Not Just BS is a disabled-led networking, discussion and performance forum for artists and activists from diverse disability identities. 

Programme Highlights:

• Oluwatobi (Tobi) Balogun presents his short film ‘Lows of the Highlife’.  An experimental shortfilm about personal experiences with chronic pain. A collaboration by two artists both with chronic illnesses/disabilities,  bringing together dance, poetry and visuals. Written and performed by Tobi Balogun. Produced and directed by Susannah Appleby.
• Welcome from Edel Murphy (CEO and Artistic Director, University of Atypical), with guest Pádraig Naughton (Executive Director, Arts and Disability Ireland).
• Brain Injury Matters installation: Flourishing in Times of Change.

Panel chaired by Ruth McCarthy. Ruth is Artistic Director of Outburst Arts and Outburst Queer Arts Festival. She has been a queer curator and activist for 35 years, working with intersectional feminist approaches and non-normative narratives.

Panellists:

• Alice McCullough is a poet, writer, comedian, film-maker, and disability rights advocate from Belfast.
• Julie McNamara is a QueerCrip, working class Butch Dyke, playwright, theatre, filmmaker, and disability activist.
• Paula Clarke is a performance artist, actor, and sign language poet. Paula was born Deaf, and grew up in the Deaf community. She is personally and professionally active in the Deaf, neurodivergent and disability communities.
• Tobi Balogun is a multidisciplinary artist whose background and training span dance, fashion, film and visual art. Tobi’s practice fixes the lens on black masculinity, cultural sustainability and community. He has performed for, and created performances with, Cois Ceim, Cathy Coughlan, Story of the Sei, Dance Ireland, and others. He lives with an invisible disability.
• Edel Murphy is CEO and Artistic Director of University of Atypical. Edel is a disabled, queer, Donegalian and Gaeilgeoir who has worked across the arts sector in Northern Ireland.
• Zofia Kuligowska is a performance artist neuroqueering language to challenge common ways of thinking and communicating. Zofia is a researcher of care practices in art and collaboration, an autistic mother, and a PhD candidate in the Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland.

Tea, coffee, and refreshments from 10:15 am.