Your Disabled Wardrobe and Rest Nests Can Become Sites of Liberation with Sky Cubacub

Be first to know when the next episode drops

🚨Rest Nests for Nara: No Pride in Genocide, our virtual art workshop fundraiser for BIPOC folks, is happening Sunday, Jun 29, 3.30pm CT / 4.30pm ET. Sponsor or reserve a seat here to help our disabled Palestinian friend Nara and her family afford food, rent, fuel, and healthcare.

Due to limited spoons, the transcript may not always be perfectly accurate.

Transcript

TQ: All right. Welcome back to another episode of Unwiring Our Bodies, a podcast and love letter to disabled Bipoc, folks about unwiring ourselves from oppressive conditioning, from the harmful effects of social media and our devices from. And this is an expansion of the phrase, coined by bell hooks, imperialist, white supremacist, cis heteronormative, capitalist, and ableist patriarchy.

TQ: And in its place, how do we rewire ourselves to embody creativity and liberation? I'm your host TzeQing a queer, trans Chinese Singaporean artist, writer, facilitator, and squishy being. Today I'm joined by a good friend and Comrad, who recently co-facilitated our first embodied art workshop together called Rest Nest for nara.

TQ: We're going to learn all about their creative practice, their experience at our recent event, and how you can support their incredible work. 

Meet Sky Cubacub: Creator of Rebirth Garments

TQ: Our guest today is none other than Sky Cubacub who goes by they them, theirs, xey/xem/xyrs pronouns. They are non-binary disabled. Filipinx neuro queer from Chicago, Illinois.

TQ: They're the creator of Rebirth Garments, a line of incredible wearables for trans, queer, and disabled people of all sizes and ages, which started in summer 2014. They're also the author of Radical Visibility, a Queer Crip Dress Reform Movement Manifesto, which is an incredible read, and I'm going to drop a link in the show notes.

TQ: They're also the editor of the Radical Visibility Zine, a full color cut and paste style zine that celebrates disabled queer life. They're also the founding member of Radical Visibility Collective, which creates fashion performances with audio descriptive songs, which I will be featuring in a zine by the Rewilding coming up soon.

TQ: And they created Radical Fit, which is currently ongoing, oh, sky's on mute. Yes. Yes, it's, it's ongoing. A free online queer Crip DIY fashion program and fashion incubator with the Chicago, Chicago Public Library. And then it has a yearly summer celebration called the Queer Radical Fair at Ping to park in Chicago.

TQ: They're in the process of creating an online kid show about joyful disability access called Sky and the Rebirth Warriors. They have had over 60 fashion performances, lectures, and have given workshops at galleries, museums, universities, schools, and Sky was also named the 2018 Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune and was a 2019 and 2020 Kennedy Center Citizen artist and a 2020 Disability Futures fellow.

TQ: So we met in college many years ago. We recently, yeah. And we have maybe for another episode about how like ableist and. Awful. That college experience was. Oh yeah, definitely. And we recently reconnected on Instagram to raise funds for nara, our disabled Palestinian friend with multiple sclerosis and other health conditions.

TQ: Nara is the person behind the name Rest Nests for Nara, and you'll hear more about it today. Thank you so much for joining me today, sky. I wanted to make sure to do like a good job of being your hype man and introducing all the incredible stuff you've done for, all the queer Crips and neuro queers in the world.

TQ: But before we get into it, I do wanna start off by asking how you're arriving in this moment and also asking our listeners, you know, to check in together with us. How are you feeling in this moment? I. 

Sky: This is Sky speaking. I'm feeling okay. I'm a bit tired. I just woke up. I'm very much a night owl and because my disabilities and my brain doesn't really wake up until much later in the day, so yeah, my brain's a little asleep, but I'm happy to be here and happy to be in conversation with you.

TQ: Yay. Thank you for, for being here. I'm so excited 'cause like some of these questions I've never actually asked you before, so I'm excited what you have to say. And also thank you for showing up as yourself. That was also my, like what you described. My brain starts shutting down around this time, which was when we held Rest Nests for Nara .

TQ: So it was really nice to co-facilitate with you and be like, at the moments when I was spacing out, like, it's okay. Sky's here. We can do this together. Yeah. So on this podcast we, we talk about embodying creativity for collective liberation, and I can think of no better example than like the work you do for rebirth garments and creating garments that help disabled queer folks feel more liberated in our bodies.

Sky's Journey with Sensory-Friendly Fashion

TQ: Can you maybe start with your own experience of, trying to find the right clothing or, or create more liberatory clothing for your body and sensory needs and how that inspired rebirth garments? 

Sky: Yeah. So when I was a child I. I really had a problem with seams, especially seams on socks and underwear and yeah, I think about my mom telling me about like, my main first fashion choices.

