Category: Blind Writer

Neal Slavin’s “Blind Woman” (1963) * Image Descriptions

“New York City, Blind Woman” (1963) is by Neal Slavin, world-respected photographer and film director. I first met Neal, briefly, at the old Lighthouse Music School (now FMDG Music School), where he brought his ICP students to assist him in taking a large group shot of all us students—children and adults, with and without our instruments. More on that photo… Read more

NYPL Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellowship for “Face of the Blind: Essays on Photography”!

Thanks to a Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellowship, New York Public Library will be my office this fall! I’m excited to bang around the library telling people I’m doing research in the Wallach Photography Collection… Face of the Blind: Essays on Photography Proposal by M. Leona Godin Many anonymous blind people populate the  photographs of NYPL’s Wallach            Collection. Through a series of essays,… Read more

Dad Gives Me the Gold * Storytelling Audio + Text

I performed this story at Turn Me into Gold: A Storytelling Party in the beautiful St. Joseph’s Arts Society in San Francisco. It was a wonderful night with so many old and dear friends in the audience. Wish my dad could have been there. But then it would have been a different story… Dad Gives Me the Gold   It’s… Read more

Revisiting “Cancer Vs. Blindness”

*I’m facing another biopsy this week and I’m trying not to freak out! Besides hoping that the results are negative, I’m also crossing my fingers that I’ll not have to deal with ableism at the doctor’s office like last time… With respect to making lemonade out of a sour situation, “Cancer Vs. Blindness” was the first essay I wrote for… Read more

Blindness, Disability, Accessibility, and Innovation * ACT Talk +Essay

ACT Equity Keynote, May 23, 2023 My flurry of travel speaking gigs in the spring finished with an online presentation for ACT (known for their college test). It touches on a lot of the #DownWithOcularcentrism/up with #BlindPride points I discuss in much of  my writing and have been developing in recent talks, where I also incorporate storytelling techniques to keep… Read more

Aromatica Poetica Summer 2023 Newsletter: Multisensory Explosion

After traveling to four states in two months, my spring speaking mini-tour ended with a final virtual talk and blog post for ACT (famous for their college entrance tests). The summer kicked off with a story at TALE: NYC’s Finest Storytelling, and we’re settling into summer in the East Village with Tompkins Square Park as our living room, so come… Read more