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The Somerville Journal: Thursday June 19, 2008
View Online Article HereSomerville hip-hop artist running for office from his wheelchair
By Teddy Applebaum
Somerville -
Cerebral palsy has rendered his hands useless and confined him to a wheelchair,
but activist Keith Jones is anything but constrained.
Rather then succumb to resentment or sink into a system that has left so many others with disabilities behind, Jones, 38, has taken life by storm.
The multitalented entrepreneur who was recently featured in the documentary “Labeled Disabled” has self-produced two hip-hop albums, can write with his feet, and on June 20 will officially announce he is running for John Kerry’s seat in the U.S. Senate.
In the documentary, Cambridge Friends School teacher Maggie Doben chronicles her unique curriculum where students meet a number of successful individuals suffering from a wide range of disabilities. Through these interactions, Doben hopes to change the perception that disability is synonymous with inability.
Jones, living off Beacon Street in Somerville, said he wanted to be part of the documentary because he believes what Doben is doing is important and needs to be shared.
“If I could clone Maggie, I would. That whole kind of holistic, real-world, hands-on teaching really alters how you learn in a positive way. It makes you start to see beyond labels,” he said.
As a man who has spent his life dealing with such labels, it is easy to understand his motivation. In his youth, he was sidelined by teachers who thought teaching him would be a waste of education, and girls balked at entering into a relationship with him due to his physical limitations. To this day Jones, who is black, faces the assumption he was the victim of gun violence, and still experiences the profiling of police whom he said sometimes follow him suspiciously.
The proud father of two children, a 13-year-old boy and a 3-week-old girl, Jones recalled people asking him why, with his disability, he would want a child.
“What do you mean why? Because that’s what you do, you grow up, you marry, you have a family. When you get a wheelchair, it doesn’t come with a handbook that says you can’t have sex, you can’t have kids,” he said.
Jones’ confidence is a product of his upbringing.
During his youth, he had little contact with his father, and was raised almost entirely by his mother, who he calls his inspiration. He said she never allowed him to wallow in self-pity about his condition.
“She was like ‘either you do it or you don’t’,” said Jones. “She would say ‘if you’re smart and educated and do your thing, then there’s really not much you can’t accomplish’.”
His mother did her best to expose Jones to a traditional childhood. He joined the Boy Scouts, took auto-harp lessons and when his interest in hip-hop began to blossom, his mother bought him a drum machine.
In the 1980s, Jones decided he wanted to become a rapper. His style was popular and his tracks received some local airplay. He said he could have had a career if it wasn’t for his CP.
“The reason I don’t have a record is people thought I was too crippled. They would say ‘oh we don’t know how to market a person with a disability’,” said Jones.
Though he has never been able to achieve commercial success his love of music still remains a central part of his life.
In 2007, a friend began “Krip Hop” an organization aimed a bringing the music of those with disability into the public eye. Jones uses his feet to mix his tracks, a few of which appear on a mix tape put out by Krip Hop.
Along with making music, Jones writes, draws and even cooks using his feet. His motorized wheelchair is controlled with a joystick he operates with his toes.
A few years ago, Jones began to flirt with the idea of running for Senate. He said he got fed up with government that he believes does too little.
“If I ran the business the way the government runs it, I would be out of business,” said Jones, who is running as a “progressive independent.”
“I’m throwing my hat into the ring because this is a democracy; we’re supposed to have choice,” said Jones, who categorizes his campaign as “long-shot,” and said he knows it will not be easy.
When a man overhears Jones discussing his platform and begins to debate him on how the country should best be run, Jones tells him that he will do a better job if elected.
“You’re going to run for office?” said the man with a hint
of incredulity in his voice.
Jones takes the attitude in stride. After all, it is just another obstacle in
a life filled with broken barriers.
Asked if he is ready to face this type of reaction on a daily basis, Jones doesn’t hesitate.
“Hell yeah,” he said with passion.
The Boston Globe: August 31, 2008
Disabled in name, but not in life
Film documents innovative course
By Jennifer Schwartz
Globe Correspondent
After a decade of teaching first-graders about physical disabilities, Cambridge Friends School teacher Maggie Doben wanted to reflect on her program's progress, so she decided to film the intensive, eight-week curriculum - where 6- and 7-year-olds learn basic sign language, map out wheelchair routes, interact with visitors, and ask difficult questions.
"I wanted to document the program from beginning to end to capture the transition," said the 33-year-old Watertown resident, who was wearing a silver ring with "learn" embossed in Braille and sitting on a brightly painted, kid-sized chair in the school library during an interview last week.
The film, "Labeled Disabled," begins by highlighting students' misconceptions about physical disabilities. One child doesn't know what the word "disability" means; another thinks a little person is called a gnome. By the end, they're excited to tell their parents how one man can draw flowers by holding a pen in his toes.
The film - which took two years to produce - premieres Sept. 24 at the Friends School in North Cambridge. A part-time professional photographer whose media production background is limited to free videography classes she took at Watertown Cable Access Channel, Doben wants to show people a "great school doing great work" and hopes to inspire others to take on similar projects.
As a child growing up in Swampscott, Doben was fascinated with disabilities. Her parents bought her books on Helen Keller and took her to visit the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown at her request.