Sky: Like she knew that I was interested in fashion at an early age because I decided once I started dressing myself when I was one or two that I wanted two different colored socks. So I feel like socks were both my way of expressing fashion early on, but also my like enemy because they were so uncomfortable.

Sky: Yeah. Um, so yeah, I wore my socks and underwear inside out for most of my childhood now seems are like a lot. Like the technology is a lot better for stocks, so that's great news for me. But yeah, it just had a lot of sensory sensitivities to clothing. It couldn't really deal with itchy clothing or if it had some applique or something on it.

Sky: It was always very uncomfortable. And then when I was in college with you, I gained kind of like a stomach disability. 

Sky: And I no longer could wear most of the clothing that I used to wear. I had to make sure that I was wearing very soft and stretchy things around my abdomen because my, my stomach would hurt so, so much.

Sky: Um, so I completely changed the way that I dressed. Well, I guess the style still looked the same, but that's exactly what I wanted, was making clothing for myself where I could still. Show off my personal style. But that was comfortable for me. So yeah. And, and then, yeah, in high school I got interested in exploring my gender identity when I was a sophomore and I, yeah, really wanted a chest binder and like packing underwear and a packer, but I didn't have access to that.

Sky: So like I tried to do some goofy ways of trying to put that type of stuff together, but it didn't really work very well. So yeah, by the time I was in college and I've learned the techniques needed in order to be able to make myself these items that that's when I started making them.

Sky: And I just wanted to make a clothing line that expressed. All of my identities at the same time, as well as showing off my, my style. 

TQ: Yeah. I when you talked about showing off all the identities at the same time I am still in the process of like placing my, my custom order with you. But what I loved about the, so when you place an order with Sky, they'll send you a Google document asking you about all your clothing, um, needs and preferences and, and parts of a body you wanna highlight or maybe hide or need more support.

TQ: And as someone with ADHD that was overwhelming, but also exciting yeah. That mm-hmm. I can't wait to finally fill that thing in, um, and, and like feel so much more comfortable. Everything you said about especially needing things to be soft and stretchy is, I like we both have, um, you were, do you mind, uh, sharing like we, we both have like joint hypermobility, right?

TQ: Um, yeah. Yeah. And I think that also plays a part in skin I, me feeling like sensitivity to, to certain types of clothing and I'm still struggling, you know, to find the right clothing that I feel liberated in. Yeah. 

Inspiration Behind Rebirth Garments

TQ: So I was also curious when creating Rebirth garments what would you say were your.

TQ: Other inspirations? Were there like artists or family members that inspired your work? 

Sky: Yeah. Mostly it was like my own experience, but then I also was making some, uh, items of clothing for my younger cousin Sophie, who had, uh, hereditary sensory neuropathy type two. So that's a genetic disorder where you don't have like the myeline sheath around your nerves, so it makes it so that she couldn't feel external pain or like hot and cold type of of things.

Sky: She had. Some different clothing needs, like absorbent scarves for spit and drool, and then like a CS ostomy bag cover to make it cute. And yeah, I made some other items for her, but those are the like main disability specific items. 

Sky: Mm-hmm. 

Sky: So yeah, I, I made first one of the absorbent scarfs and my aunt was like, oh, you should make a clothing line for kids with disabilities.

Sky: But yeah, I wasn't interested in making it for just kids because there, you know, there's a lot of, most of the dis say, disability like resources or companies either focus on kids or the elderly. And there's not really like the in between now it's different. Now there's a little bit more options for people who are between childhood and, and being a senior.

Sky: But yeah, I just wanted to make something that could be for everyone of all ages. Mm-hmm. 

TQ: One thing when I was preparing for this interview and looking at your website, looking at how your models are wearing the different pieces and how free and, and how joyful they look. Yeah. Share, yeah. Can you share a bit more about how clothing can shape the way we, we feel liberated.

TQ: Our bodies and like the experience of working with models to, to, such that the, the feeling of, of liberation, you could feel it through those photographs. 

The Impact of Comfortable Clothing

Sky: Oh, for myself personally, like, yeah. I just remember so many times in my life where, you know, my socks were hurting or like my underwear, seams were hurting and you know, I, I'd come home from school and I'd have bruises on my hips from the seams on my underwear.

Sky: And just like thinking about how distracting that would be during school and yeah, like for me just like hyper fixating on that and not actually having energy to think about anything else sometimes. Yeah, like being able to have clothing that is comfortable to me, then it's like, oh, now I can think about other things.

Sky: I, I can think about what I actually wanna think about rather than just being distracted all the time by like, pain and uncomfortability. So like, that's like one element of that. But then yeah, also being able to wear something that really feels like it represents yourself. And also, like for me, like my values I, yeah.

