Lachi
Lachi is a blind multi-award-winning artist, Grammys Board Member and Founder and President of RAMPD.org. She has dedicated her platform, career and craft to amplifying Disability Culture, promoting inclusion and advocating for accessibility in the Music Industry. Named a “dedicated foot soldier for disability pride” by Forbes, Lachi has held talks with the White House, the UN, and the Kennedy Center, and has been featured in Essence, Billboard and the New York Times for celebrating intersectionality through art and for her upbeat and unapologetic brand of disability pride.
Full Interview:
Interview Transcription:
SPEAKERS
Molly Joyce, Lachi
Molly Joyce 00:05
So the first question is, what is access for you?
Lachi 00:12
Access is the ability to live your life to the fullest. Whether you have a disability, or whether you're non disabled. In the absence of access, even a nondisabled person is unable to achieve normal daily tasks. So I see access as really the ability to achieve a task without having to have undue burden put on yourself. And for instance, if someone were to ask you to fly to Europe, and you did not have access to a plane, well, then you would flying to Europe would be inaccessible. So a plane is just a tool of access for travel. And so just like a plane, so as a cane, a wheelchair, the hearing aid, and other tools of access.
Molly Joyce 01:21
I love that. Thank you. Second question is, what is care for you?
Lachi 01:58
Care for me is when you when you put something before your self, whether that be your own body, whether that be the cares' wants and needs of others care is when you take a backseat. And you put that thing that you care about before you and you give it the attention it deserves, you give it the support it deserves, and you allow yourself to see it through its own circumstance. So for example, I believe to care for someone is to have the wherewithal to put their needs before your needs. But more importantly, putting their needs first being your need. So it's not that you're actually sacrificing anything to care for someone, it's that caring for someone is satisfying your need.
Molly Joyce 03:20
I really love that. Third question is, what is control for you?
Lachi 03:37
Control for me, is when one is able to extend one's will, beyond their sort of inner universe. So it's, if you are holding a baseball bat, and you're able to swing it to hit a ball when you're in control of the bat, and the bat is an extension of your will. And so I believe that control is when you're able to extend your will beyond yourself in order to make it sort of a part of your greater objective to to enforce or to set forth, whatever decision or idea that you have that has sprouted within your own mind to to come into being and you utilize the things around you, the people around you, the world around you to exert that energy and the greater ability you have to exert that, that force and that energy and get that thing to happen, the more control you have.
Molly Joyce 04:53
Great, thank you. And next question is what is weakness for you?
Lachi 05:00
I believe weakness is a lack of understanding. And I want to reframe this a little backwards, I believe that strength comes from knowledge. And the more you know, the stronger you are, the more prepared you are. And so weakness, fear, and, and a feeling of, you know, scarcity comes from just a lack of knowledge, sort of a xenophobia, sort of a, looking through very murky lenses, and not being able to recognize the tools, the strengths around you for whatever reason, whether it be the opportunities in the people you meet, or the opportunities in what you perceived as a loss or a failure. So I believe that weakness just comes from a lack of, of understanding and knowledge.
Molly Joyce 06:11
And related to that, what is strength for you?
Lachi 06:18
Well, related to that, I believe, I believe strength is, I believe strength comes with understanding, I believe strength and growth, come with knowledge. And true power comes from being able to step out into the world, look around and know what to do. And the only way you know what to do is when you arm yourself with, with knowledge, because once knowledge comes, the understanding comes. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you've got to be a smart cookie. But it just means that you have to be willing to understand willing to grok new things. And I believe with that willingness to learn comes with strength.
Molly Joyce 07:16
And the next question is, what is cure for you?
Lachi 07:32
I believe that while medical science is very necessary, I believe that the work of the divine the work of God, the work of the external universe, however you want to codify it. I believe that science is part of that work. However, I don't necessarily believe that a cure is 100% scientific, think that a lot of cure comes from within, within your own perception of yourself within society's perception of what a human being that deserves to be respected, loved, taken care of, and venerated is. Because given the right tools, given the time, given the training, any human being can do anything. And we can't always depend on science to give us those tools or to give us that mindset.
Molly Joyce 08:56
The next question is what is interdependence for you?
Lachi 09:26
So, for me, independence is a huge part of my motto. And I love that this question is actually asking about interdependence. Because I do recognize that in the disability community, independence is a tough juggle. A lot of people want to be independent, and find it difficult to ask for help or find it as a weakness, others while they appreciate being independent, recognize asking for help or asking for support to be a strength so that you're not wasting your own time trying to do something where support would get you a lot further a lot faster. And I believe that that interdependence, at least to me, is to recognize the opportunities of people around you to recognize the support they can bring. And to be able to sort of delegate beyond yourself, the will of your life, really, and recognizing that we as a society interconnect at all levels, all the time, that there are different branches of government for a reason that there are different pools of leadership in society for a reason, and to apply that to your own life, to look to your left, and to to utilize those opportunities to help you and to look to your right and do the same thing. I believe that interdependence is recognizing the strength and the opportunity in others.
Molly Joyce 11:15
Yeah, I really love that, especially with the opportunity and others. Great, and then the last question is what is assumption for you?
Lachi 11:47
I believe that assumption is an unwillingness if I could say, an unwillingness to learn and unwillingness to grow, and to sort of put on the shade of glasses you're comfortable with, and never switch them out. And to look through that lens to look through that way of life or way of thinking, and not open yourself up to the growth that comes with looking at things from a different perspective. And I have to say, in assumptions defense, we do need to make assumptions in order to quickly assess situations and survive and and get through difficult new situations quickly. However, there comes a time where that sort of need plateaus, depending on your situation. And you can find yourself wearing rosy colored glasses, but missing red flags because of it. And so I believe that assumption is the possibility of plateauing, your opportunity to learn and grow. I hope you didn't get that. You may have gotten the little thing thing down here on my phone. But I'll say this last part again, I believe that assumption is the I believe that assumptions lead to the plateau have the opportunity to learn and grow from the things around you.