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Outlook: People used to stare at me. I fight back with my paintbrush

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Self-portrait '66 Degrees' showing Riva Lehrer, who has spina bifida, stepping in to water

27/10/2021 GMT

People used to stare at me. I fight back with my paintbrush

BBC World Service - Outlook, People used to stare at me. I fight back with my paintbrush

How artist Riva Lehrer's portraits challenge myths about disability

Artist Riva Lehrer was frustrated by the lack of authentic depictions of disabled people. So she decided to pick up her paintbrush and paint them herself.

American artist Riva Lehrer was born with spina bifida. She endured countless medical procedures through her childhood and adolescence and was told she would never have a job, a romantic relationship or an independent life. But everything changed when as an adult Riva was invited to join the Disabled Artists Collective, a group of artists, writers and performers who were challenging myths around disability in their work. She tells Emily Webb how she began to paint their portraits - and through her art started to transform the stories she’d been told about herself.
 
Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka is a literary legend; a poet, playwright and essayist who became Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in 1986. He has just published a new novel for the first time in half a century. He tells Outlook’s Helen Oyibo in Lagos how he endured two years of political detention during Nigeria’s civil war. This interview was first broadcast in February 2020.  

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Presenter: Emily Webb

Picture: '66 Degrees'. A self-portrait by Riva Lehrer, 2019.
Credit: Riva Lehrer

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