Sky: And I just, you know, I do these interviews with all of the models that model for me to, uh, like the, like custom dream garments look that you are the Google Doc that you're looking at. So yeah, I try to make a garment that fulfills all of their. Along with yes, style and gender affirming.

Sky: Um, but then I just like put a little boost of like, you know, I like up the saturation to, to make it a little bit still like a little bit me. And yeah, just like seeing people come out of their shells. I've seen so many people get very excited and feel so good in their clothing. And I've had like a really, like big number of people who've like, come out to me 

Sky: mm-hmm.

Sky: Either as trans or, uh, as disabled or as queer. Like, uh, yeah. So many people have come out to me or like, yeah, sometimes models will be like, oh. I'm really interested in modeling, but I'm, you know, I'm just queer. I'm not disabled or something. But then after they, um, model for me, then they like, then they're like, oh, actually I am disabled.

Sky: I just don't, haven't ever been able to talk about it. So it's like, yeah, whenever somebody is interested in modeling, for me, I was always like, well, if you're very drawn to it, then there's probably a reason. 

TQ: Yeah. 

Sky: So, uh, yeah. Before before the pandemic started, I would just always take like however many models and however, like I would just try to make it work.

Sky: Like I would, sometimes do a collection of like 25 looks just because that's how many people ask to model for me. I was like, okay. Now it's like much more limited. And I only do a couple show, or yeah, I only do one show a year, and it's usually actually the student, my incubator students show.

Sky: So I'm not really showing my own work anymore currently. But yeah, that's how I would do. But I remember an early interview with a friend Natalia, who it was like the first one Yeah. One of the first interviews that I did. And she was just like, I didn't think anybody would ever care about how I would feel in clothing or like, yeah.

Sky: Saying like, yeah, how like nobody's ever cared about her. Feeling cute or sexy in clothing as well. Like, so not just so yeah, just on many levels feeling very cared for just by having these very simple questions asked. And I'm like, oh man. Like, just seeing the power of, of how, of asking these questions about how people feel in their clothing and what they wish was different was like transformative, a transformative experience in itself for a lot of people.

TQ: Just taking a deep breath because, uh, yeah, I, I definitely felt that feeling when I first saw, saw the questions. And I think it's just everything you shared is so beautiful about how. Finally having clothing that was made for you with like, love and care and access needs in mind. Yeah, that, that really resonated with me.

TQ: And I was also really surprised to hear that the process of, of, you know, getting, I don't know what the term is but getting, having the clothes, made and modeling in them became the process of people, uh, coming out about queerness or disability. Um, that kind of answered my next question. Like what's the most surprising or like the biggest thing you've learned?

TQ: Oh, yeah, yeah. Working with queer and trans disabled bodies. Yeah. And then I guess now, because you mentioned. Like, how the volume of shows you've done has reduced since the pandemic started, you know, so that for COVID safety reasons, obviously. Um, could you also share, like how has your, like what is your relationship to creativity these days?

Navigating Creativity with Chronic Fatigue

TQ: When you know our, when your energy and spoons can change and they can ebb and flow day by day. 

Sky: Yeah. So I think there's a good amount of people that, oh, I don't know if people pay attention to my Instagram, they might know, but there's a lot of people who don't know this. But right before the pandemic started, I got mononucleosis also, which is from the Epstein Bar Virus.

Sky: I know in other places it's called Glandular Fever. And that turned into pretty Yeah, a pretty intense life change because I got my encephalomyelitis slash chronic fatigues syndrome and yeah, I just like completely changed my capacity to do anything. I used to basically have infinite energy, I felt like, and my brain used to always be running real hard.

Sky: And just, yeah, always full of ideas. I like wouldn't be able to catch up with my ideas. Now I am probably at 5% capacity of what I used to do. And yeah. And so I just really can't do very much anymore. I am trying to get my, I don't know, I'm trying to get better at pacing so that I can maybe have more energy or like, yeah, not crash as much.

Sky: But yeah, it, it has completely changed my relationship to creativity. And then, yeah, because I'm immunocompromised, it's like there's a lot of things that I can't really go to. Like I can't really go out in the world very much when I going out in the world, very, very.

Sky: Mostly it's the going to the doctor. And then I teach the Radical Fit incubator at the library once a week, but that takes up basically all of my energy for the week, and then I can't really do much else. Yeah, my relationship to creativity is funny because I don't really get to do very much fun stuff for myself anymore.

