🎸 A Public Service Announcement… with Guitar

You clicked/tapped the little guitar! Welcome to our Easter egg page!

We placed songs from our “Chronic Neurodivergent Depressed Queer Punk” and “Pluralism Rocks” playlists throughout stimpunksStimpunk combines “stimming” + “punk” to evoke open and proud stimming, resistance to neurotypicalization, and the DIY culture of punk, disabled, and neurodivergent communities. Instead of hiding our stims, we... More.org, tying them into our advocacy and research-storytelling. They collectively serve as a Public Service Announcement, with guitar.

Stimpunks combines “stimmingSelf-stimulatory behavior, also known as stimming and self-stimulation, is the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or words, or the repetitive movement of objects Stimming - Wikipedia Autistic adults highlighted the importance of stimming as... More” + “punks” to evoke open and proud stimming, resistance to neurotypicalization, and the DIYIn the arts, bricolage (French for "DIY" or "do-it-yourself projects") is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or... More culture of punk, disabledThe label "disabled" means so much to me. It means I have community. It means I have rights. It means I can be proud. It means I can affirm myself... More, and neurodivergentNeurodivergent, sometimes abbreviated as ND, means having a mind that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of “normal.”NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS Neurodivergent is quite... More communitiesWhat I have always been hoping to accomplish is the creation of community.Community is magic. Community is power. Community is resistance.Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-First-Person-Stories-Twenty-First-ebook/dp/B082ZQBL98/ https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-Adapted-Young-Adults-ebook/dp/B08VFT4R9T/... More. Instead of hiding our stimsSelf-stimulatory behavior, also known as stimming and self-stimulation, is the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or words, or the repetitive movement of objects Stimming - Wikipedia Autistic adults highlighted the importance of stimming as... More, we bring them to the front.

🧷 Let’s Go to the Punk Rawk Show

We ain't got no place to go
So let's go to the punk rawk show
Darling take me by the hand
Gonna see a punk rawk band
There's no use in tv shows
Radio or rodeos
I wanna get into the crowd
Wanna hear it play real loud

Ain't' got no money to pay
We'll get in anyway
Doesn't matter I don't care
It feels good so we should share
We're going to the punk rawk show
Show-oh-oh, show-oh-oh, show-oh-oh, show-oh-oh-oh-oh

🤲 The Dream of the Accepting Community

Any time I think I feel at home again
I hit the ground running 'til I'm gone
I've spent the past few months stuck in my own head
Just 'cause I can't connect with anyone

My legs are restless, eyes are heavy, set me free
From this feeling I have learned is discontent
I'm out of gas, I'm out of cash, but now I see
I was never really broken
I was bent

-- Roots

The lyrics referred to the way many people viewed fans of punk rock (who often endured stares, slurs and assaults at the time), but they could just have easily been about people diagnosed with mental illnesses, who are frequently looked down upon as crazy, violent and unintelligent.

A long-standing and influential theory regarding disability is the “social model,” initially advanced by Mike Oliver. The social modelIn the broadest sense, the social model of disability is about nothing more complicated than a clear focus on the economic, environmental and cultural barriers encountered by people who are... More argues that “disability” does not reside within individuals, but is actually created by a mismatch between social structures and individual capacities. These structures can include obvious physical barriers (such as stairs, which could make it impossible for people in wheelchairs to enter a school or workplace by themselves), but can also include intolerant social attitudes which make it very difficult for people who don’t act in a manner that is considered “acceptable” to participate socially or avail themselves of communityWhat I have always been hoping to accomplish is the creation of community.Community is magic. Community is power. Community is resistance.Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-First-Person-Stories-Twenty-First-ebook/dp/B082ZQBL98/ https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-Adapted-Young-Adults-ebook/dp/B08VFT4R9T/... More resources.

British human right activist Liz Sayce has specifically extended the social model to explain much of the disability that is experienced by people diagnosed with mental illnesses, and has argued for the establishment of “inclusive communities” to facilitate greater community participation among these individuals.

Punk Rock and the Dream of the Accepting Community | Psychology Today

We found community amidst online genderpunksGenderpunk: a colloquial term for culture and resistance against gendernormativity; an identity that in and of itself is a resistance against gender norms, homophobia and transphobia, oppression and societal status... More, neuropunks, and cripplepunks conversant in the social model. That community and connection gave rise to the name of our endeavor, Stimpunks, and our motivation to build “a safe and nurturing environment for divergent thinking” under our umbrella.

