Patricia Berne
Patricia Berne was an American writer, performance artist, film director, and disability rights organizer. Berne was a pioneering leader in the disability justice movement, and was the co-founder of Sins Invalid, a disability justice-based performance project that incubates performers with disabilities, centering people of color and LGBTQ/gender-variant people.
Career
Berne was the Executive Director and Artistic Director of Sins Invalid and a Fellow of the Ford Foundation's Disability Futures Forum. Their work spanned advocacy for immigrants and asylum seekers, community organising with the Haitian diaspora, supporting survivors of state and interpersonal violence through trauma focused clinical psychology, working alongside young people in the prison system to imagine alternatives to criminal legal systems and championing disability, and LGBTQI perspectives in reproductive genetic technologies.Berne was a prolific contributor to the public discourse about disability justice.