Sky: Every once in a while I'll be able to like pull out some work for Rebirth Garments for like specific commissions. Yeah, recently I've worked with a couple of different disabled dance companies on making them costumes and that's really fun. That's kind of like the ideal project for me to, 'cause my mom was a professional dancer, so, I guess that also is like a big inspiration to my work is like throwing up, wearing lots of leotards and unitards and my mom wears a leotard every single day under all of her clothes. Mm-hmm. So like, yeah, just having dance wear as like a main yeah, main part of our clothing of our closets. So like getting to make clothing for like disabled and queer dancers is just like perfect.

Sky: But yeah, right now I'm, I just started a new medication, so I, I'm like just barely starting to have more energy these days and, and more brain energy, which it's so wild. So much of the time I have had brain fog and I just like, literally can't think new thoughts or like read or type. Like I can regurgitate old thoughts, but I can't think new things.

Sky: Yeah. Uh, which is so wild. But just the difference in the last two weeks that I've had since starting a new medication, like being able to think is amazing and I, I feel so excited and everybody's like, whoa. Because I'm just so excited to be able to think thoughts. 

TQ: Yeah. Which is I think something non-disabled people take for granted, like access to the, to our break.

TQ: Yes. Our thought. Yeah. Ah and like, to be able to count on having your brain, like when I do my podcast episodes, I'm always afraid. I, I know I have some, uh, episodes out there that I, I did them with brain fog and everything's pretty obvious, but, you know, a whole point is to show up as I am and not gonna hide that, you know, this is part of my disability.

TQ: Um, but because we're about to pivot to talking about Rest Nests for nara, one thing I notice about your Rest Nest is, and then what you said about why I'm okay. Backtrack here. I'm getting ahead of myself. So you said something at rest that I never thought about myself as a way of staying connected to creativity.

TQ: Not in like a hands-on, like I'm making something kind of way. And so the specific thing was like your, it was your bedroom, right?

Sky: Mm-hmm. 

TQ: At Rest Nests you had so much art up on your walls and you said, wait, do you remember what you said? 'cause now I don't wanna, oh, I 

Sky: think something about like, you know, a lot of, a lot of whatever, sleep hygiene, blah, blah, blah, is talking about like, oh, I have a calming area, don't have too much stimuli in your bedroom, or things like that.

Sky: But I'm like, I spent almost all of my time in my bed or working from bed. So like, if I didn't have. Completely covering the walls, then I would just like never get to look at art really. And that would feel terrible. So yeah, I have always completely covered my walls and art. It actually, to me, the there it's like a little bit bare right now, even though it definitely isn't just because I have moved some art away.

Sky: Like I used to have the art going all the way down to the bed, but now I have these like wedges so that I could kind of do sit up mode in bed if I turn to if I use one of the walls as a I know like a, as support. Um, but yeah, I used to just, but it used to be like completely covered with art down, down to the bed.

Sky: Um, so it's a little bit less right now, but yeah. 

TQ: I think, right now I'm all of the the stuff I like to look at, like my plants and my art are just in my studio. And when you said that, I was like, huh, I wonder how the bedroom would feel different if there was art up everywhere as a way to like, you know, still on days when it's hard to get out of bed, to still have that source of creativity.

TQ: That Yeah, that's what, um, stayed with me when, when you said that. Yeah. 

Rest Nests for Nara Workshop

TQ: Let's, let's pivot to, to talking about, uh, Rest Nests for nara. What was your experience of facilitating the workshop? 

Sky: I had a great time. , It felt really easy and accessible for me to facilitate. And yeah, I have like some of those wearable health tracker things to like, make sure that I am pacing and not going overboard with activities. And it stayed in the, like resting mode, which yeah, lots of times when I'm talking or facilitating my heart rate will I go up a lot.

Sky: So yeah, it was very cool to see that it didn't, it didn't like take up any, uh, what the, this health tracker is the visible health tracker and, pace points, which is basically like the spoons that you're allotted in a day. I didn't use any pace points for the rest nest. So that was very exciting. I was like, oh, I could do this all the time then.

TQ: That's such a huge compliment. Resting achieved. Um, yeah, I didn't know that. You brought your presence and your own perspective and experiences too. I really appreciated the stories that you would share behind, like your Rest Nest.

TQ: I mean, like it's how I got to know about, like, the story behind the art on your walls. Yeah. And, and sharing your experience. 'cause like part of this workshop was also inspired by your No. So, um. Fashion hacking philosophy, like yeah. Finding what's comfortable and, and then not using stuff the way you expect to use it.

TQ: All of that. And then I really appreciate you like sharing more about those. Like we didn't, we definitely didn't just stick to the slides. Yeah. We went on for, for slightly over two hours. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. So could you paint a picture for the audience? What's, what was in your nest that day?

TQ: Because I know we took a group picture, but like, there was a lot more that you actually, like, you, you did kind of a show and tell, so maybe, uh, you could share. 

