A Night at the Movies
At our Annual Meeting this year, we will show the movie Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy. The movie, directed by Academy Award nominee Alice Elliott, is a new 40-minute documentary about two disability rights activists, Diana Braun and Kathy Conour. Diana, who has Down Syndrome, and Kathy, who has Cerebral Palsy, met at a sheltered workshop in Illinois three decades ago and vowed to fight to live independent lives. Fearful of being shut away in a nursing home or forced into a state run institution, they broke the rules and escaped the system. Not content to earn menial wages and have their living situation change with the whim of government appropriations, Diana learned to drive, they moved, built their own house, and survived to tell their story. Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy chronicles their ongoing struggle to live independently outside of institutions.
Diana Braun is a wonderful example of a self-advocate with Down syndrome. At the age of 8, she found herself living in a state run nursing home in Freeport, Illinois. Taken away from an abusive family, Diana and her brothers and sisters were scattered. At 12 she was sent to the Dixon Developmental Center. She vowed to one day close those institutions and has devoted her life to doing just that. At 19 Diana left the state run institution at Dixon. Since that time her activist commitments have led her to be president of People First, a self-advocates group, and a member of the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities.
Bring a friend and join us on May 20th, and you will leave feeling inspired by this wonderful story of a profound, creative friendship and how these two women have made a difference.