Magic happens when you combine collaboration and neurodiversityNeurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS Neurodiversity is a biological fact. It’s not a perspective, an approach, a... More, because then the result is diversity and creativity rather than groupthink.

NeurodiVentureNeurodiVenture : an inclusive non-hierarchical organisation operated by neurodivergent people that provides a safe and nurturing environment for divergent thinking, creativity, exploration, and collaborative niche construction.NeurodiVentures | Autistic Collaboration NeurodiVentures create safe spaces for groups... More : an inclusive non-hierarchicalThe belief in the existence and relevance of social hierarchies must be suspended.The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale: Timeless patterns of human limitations The extent to which a community... More organisation operated by neurodivergent people that provides a safe and nurturing environment for divergent thinking, creativity, exploration, and collaborative niche constructionPositive Niche Construction--practice of differentiating instruction for the neurodiverse brainNeurodiversity in the Classroom Positive niche construction is a strengths-based approach to educating students with disabilities.  Reimagining Inclusion with Positive Niche... More.

NeurodiVerse : human scale cultures created by neurodiversity within the human species

NeurodiVentures | Autistic Collaboration

Here’s some collected listening that covers a gamut of punk and punk-adjacent music on mental health and living in divergent bodymindsBodymind: A term used to challenge the idea the body and mind are experienced separately (Descartes). Written in various ways, Bodymind or Body-mind, this usage foregrounds the understanding that experiences... More. “Everything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front.” This playlist, in part, seeks to bring to the front.

Content Notes: suicidal ideation, addiction If addiction is like misguided love, then compassion is a far better approach than punishment.Can You Get Over an Addiction? - The New York Times In her book Unbroken Brain,... More, mania, depression, dysphoria, chronicChronic illness is a pretty big umbrella, and it would be impossible to list them all. Some of them are triggered by an injury like a car accident, or something... More illness, anxiety, overwhelm, panic, meltdownMeltdowns are alarm systems to protect our brains.Without meltdowns, we autistics would have nothing to protect our neurology from the very real damage that it can accumulate.I don’t melt down... More, maskingMasking is exhausting. Utterly utterly draining. I’ve had people say to me many times over the years “But WHY are you so tired? What have you been doing?” and I’ve... More, burnoutAutistic burnout is a state of physical and mental fatigue, heightened stress, and diminished capacity to manage life skills, sensory input, and/or social interactions, which comes from years of being... More, exposure anxietyExposure anxiety (EA) is a condition identified by Donna Williams in which the child or adult feels acutely self-conscious; it leads to a persistent and overwhelming fear of interaction.Exposure anxiety... More, rejection sensitive dysphoriaRejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) is extreme emotional sensitivity and pain triggered by the perception that a person has been rejected or criticized by important people in their life. It may also... More, OCD, ADHDADHD or what I prefer to call Kinetic Cognitive Style (KCS) is another good example. (Nick Walker coined this alternative term.) The name ADHD implies that Kinetics like me have... More, ADD, SPD, bipolarI call it burning these days because that’s what it feels like: like there’s an idea inside me burning its way out. But when I was younger, I called it... More, autismAutistic ways of being are human neurological variants that can not be understood without the social model of disability.If you are wondering whether you are Autistic, spend time amongst Autistic people, online and offline.  If... More

On Spotify:

On YouTube:

On Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/chronic-neurodivergent-depressed-queer-punk/pl.u-yZyVVjZtYzXDqW

It’s about rejecting pity, inspiration pornInspiration porn. What's that?It's a portrayal of people with disabilities as one-dimensional saints who only exist to warm the hearts and open the minds of able-bodied people.Speechless on Twitter: "Not... More, & all other forms of ableismable·ism /ˈābəˌlizəm/ nounA system of assigning value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness. These constructed ideas are deeply... More. It rejects the “good cripple” mythos. CrippleSome people with disabilities call themselves “crips.” “Crip” used to be a mean word for disabled. It is short for “cripple.” But some disabled people call themselves “crips” on purpose.... More Punk is here for the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking cripple, the addict If addiction is like misguided love, then compassion is a far better approach than punishment.Can You Get Over an Addiction? - The New York Times In her book Unbroken Brain,... More cripple, the cripple who hasn’t “tried everything”. Cripple PunkIt's about rejecting pity, inspiration porn, & all other forms of ableism. It rejects the "good cripple" mythos. Cripple Punk is here for the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking... More fights internalized ableism & fully supports those struggling with it. It respects intersections of race, culture, genderDue both to their ability to denaturalize social norms and to their neurological differences, autistic individuals can offer novel insights into gender as a social process. Examining gender from an... More, sexual/romantic orientation, size, intersex status, mental illness/neuroatypical status, survivor status, etc. Cripple Punk does not pander to the able bodied.

what are the principles of cripple punk? Are there any rules?

