asking for the accommodations I needed. I would be tripping on wires, or I wouldn't know where the vocal booth was, or they would put the wave, right, the sound wave of my song on a computer screen, and they'd say, "Do we delete from here to here, or what would you like?" And I would just be like, "Yeah, sure," even though I couldn't see what they were saying. And then I walk home with a song I didn't really want because I was just faking. Or I would go to these dark nightclubs, and I would miss a handshake, that would have me miss a whole deal. Or perhaps someone would wave at me and I'd miss the wave, and then they would think I'm standoffish. I had to get in front of this. And so I did. I began to come out and out about my disability. And I joined the Recording Academy. I joined everywhere. And I was going to these panels and no one was talking about disability. Nobody was talking— people would talk about diversity. Diversity started blowing up around 2020. But nobody was talking about disability or accessibility. And I started knocking on doors and going like, "What are you folks doing for accessibility and disability?" And they were like, "Well, it's just you. You're the only disabled musician or artist we've ever met, except for maybe Stevie Wonder, I guess." So I knew that was wrong, and I knew that that had to change. So I went to the Recording Academy and I said, "I want to talk about disability." Give me a platform. I was definitely a lot more polite about it, but they did, because they were like, you know what, we actually don't have anything, so let's give this woman a platform. So we put together this panel, and it was myself, and I reached out to a couple of friends I had made along the way, which was Gaylen Lee, Namel Norris, Cyda Garrett, who is actually the background singer for Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson and all sorts of of things. A bunch of us, just about 5 or 6 of us, we came together and we spoke with Valicia Butterfield-Jones, who was the CDEIO at that time and eventually became the president of the Grammys. And we had a great discussion. We were talking about what we need in the music industry. And then what ended up happening was by the end of that conversation, which was a virtual discussion, Valicia said, "Okay, well, we're hearing all of your complaints and your discussions. What we'll do is we're going to come back to you folks with what we want to do, with a plan of action of how to help disability and accessibility be more incorporated into the music industry. Mind you, we're talking to the people at the top top, right? We're talking to the Recording Academy and basically the president of the Recording Academy. And I was thinking, you're going to get back to us? We're just 5 musicians. We don't— we're not like anything. We're just 5 people. Like, you're a whole entity. That panel ended up going viral and being one of the most attended panels for the New York chapter Recording Academy that really ever happened. And so people started coming into my DMs and going, "Well, Lachi, are you going to start that movement? Are you going to be the one to start getting us together? Artists, industry professionals, managers, everybody who identifies as neurodivergent, disabled, are you going to do it?" And people kept going, "I loved what you said." You need to start the movement. And I didn't want to do it. Like, my man— my previous manager had just passed away. I— my career was kind of in shambles. I was doing all sorts of— I had just got off this really big tour, and then my manager passed away right after it, right, to COVID. So I was freaking out, and everything was upside down because of COVID And I was like, I don't want to do this. But when I saw all those DMs come in, it was a calling that like spark. You know when you're just sitting down and you're— I don't know if it's prayer or meditation or whatever, you just get that calling and you're like, "This is what I have to do." And so I said yes. I said yes to that calling of, "You're going to be that one that brings people in the music industry together to have this discussion at the mainstream top level about disability inclusion, culture, identity." and pride within the music and live events industry. And that was how Rammt was formed. And today Rammt has really done a lot of achievements. I mean, by the end of 2022, we were recognized by the UN for eliminating barriers, right? So we were awarded by the Zero Project for eliminating barriers and bringing opportunity to recording artists and music professionals with disabilities. We were able to team up with Netflix to give opportunities to songwriters and composers with disabilities. We did some roundtables with their leadership. We partnered with Tidal to get some songs from producers and songwriters with disabilities on different high-visibility playlists. Uh, we were able to get some very high-level PR from everywhere from Forbes to The Hollywood Reporter to Billboard to The New York Times for all of the work that we did bringing accessibility inclusion to high visibility events like you mentioned, the Grammys. We partnered with the Grammys in 2022. We partnered with the Grammys in 2023. We're partnering with the Grammys in 2024. And what we're bringing them is really high-level, high-visibility accessibility on their red carpets. We advocated for ASL on their red carpets, for ramps on their red carpet, for audio description during their pre-show. We also advocated for a visibly accessible ramp during their show. We advocated for captioning and sign language during the show, and all of these things are happening. We were recognized by the Music Business Association for our work bringing change, and I'm really proudest of that because we are looked at as a music business industry network, not a disability Accessibility Network, right? So the music industry recognizes us as a music industry organization that caters to folks with disabilities and amplifies accessibility. We've also since received a Ford Foundation grant. We've also since received— very recently received a Borealis grant. We've worked with Google. We've worked with the American Association of Independent Music. We've worked with the Folk Alliance. It's like, it goes on. We've worked with Music Forward, who is the foundational arm of Live Nation. So we've done a liz-ot, um, and we're so proud. This year we're going to be building out our advisory board, and we are going to again be partnering with the Grammys. We're going to be rolling out some really amazing programming for the music industry and also for our membership. And for us to do all of that It is thanks to really amazing folks like you folks who will be donating to RAMPD after you hear about all the amazing things we are now doing for music professionals with disabilities, neurodivergence, and mental health conditions. And really, all you have to do is go to rampd.org. R-A-M-P-D dot org slash donate. And there you can donate however much you'd like. There is a certain amount that if you donate it, you will get your name on the website. So that. But other than that, really what we're doing is we're bringing change to society through culture. So I firmly believe that just like hip-hop really amplified Black culture and country music really amplified rural culture, and I mean globally. I mean, when I go to Europe, I see them listening to country music and recognizing American culture through it. I want to do the same thing. I want to amplify disability culture. The best way we all know how, and that's through music.

Oh, so awesome. That's rampd.org, is that right? Is that correct? Okay, so go there and make a donation because you know what, all these things are great, but to do these great things, you need resources. Lachi and Arthur, I cannot thank you enough for being on the show, and you know I'll have you on again. Uh, and I just want to say once, L-A-C-H-I, go to Spotify, Amazon, wherever your social venue, and download Lachi. Start with Lift Me Up and you'll want everything she has out there. Uh, Arthur, thank you, thank you.

Thank you, it was a real pleasure.

Ah, and Lachi, I just love you. I love you and you're just such a star. I love you, love you, love you, and I will always be singing your praises. You know we end every show with a quote, so get ready everyone. Differently abled is a euphemism. "It suggests that saying disabled should be avoided, but it's wrong because it's wrong or negative. But this only further heightens stigma against people with disability. There's nothing wrong with a mind or a body that causes you to need to be euphemized," said Lachi. This is Joyce Bender. America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com. And in the words of Mary Brooker, when you go out today, remember, choose joy.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11:00 AM 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters, right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.