JCC Chicago Riva Lehrer – Golem Girl: A Memoir

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE JCC INCLUSION DEPT. CELEBRATING JEWISH DISABILITY AWARENESS, ACCEPTANCE AND INCLUSION MONTH In conversation with Leamore Cohen In 1958, amongst the children born with spina bifida is Riva Lehrer. Her parents and doctors are determined to “fix” her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken, that she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits. Written with the vivid, cinematic prose of a visual artist and with the author’s magnificent portraits featured throughout, Golem Girl is an extraordinary story of tenacity and creativity. RIVA LEHRER is an artist, writer, and curator whose work focuses on issues of physical identity and the socially challenged body. A faculty member of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she is currently an instructor in medical humanities at Northwestern University.

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