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life | neil marcus
TEXT BY JOSH A. HALSTEAD
“At age 13 I began learning co-counseling. Theories of liberation
and oppression. This enriched my thinking. My world. I could live.
I could give. I could love. I had a brush with which to touch-up the world. Ideas popping. I was radicalized. I had a vibrant self. I had expression.
I had raves.”—Neil Marcus
Poet, playwright, dancer, actor, and artist Neil Marcus (b. 1954) helped launch the dis- ability arts movement. With wit, humor, and physical movement, his play Storm Reading challenged normative ideas about disabled people. Other works include Cripple Poet- ics: A Love Story (with Petra Kuppers) and Special Effects: Advances in Neurology, a zine he authored, illustrated, and edited from the mid-1980s through the mid-’90s. Each issue features graphics, punk-rock typography, and concrete poetry, mixing stories from Berkeley’s independent living movement with philosophical reflections. Distributed via mail, Special Effects encour- aged disabled and nondisabled readers alike to make art in their own image.
Marcus drew inspiration from the Black Is Beautiful and Gay Liberation move- ments in the late 1970s. Moving north from Ojai, California, to Berkeley, he received a crash course in identity politics. Reflect- ing on that time, he states, “As a disabled person, I was struggling with the issues of self-pride. ‘Hiding’ [my body] in a ‘clos-
et.’ Struggling with all the issues of other people labeling me. . . . Here was a whole movement happening all around me that was addressing all of it. And being quite ‘in your face’ about it.” His work continues to be loud, proud, and subversively charming. Now coauthoring an autobiography, Mar- cus has produced a rich legacy of creativi- ty, political action, and community building.
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   NEIL MARCUS Pages from Special Effects.
























































































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