🙏🧠 We Stand Together, We Think Apart

Please complete this simple task
Push the buttons just like we ask
This step first and that step last
Over and over and do it fast
I’m watching everyone, feeling like a simpleton
Why can’t I get it done? I just want to scream and run

I don’t think like you
But I’m the one that’s called abnormal
This construct
Was built by petty tyrants

Am I on the level yet? (Level yet)
How did I do on your little test?
Get my brain to reset (Reset)
'Cause everything you say is static
Do I make a good pet? (Good pet)
Obey the commands or get the back of the hand
'Cause the world wasn’t built for a brain like mine
Change my mind, change my mind, change my mind

This construct
Was built and can be dismantled

We stand together
We think apart
We stand together
We think apart

--Neurodivergent by Rabbit Junk

🛑🕹 Standing in the Way of Control, We Will Live Our Lives

Because we′re standing in the way of control
We will live our lives

-- Standing In the Way of Control

⚖️ Know Your Rights; These Are Your Rights

You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

Know your rights
These are your rights

-- Know Your Rights

• The Americans with Disabilities ActIn 1990, the ADA, which today remains the cornerstone of disability civil rights law in the United States, established four goals for disabled Americans: equal opportunity, independent living, full participation,... More of 1990 – Car Autism Roadmap – https://www.carautismroadmap.org/the-americans-with-disabilities-act-of-1990-ada/
• Job AccommodationAccommodation is fundamentally about not changing the person but changing the environment around the person.Normal Sucks: Author Jonathan Mooney on How Schools Fail Kids with Learning Differences Yet on a programmatic... More Network – https://askjan.org/ 
• Inclusive Schools Network – https://inclusiveschools.org/ 
• Wrightslaw Special EducationThe word “special” is used to sugar-coat segregation and societal exclusion – and its continued use in our language, education systems, media etc serves to maintain those increasingly antiquated “special”... More Law and Advocacy – https://www.wrightslaw.com/
• Olmstead Self-Assessment – https://www.olmsteadrights.org/self-helptools/assessment/ 
• How to Make a Supported Decision-Making Agreement – ACLU – https://www.aclu.org/other/how-make-supported-decision-making-agreement 
• National Disability Rights Network – https://www.ndrn.org/about/ndrn-member-agencies/ 
• Information on the ADAIn 1990, the ADA, which today remains the cornerstone of disability civil rights law in the United States, established four goals for disabled Americans: equal opportunity, independent living, full participation,... More – https://www.ada.gov/
• International Disability Alliance – http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/
• International Disability Rights – Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund – https://dredf.org/legal-advocacy/international-disability-rights/

We have worked together for many years, and we made the disability rights movement. The disability rights movement is when disabled people fight back against ableism. We work to change society to be better for disabled people, and fight for our rights as people with disabilities.

Self-advocacy isn’t just speaking up for yourself. It can also mean speaking up for your whole community. The self-advocacy movement is when we all speak up together. The self-advocacy movement is part of the disability rights movement, where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities fight for our rights.

We still have a long way to go, since disabled people still get treated unfairly. We can’t always choose where we live or what help we get. We don’t always have the right to vote. We might not get to choose how we want to spend our money, or have control over who cares for us. But we are still fighting for our rights.

Welcome to the Autistic Community

• Pacific Alliance on Disability Self-Advocacy (PADSA) Resources
• Welcome to the Autistic Community
• Accessing Home and Community-Based Services: A Guide for Self Advocates
• The Right to Make Choices: International Laws and Decision-Making by People with Disabilities (Easy Read and Families versions)
• Getting and Advocating for Community-Based Housing
• Voting Resources
• AutismAndHealth.org: Primary Care Resources for Adults on the Autism Spectrum and their Primary Care Providers
• SARTAC: Self Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center
• Everybody Communicates: Toolkit for Accessing Communication Assessments, Funding and Accommodations

Via: Resource Library – Autistic Self Advocacy Network

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network seeks to advance the principles of the disability rights movement with regard to autism. ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities. We work to empower autistic people across the world to take control of our own lives and the future of our common community, and seek to organize the autistic community to ensure our voices are heard in the national conversation about us. Nothing About Us, Without Us!

