Patty Berne – Disability Future Fellow

Artistic Director, Filmmaker, & Writer

she, her, hers, they, them, theirs

BERKELEY, CA

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A Japanese-Haitian nonbinary person with tan skin, narrow square glasses, lipstick, and arched brows smiles at the camera. They pose in a grey knit sweater.

Patty Berne is the co-founder, executive and artistic director of Sins Invalid, a Disability justice-based performance project centralizing disabled artists of color and queer and gender non-conforming artists with disabilities. Berne’s experiences as a Japanese-Haitian queer disabled woman provides grounding for her work creating “liberated zones” for marginalized voices. They are widely recognized for their work to establish the framework and practice of disability justice. Berne’s training in clinical psychology focused on trauma and healing for survivors of interpersonal and state violence. Their professional background includes advocacy for immigrants who seek asylum due to war and torture, community organizing within the Haitian diaspora, international support work for the Guatemalan democratic movement, work with incarcerated youth towards alternatives to the criminal legal system, offering mental health support to survivors of violence, and advocating for LGBTQI and disability perspectives within the field of reproductive genetic technologies.