Sky: Yeah. Ooh. 

Sky: So I have I mean, I basically didn't add anything new to my nest. This is just like the nest that I always have. And it's so funny when you, uh, came up with the title of the workshop because.

Sky: Yeah, my partner literally has always called my side of the bed a nest. So yeah, I have like two of those, like big body pillows for and I have, I have like, it's called a Medline. Mm-hmm. Like pillow system. It's supposed to be like better for not squishing up your shoulders. Um, and then, yeah, there's like some wedges against the wall so that I can sit up.

Sky: And then I, I have a little thing it's called a couch console or something like that. It has like cup holders where I have my chapstick and other little things and my tablet so I can watch tv. And then I have some different weighted stuffed animals. Some of them are moon pals, which are kind of these like big huggable bunnies that are weighted.

Sky: And then I have like a little hardi grade one and I ax a lot or a float. I can't. Okay. I know. Okay. Yeah, I know Americans say acts a lot, but that's not how you say it. It's alo. I dunno. I'm just bad at everything, um, with words. And then, yeah, I, a really cute thing I have is the pillow that me and my therapist made a long time ago.

Sky: I think I've put the date on this pillow. We, um, I taught, my therapist taught it embroider, and we worked on this pillow together for like, I don't know, a year. I think it's, what year is this? Okay, we finished it February, 2017. Mm-hmm. Feels like we did this earlier, but maybe that's right. I dunno.

Sky: So for my side is a bunch of scraps where I embroidered things that help me ground myself. Yeah, there's like a bathtub with salt being poured in. There's a bicycle, which yeah, I can no longer bicycle, but whatever this is from before, there's my ger sewing machine. 

Sky: Uh, a cup of tea. There's my, my pet bunny who passed away Tor uh, there's a pinata for being like, oh, you can hit things. And then on the other side is the side that my therapist embroidered and it's like one big neuron and it has all these little really nice I don't know, spots of thick embroidery. And then, yeah, we, she sewed together my patches and, well, I guess I sewed some of them.

Sky: So it's, it's really funny 'cause you can see, you can see the difference from the parts where I sewed them together are really, really neat. And then the ones that they sewed together are like wild. And then I sewed together like the. Full pillow together and we stuffed it. But yeah, that was partially my therapist being like, oh, you don't wanna yeah, just me trying to practice me being okay with things that aren't perfect looking was one of the assignments for that, but it's like a nice size.

Sky: It's squeezable, it's a weird geometric shape, but then I can also like scream into it. Mm-hmm. And then, oh yeah, I have a lot of these, like, they're called like baby pillows or something. They are for like preventing flat flathead or something. But basically there's a hole cut out of a little pillow.

Sky: And I have a bunch of these because I have so many piercings. So in order to like lay my head comfortably on a pillow, I need. A little hole. Little from my ear. 

TQ: Yeah, that's, and yeah, sorry, I was just gonna with piercings I eventually just kind of gave up. It was sensory overload when going to sleep, so that, that's, uh, it's ki so it's like kind of like a donut pillow, but for baby snack?

TQ: Yeah. 

Sky: Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's real soft. 

TQ: Wow. 

Introduction to Rest Nests

TQ: Um, I realize we haven't really introduced what a rest nest is to the audience. So I'm, and, and the reason why I'm getting Sky to like, explain what's in their rest nest is, 'cause I think this wasn't the exact question that was asked at the event, but like a very reasonable question to ask would be like, so what's the difference between a rest nest and just making our beds?

Rest Nests as Art for Disabled Folks

TQ: For me, a rest nest is actually a work of art. Um. Especially for disabled folks where traditional forms of making art might not be accessible for us anymore. And this happened to me recently and I was like, well, the process of like assembling this space for ourselves to rest in, to, like you hear from Sky, there are like so many grounding objects and like comfort items and items of beauty also that go into a rest nest.

TQ: I just wonder like, the if you showed me like the a rest nest and like the bed of a non-disabled person, I'm, I am, I think that a lot more thought goes into crafting these spaces for us and I want to like, honor and celebrate that as an art form. 

Prompts and Community Aspects of Rest Nests

TQ: So at the event, we do give like prompts for assembling a rest nest.

TQ: But what I noticed is that the folks who showed up already had one, assembled.

Sky: Yes. 

TQ: This is like part of, like what we need to feel good in our bodies and why can't art just feel good in our bodies as an, you know, as something, and, you know, people might dismiss it as like a domestic act.

TQ: Uh, it's just making your bed. I think that's like, understandable, but also like an invitation to reflect on like patriarchy and how certain forms of labor, of caring for ourselves don't get recognized as art. Yeah. So that's why like I'm like savoring all these details, guy that you've shared about Rest Nest.