When she began teaching first grade 11 years ago in Providence, and later in Pittsburgh, Doben wanted to incorporate a unit on disabilities. But she ran into conflict with school officials.
"I've worked in schools that told me to cut out the circus show," Doben said. "At CFS, with the mission of anti-biased education, they were very receptive." The program Doben created is now taught to all first-graders at Friends School, where she began teaching in 2003.
Jody Ziebarth, principal at Friends, said Doben's curriculum fits with the school's Quaker tradition.
"Our mission is to see the light within people and to never judge," said Ziebarth. "Maggie is removing stigmas, and we completely support that."
Visitors to the class - people of different abilities, genders, ages and races - are the curriculum's core.
Keith Jones, a 38-year-old Somerville resident who has cerebral palsy and a giggle-inducing sense of humor, said he loves telling the class how he plays video games by holding the joystick upside down.
"Their eyes get really big and they ask questions point blank," said Jones. "I'd rather talk to kids because they don't have the superficial layers. Pretty quickly, they forget I'm in a wheelchair and just see me as Keith."
Lillian Johnson, a 68-year-old Somerville resident who has been blind since birth, makes a hit with the kids by bringing in her guide dog.
"Their minds are so alert, and they truly remember what I tell them," she said. "The questions are so innocent - they wonder how I know when the lights in my house are on."
During one segment of the 48-minute film, Doben focuses her lens on the students when they pose tough questions to disabled people. If you could wake up tomorrow and be able to see (hear, walk, etc.), would you want that?
Most often, the answer is a resounding "no."
"Not to be funny, but what an eye-opener that would be," Johnson explained over the phone. "We don't even think of our disabilities as such. Not being able to see has never gotten in the way of how I present myself. I led cross-county ski tours for the blind because I love outdoor sports."
Jones, who runs a consulting company called Soul Touchin' Experiences, agrees. "I get frustrated sometimes if there is no curb cut, for example," he said. "But I'm an active father, husband, artist, community activist, and aspiring politician, and I like the way I am."
While the project is designed for first-graders, the film's message is applicable to all ages.
"We want people to know that our only limitations are the ones society puts on us," said Michael Muehe, director of the Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities. "The kids in Maggie's classroom are really on the ball - so well-prepared. They ask a lot of provocative questions."
Doben is calling for more than tolerance, he said. Her message is to respect all people.
"It's instantly transferable to issues of gender, race, and religion because it says: 'respect the individual,' " Muehe said. "And that's what moves our communities forward."
"Now, more than ever," said Doben, "it's important because we have a war going on that is sending home thousands of wounded solders. They are trying to reenter society with disabilities."
This country has improved life for people with disabilities, she said, but cultural stigmas persist.
"Our society's aspirations are health, wealth, and beauty. People with disabilities are seen as ugly, unhealthy, and not being able to give anything to the workforce.
"Which is funny," she adds, "because most of my disabled friends are extremely smart and make more money than I do."
New England Cable News: September 22, 2008
Teacher challenges stereotypes at an early age
(Ally Donnelly, NECN) - A teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts is challenging stereotypes increasingly ingrained in our society. But rather than trying to teach old dogs new tricks, Maggie Doben is helping students learn about people with disabilities early, in the first grade. She has even made a film about it.
The lessons include book work -- where kids learn about different aspects of different disabilities, but their favorite part is when visitors come in.
Doben: "To actually have someone who comes who actually uses a wheelchair and sits before you and speaks to you about their life and how they use the wheelchair and what they can do, sort of makes that all sink in and makes it genuine."
The disabled visitors range from para and quadriplegics to amputees to blind people.
Maggie Doben: "I think the questions to me that are most interesting are the questions that as adults we often wonder but are too shy to ask. I think what's beautiful with kids at this age is that they have no filter. They ask what they're genuinely thinking and wondering and get their answers in a straightforward way."
Trottier -- the disabilities officer for Harvard University -- has experienced her fair share of cruelty. She tells the story of a group of men who whistled the tune "hi ho, hi ho" to her from Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs. "The bias and the meanness that people think is okay -- that they don't think that I have feelings. I don't know if it's -- little person, little mind."
Trottier says the give and take with children is far different.
Marie Trottier: "For them to ask everything -- from marriage to babies to driving to clothing and shoes -- and that we can literally sit there, stand there and talk to each other and explain the whole thing through is fascinating."
The curriculum is an intensive 8-week program, but Doben hopes through kids -- and their parents -- the effects will be far more sweeping. In the film she checks in with former students who are now in the 6th and 7th grade.
Doben: I was really struck by the amount that they remembered, by how they spoke about it so eloquently and how deeply it had impacted them.
Trottier talked with the parent of a student at a workshop -- where the child had become the teacher.
Trottier: "No, don't say the word midget, she's a little person -- you know, mom, c'mon don't embarrass me and it's one of those situations that's fantastic."
Doben: I really just see a transformation of understanding they quickly move from you have a disability to -- what are ways that we're the same?
For filmmaker Doben the story has come full circle....for teacher Doben..It's a job well done.
Student: "Before I met people with disabilities I was thinking, how will
I communicate? Now, I'm thinking, oh, it's just another way to live."
© Copyright 2008 Maggie Doben
