In addition to complaining about her hair, dating, and staying thin just long enough to land another husband, Nancy Becker Kennedy plunges heart and soul into her one woman show, “I Had to Break My Neck to Get Here.” Unfortunately, that is true both literally and figuratively.
Injured in a diving accident at age twenty, Nancy suffered a broken neck with spinal cord injuries resulting. With the assistance of her electric chair, she returned to college to complete both a Bachelor and a Master’s degree in communications. She went on to become a news producer for public television, a published writer, and award winning writer and composer, as well as an actress appearing regularly for 2 1/2 years on General Hospital. She even became the first primetime player who is a quadriplegic appearing on the ABC series, The Louie Anderson Show.
Nancy is committed to opening doors. Combining her comedy and communication skills, she has made a powerful impact as a member of ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs) a civil rights organization that fights for the release of people with disabilities who are inappropriately locked away in nursing homes and institutions. With her comedy, she is opening another kind of door — the door to the heart that sometimes closes in fear when you see someone who uses a chair.
Becker Kennedy’s power with candor and warmth uniquely qualifies her to help college students deal with the discomfort that exists between the nondisabld and disabled worlds. Having spent equal time in both worlds, Nancy speaks with insight and authority. When asked how she can so comfortably answer intimate questions from the audience, she replies, “The deeply seated answer is that I’m unbelievably insensitive.” As you listen to Nancy give her presentation, you will know that is not true.
Nancy finds the “whole journey into the experience of Disability endlessly interesting. It tells you so much about what we value in a society, and what really matters in the human experience.” She can answer questions on disability and sexuality, the meaning of life, and if light can escape from a black hole and whether Jesse, the nurse on General Hospital, really is a bitch.
A nationally recognized expert, Ms. Kennedy has been featured in and contributed to Ms. Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. She is also a contributing editor of the award winning national magazine, Spinal Network’
FOR SALE!!!!***
2 Electric Hospital Beds; Good Shape; $500 Each; Call Kenny Flood @ (502) 648-7335.
97 Mercury Sable LS; station wagon. Leather interior; 6-cylinder; 6-passenger seating; rear-facing third seat; Braun wc topper; Monarch hand controls. 93,000 miles. Price negotiable. Call Ruth @ 239-9754 after 5 p.m.
2001 Dodge Intrepid. 30,000 mi; leather interior; automatic transmission; Braun overhead wheelchair carrier & hand controls. Call Ruth at 239-9754 after 5 p.m.
*2003 Ford F-250 lift-equipped green/gray van; leather seats, TV, DVD player. Playstation hookup, am-fm radio. Rick Miller, 937-2245. *Shower Chair; 2 yrs old, negotiable; Invacare 900 Action Power Chair; 4 yrs. Old; $600. Call 448-5296.
*Cookbooks for Sale: Recipes compiled by Chapter members; $10:00. Call David @ 589-6620.
*Video tapes for sale. Various topics related to spinal cord injuries. Call David Allgood or Buddy Lawson.
***If assistance is needed to pay for any of the above items, contact Kentucky Assistive Technology Loan Corporation atfor information on loans at 5% interest to qualified candidates.
NANCY BECKER KENNEDY, CONT’D
New Mobility. She has been on Sixty Minutes, Nightwatch with Charlie Rose, and A Closer Look with Faith Daniels. She is the first person to address the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and edited the first consumer section of the Western Journal of Medicine.