TQ: Some of them I didn't even hear at the event. And I think especially the embroidery. A pillow with your therapist that's on the, that sounds so meaningful and powerful. 

Sky: Yeah, it was a huge I feel like, yeah, I think we really did work on it over the course of like a whole year. And it's like every day or every time we would meet weekly, we would work on it together while we were chatting.

TQ: Oh that's amazing. And I love that it, you know, the, the symbols or the images you chose were like grounding images. Um, yeah. 

Grounding, Resting, and Raging in Community

TQ: Which brings me to, 'cause I, so another difference between a Rest Nests and a bed is that, you know, at the event we. We are doing everything in community. We did like a grounding practice and then like resting and then also a rage ritual.

TQ: So I don't know how many of us do a rage ritual before going to bed, but uh, yeah, that those are the differences. And I was wondering if you could share your experience of grounding and resting and raging in community. 

Personal Experiences and Stories

Sky: Yeah, I was feeling pretty good that day. But yeah, I remember you were doing like a grounding exercise and yeah, your voice was so calm and I was definitely starting to get very sleepy during, that's like mostly what I remember.

Sky: At some point I did fixate a little bit too much on. One piece of art in my room and I was like, oh, maybe I should move this to a different part because yeah, when we were doing that grounding ritual, I, I laid in my bed in like a different way than I usually do. So I was like looking at a different perspective and yeah, I was like maybe thinking a lot about wanting to update the art on the walls.

Sky: Somewhat but yeah. Oh yeah. I remember when we were talking about the rage art I told you about how my partner was trying to get me some little like boxing gloves to be able to like punch safely, not hurt my hands. And they like called to like three different sports supply stores and they all said like, oh yeah, yeah, we have this.

Sky: And then they like went. And they didn't have them. And like, yeah, my partner does not really leave the house very much because they're also very immunocompromised. So it was like kind of a big deal that they left, but so because they couldn't find it, then they got me a stuffed animal that like, you know, now there's like a lot of those stuffed animals where you can like turn them inside out and then they're like a different stuffed animal.

Sky: Yeah. But because of that, there's like kind of a, like a little hole squishy hole in them. And so they caught me, one of those that I could put my hand in to use that as a little boxing glove. But then you had like really nice fancy boxing G gloves that were like pretty 

Challenges and Adaptations

TQ: yeah, I guess that's like, um, it, that was for me, like an object of both brief and rage.

TQ: I, I remember, um, the moment I realized I would never really use them again in, um. And like for their actual purpose was 

Sky: mm-hmm. 

TQ: During the, the start of the lockdown, like March April, 2020. And just a few months before that, a physical therapist told me like, you can't box, you can't do Muay Thai ever again.

TQ: Like you're doing damage to your shoulders and your knees and your No. And I was in denial, but then like when during lockdown couldn't go anywhere, just like, oh my God, this is real. Yeah. But I couldn't get rid of the gloves and then now I know why it was so that I could, you know, punch stuff during rest.

TQ: Yeah. So, so for anyone who's listening, like at the event we didn't want to ignore. There's a lot of performative wellness, I think during the thing I called it White Lady Wellness like performative wellness in somatic spaces and creative spaces that acts like, shit isn't going down or they expect us to be zen and calm.

TQ: And that's definitely not one of the aims of Rest Nests for Nara. Like, yes, we wanna rest and like, take care of each other, but also we wanna like, have space for, there's a lot to feel right now about the world. So yeah, that's, that's just another aspect of Rest Nests for Nora. Did you end up punching anything?

Sky: Oh yeah. I just punched around. Punched around the bed? 

TQ: Yeah. Did, did your uh, sky's dog's name is DOG did. Was she there when you were punching? 

Sky: She was just laying down. She was napping. I think. She was like, whatever, this brain, this, sorry. This whole time she's been napping right next to me right now because she is like, Ugh, you got up too early.

Sky: It's 2:00 PM And she's ah, yes, this is too early. Because she's my dog friend, and she knows that our bedtime is very late and we sleep in very late. 

TQ: Yeah, I guess that's why she was so relaxed during rest. I definitely woke my cat up and yeah, she just got up and stared like, what are you doing?

TQ: Um. 

Upcoming Events and Support

TQ: So before we share the news about the next rest for Nora, would you like to share any, like, upcoming events or like offerings from Rebirth Garments, you know, how can folks support your business? 

Sky: Yeah, so our next, the, or Yeah. The next queer radical fair is July 31st at four 30 to 8:30 PM at ping Tom Memorial Park in Chicago's Chinatown.