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

In a perfect world, we would all be guided by the presumption of competence, not just in regard to disability but in all human interaction. But we do not live in a perfect world. In the real world, no matter what skills I acquire—be they social, emotional, physical, or educational—there will be a sizable number of people who will presume me to be incompetent. Brace me for it. Make sure I know my rights. Let me know over and over again that I am so much more than the box some small-minded person wishes to fit me into. Practice with me the interactive tools I need to stand up in the face of those who do not believe in me.

Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network. Sincerely, Your Autistic Child (p. 6). Beacon Press.

Revolution rock
Yeah so, get that cheese grater going
Against the grains
Wearin' me down
Pressure increase
Everybody!

--Revolution Rock by The Clash

🪶 Nobody Gets It; They Say We’re Too Sensitive

I get overwhelmed so easily
My anxiety creeps inside of me
Makes it hard to breathe
What's come over me
Feels like I'm somebody else
I get overwhelmed so easily
My anxiety keeps me silent
When I try to speak
What's come over me
Feels like I'm somebody else
I get overwhelmed

All of these faces
Who don't know what space is
And crowds are shut down
I'm overstimulated
Nobody gets it
They say I'm too sensitive
I can't listen cause I'm eyeing the exits

--Overwhelmed by Royal & the Serpent

I get overwhelmed so easily
My anxiety
Creeps inside of me
Makes it hard to breathe
What's come over me?
Feels like I'm somebody else

I get over, well, well, well
Would you look at that?
Another person telling me that I should just relax
"Calm down and take it easy everything will be okay"
Yeah, sure 'cause that's what they all say

--Overwhelmed by Ryan Mack

😢 Shave the Pride: Say You’re Sorry

Take a step back, take one step back
Take a step back and shave that pride off
Take a second, open your mind
Take a step back and stop this madness

You say you taste the frozen sorrow
Well we can feel your lack of información
I see the hunger, hate and love
It might not do us any good
It cannot do us any good

Small minds who feed suck the children to dirt
It gives us shivers the way they shed blood
Trying to forget but we can't much longer
The sight of anger breaks small ginger hopes

Take a step back, take one step back
Take a step back and shave that pride off
Take a second, open your mind
Take a step back and stop this madness
Take a step back, take one step back
Take a step back and shave that pride off
Take a second, open your mind
Take a step back and stop this madness
And stop this madness
Stop this madness

The bricks are grown makes this place much colder
It give us shivers the way they shed snow
Trying to forget, but we can′t much longer
The sight of anger breaks small ginger hopes

Old sores permit these scars to scare us senseless
Makes my spine increase with sudden panic
These problems started in our adolescence
The size of your rage drowns my urge for loving

🌈🦄🦓♿️ We Wrote This for the Outcasts

Hey, you ever stop to think that maybe we're all different?
Or that you can't just throw every student into the same system
Just examine resources and where they're placin' em

I'm just saying there's different students out there facing some pain
It's completely unfair to expect that they would behave the same
But go ahead, make it harder for one and watch them play the game

So real shit? I wrote this for the outcasts
What you have to offer is worthwhile, don't ever doubt that

-- Imaginary Numbers by Feral the Earthworm

🫀🧠 Spare Me from the Mold

I make the right mistakes
And I say what I mean

Spare Me From The Mold

--Spare Me From The Mold by Gossip

🎶🌈 It Take a Joyful Sound: New Wave, New Phrase, Neurodiversity

New wave, new phrase
New wave, new craze

It take a joyful sound
To make a world go around
Come with your heart and soul
Come on come and rock your boat
Because it's a punky reggae party
And it's tonight
It's a punky reggae party
And it's alright

Rejected by society
(do re mi fa)
Treated with impunity
(so la te do)
Protected by my dignity
(do re mi fa)
I search for reality
(So La te Do)