Sky: Uh, will be by the pagoda and under the overpass. And then yeah, that, so that is also going to be live streamed. The last couple of years it's been live streamed. And yeah, you can just check out my, the website, rebirth garments.com and look under the events page. And that I am getting back to actually updating my website so it has info for the next rest Nest for nara, it has next theoretical fair.

Sky: And then there is also some big exhibits that I'm in. One is the, at the VNA museum in London the disability and design exhibit. So that's like a pretty exciting, or no, it's, oops, sorry. It's design and disability. 

Sky: Mm-hmm. 

Sky: So yeah. Giant and exciting exhibition and they used my photo as the cover photo.

Sky: So I guess I'm a cover queer now, but actually no. I've been a cover queer for a while for other things. And then at the design museum also in London, I don't know how these lined up at the same time. There's a exhibit called Splash a Century of Swimming and Style, and that has one of my bathing suits that are, that have like, uh, a GA built-in gaff.

Sky: So that's designed for transfeminine folks, trans women, non-binary folks, basically. Yeah, anybody who wants to compress their Audi bits. And yeah, I think those are the main things going on as far as vents go.

Next Rest Nest Event Details

TQ: The next Rest Nests for Nara is happening June 29th at it's 3:30 PM Central Time, which is four 30 Eastern time and it's themed, uh, no pride in Genocide. Um. As queer Crips of color, we wanna honor the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and resist the white and pinkwashing and corporatization of pride.

TQ: Um, so we'll be honoring, you know, QT Bipoc ancestors like Stormy de Lari, Sylvia River. Yeah. Marsha p Johnson. You know, so many others who made our present existence possible. It's also the month of Juneteenth. We kind of like ignore that, you know, the, the date of like abolishing of slavery and making room to acknowledge how white supremacy and systemic racism persists to today.

TQ: I also didn't know this until I did my research is the month of World Refugee Day. And as we know, so many Nara herself and her family were recently forcibly displaced yet again. Actually, Sky, how many times have, how many times have they been displaced? Do you remember? I have, I've lost count. I know it says so on their chuffed fundraiser, so like, 

Sky: and then now it's, I know, it's just been so many times.

Sky: Yeah. At this point. 

TQ: Yeah. So, that's also something I wanna like acknowledge at the next rest, entrepreneur, you know, shining a light, especially on qt bipoc refugees, uh, who have been forcibly displaced by war, genocide, persecution. And, you know, all this gets is tying back to our question, who gets to rest and nest in our world today.

TQ: Yeah. So, um, if you wanna join us again, it's on a Sunday, June 29th at 4:30 PM Eastern Time or three 30, uh, 30 pm central time. It's a two hour bipoc only Crip friendly virtual art workshop and fundraiser for NARA and her family. So we'll gather, we'll ground, we'll make Crip art, rest, and rage, and grieve for the whirlwind times we're in.

TQ: You don't need any experience or fancy materials. We do all of this from our beds. Um, and every ticket will help, uh, our friend Nara, a afford food, medicine, and rent. So white folks can also support, even though it's a bipoc only space, you can also sponsor seats. And every seat that you buy will help a Bipoc person attend for free.

TQ: And there's sliding scale and scholarships available. You can go to, uh, rewilding, do CC slash RN four N to find out more and to register. Uh, registration is open and yeah, we, we hope to see you on June 29th. Uh, sky, do you have anything else to add? 

Sky: No, that was great. Yeah, we're very excited. That was so, so nice last time.

Sky: Very great space. Everybody was so sweet. 

TQ: Yeah. It was such a cozy time. 

Concluding Thoughts and Embodied Art Ritual

TQ: So we usually end off these episodes with a weekly, uh, one minute embodied art ritual. So Sky, I'm gonna invite you to join me. I don't know how this is going to go. I'm just going to, it's kind of like when we did the grounding in mm-hmm.

TQ: But in one minute. And it's inspired by your work for garments. Yay. So for our listeners, wherever you are in this moment, if it's available for you, obviously if you're driving or cooking, then um, you could save this for another time. Uh, if you're seated, standing, lying or walking, you can still practice with us.

TQ: Just take a deep breath

TQ: and I invite you to start noticing the sensations, textures, and temperatures of the clothing resting on your skin. So, how, how do you feel? Is there softness, stiffness, scratchiness, heat, warmth, coolness? So for me, I'm wearing like the most comfy tank top that I have. It's like, it is this mesh material that actually reminds me a lot of sky's clothing, um, 

Sky: that they 

TQ: make.

TQ: How are you feeling in, I'm feeling very cool and, and soft. I, I like clothes that I feel as if I'm not wearing anything, so I'm, yeah. What about you, Sky? 