--Punky Reggae Party by Bob Marley & The Wailers

New wave, new phrase

New wave, new craze

Neurodiversity

What Neurodiversity Means to Me 

Neurodiversity, to me, means both a fabulous celebration of all kinds of individual minds, and a serious, holisticSystems Thinking Is Not Indigenous Holistic ThinkingIndigenous holistic thinking is not systems thinking because many Indigenous peoples and communities do not separate their world or landscapes into “systems” in the... More acknowledgment of the necessity of diversity in order for society to survive, thrive, and innovate. It means identity, belonging, and community. It means I am not broken, not aloneAloneness is a characteristic that many creatives embrace and yearn for. Being alone is anything but lonely. Reading, writing, and creating art all demand a personal space where one can... More, and neither are my siblings standing with me beneath that huge, multi-colored neurodiversity umbrella: we the autistic, the mad, the weirdly-wired, the queerBeing queer means constantly questioning what's considered "normal" and why that norm gets privileged over other ways of being. It means criticizing who sets these norms and recognizing the privilege... More, the crippledSome people with disabilities call themselves “crips.” “Crip” used to be a mean word for disabled. It is short for “cripple.” But some disabled people call themselves “crips” on purpose.... More, and the labeled with neurodivergent diagnoses like flowers that glorify our beautiful bodies and minds.

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline

Neurodiversity is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation.

It take a joyful sound. ReframeWhen we successfully reframe public discourse, we change the way the public sees the world. We change what counts as common sense. Because language activates frames, new language is required... More.

🎶 The Music of Stimpunks

Here are (almost) all the songs on our website as a YouTube playlist.

❤️🫀 Translate Your Love Into Action

I wasted my twenties in submission
I thought I was outside the system
I was rolling over for wealth and power
As if they really cared about me
The kids are just getting started
They only just learned how to howl
And most of them throw in the towel
Bout the time that they turn twenty three
You've got the taste for transcendence
That translates your love into action
And participate in the fight now
For a creed you can truly believe

It is time for the evening prayer
Time to do justice for the poor
It is time for the evening prayer
Time to do justice for the poor

Tonight you've got fire in your bloodstream
Your frail human heart is still pumping
And make this one night you'll remember
A note you'll deliver by hand
And when you get up in the morning
Let no man return it to sender
Pour gasoline on the embers
Give yourself a physical record
Deliver that fire in the real world
And tell them that E Furman sent ya

Let's organize our lives around love and care
Let's write each other letters and call it prayer
Let's congregate in the place that isn't anywhere
At the temple of broken dreams

--Temple of Broken Dreams by Ezra Furman

☀️ Standing Up for the Rights, Like the True Light!

Reggae music is still here
As the voice of the people everywhere
Whenever there is injustice and tyranny
Reggae music is there
Standing up for the rights, like the true light!

Reggae music gonna make me feel good
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now
Reggae music gonna make me feel good
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now
(Reggae, reggae, reggae gonna make me feel good!)
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now
Reggae music gonna make me feel good
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now

--Reggae Music by Jimmy Cliff

New wave, new phrase
New wave, new craze

--Punky Reggae Party by Bob Marley & The Wailers

One more, one more, one more, one more

I got one more song I must sing
Ting-a-ling
Freedom ring
I got one more song I must sing
Simple song, so sing along

One more, one more, one more, one more

All we got
One more life to live
One more love to give
One more cliff to climb
One more
It's my time

--One More by Jimmy Cliff

🏗 We Rebuild What You Destroy

We can take turns taking the reins
Lean on each other when we need some extra strength
We’ll never caveFuturist David Thornburg identifies three archetypal learning spaces— the campfire, cave, and watering hole—that schools can use as physical spaces and virtual spaces for student and adult learning (bit.ly/YvRuWC)Australia’s Campfires,... More or we’ll never waver
And we’ll always become braver and braver

We’ll dance like nobody’s there
Wе’ll dance without any cares
We’ll talk 'bout problеms we share
We’ll talk 'bout things that ain’t fair
We’ll sing 'bout things we don’t know
We’ll sing to people and show
What it means to be young and growing up

--Growing Up by The Linda Lindas

🫀🧠 Keep on Livin’

We serve our loved people so we can keep on living through the onslaught.

Look up to the sky, sky, sky
Take back your own tonight
You'll find more than you see
It's time now, now, get ready

This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and

You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)

-- Keep On Livin'

Further reading,