Sky: I'm feeling okay. It's it's, it, like all of a sudden started getting really hot in Chicago this week, so I turned off all of my fans. So I'm, I'm pretty warm, but at this moment I feel okay.

Sky: I'm wearing like a oversized cotton shirt. And my neck brace. And then now I just started wearing this back brace slash like, kind of like a abdominal squeezy for like pots. Mm-hmm. Um, 'cause they were like, oh, you should be squeezing your, your stomach to. Forced the blood out of it. And I was like, I cannot wear tight things on my stomach.

Sky: But I was like, oh, I can, I like figured out that like, yeah, if it's not a a, a, like stretchy, squeezy thing, then it's actually a that's kind of better for me right at this moment. Like having like a, a fixed size that it can squeeze and not, not go tighter than that. 

TQ: Interesting. Yeah. I've read about that too for, for pots.

TQ: 'cause like my, a lot of my pots is like digestive and I've read Yeah, yeah. Abdominal bracing can help me not pass out after eating. 

Sky: Totally. Yeah. I've been trying it, I think it's helping, so. 

Sky: Mm-hmm. 

Sky: Yeah. I'm actually going to have my. Employee Morgan make me a corset. Uh, because they make lots of corsets and we've mostly made corsets just for fun sometimes.

Sky: And usually they're out of like clear vinyl. But I'm kind of have them make me like a supportive, a cotton every day corset to wear. Yeah. Not for like shaping my body, but just to, to do the like Yeah. Bracing. Mm-hmm. 

TQ: I think the way you described it, that kind of, uh, that's kind of the rest of the ritual actually.

TQ: Because the ritual that I, I came up with for today is well before, uh, the next part, which sky kind of already got to if, if you feel like, you know, expressing thanks for our clothing, for protecting us and our bodies. Especially if, we have clothing that helps us feel freer, uh, to be ourselves.

TQ: But if you notice discomfort, stiffness, tightness, itchiness heat I invite you to breathe into those sensations for just a second. And you know, this is what it is right now for me. I also have my neck brace on. I think I put it on too tight. So it's a bit itchy. Oh no. But it really helps me not get neck pain when I sit in my computer.

TQ: And I think what you described about doing, trying on the abdominal brace, even though you know, you, you. You've, uh, had bad experiences with stuff on your stomach in the past, that is kind of the creative exercise. And then, and then from there, uh, also like, thinking of creating a corset, that is kind of the creative exercise that I would invite our audience to join us in today.

TQ: Like, how would you, um, recreate your clothing so that it could feel most like your authentic self? If the sky's the limit pun, unintended or intended. What colors, textures, sensations would you like in your dream clothing? Maybe like what Sky described. You want something that's more supportive as a brace to help your muscles brace.

TQ: Something that helps with your dysphoria, your gender dysphoria. Something softer, something more colorful. And can you take this, connection to your body and your clothing to imagine sketch collage or create a mood board for, uh, clothing that helps you embody liberation instead, which is, oh, and then Sky also has like a, the Garmin generator game right on your website.

Sky: Yeah, I have a garment generator game that I created in in college on my website. And yeah, it has like PDFs. I also have like a little mini zine. Version. But yeah, usually you kind of make your own cards to do this garment generator, but I do have the PDFs of the cards that I that I made myself.

Sky: But yeah, they were just like way too expensive to print and I was like, nobody will buy this. But basically you make some decks of cards and one is types of garments. One is like inspiration, like what you want the clothing to be inspired by.

Sky: Mm-hmm. Um, and then I have like an optional third deck that's like subculture. so you, you could be like, you know, abolition or sunflowers fire, climate change, like anything. And then you will like randomly pick one of those cards and then one of the garment cards, and then if you want one of the subculture cards, so then you get something like an art novo hippie jumpsuit that you have to design.

Sky: But you can yeah. Completely tailor it to what you're interested in. Just as a, to like generate ideas for designing clothing.

TQ: It's really, uh, exciting and like great for stimulating creativity.

TQ: Yeah. So for anyone who's listening who's never really thought about clothing as an important part of our identity, of our access needs of

TQ: Like patriarchy makes us think that like, clothing is just something superficial and, anything that is perceived to be like feminine is, is denigrated when it's actually such an important part of who we are and how we move through the world and communicate with each other.

TQ: So I'm really thankful that you joined us today to talk a bit about this. I know we're both running long spoons. I clearly am running out steam also I'm love to have you back another time. Um, hopefully my brain will also join us for the next time. No, this is great. Yeah. Is is there anything else you would like to say to our audience before we wrap up?

Sky: I don't think so, but yeah, I guess, support Nara come to the rest nest. If you're bipoc buy a sponsored seat if you're white. See you there. Thank you so much. Thank you.

LINKS & WORKS CITED