A digital illustration of five disabled BIPOC folks hanging out together with a service dog. Two are power wheelchair users, one stands with crutches and a hijab, one signs "I love you" in ASL, and one sits on the ground with a book and service dog.

A Disability Justice and

Inclusive Arts Organization

Embraced Body is driven by a profound commitment to fostering accessibility and inclusivity for multiply marginalized Disabled individuals. Through our performance, teaching, consulting, and events, we aim to empower individuals to recognize the interconnectedness of ableism with other forms of oppression, including white supremacy, homophobia, gender injustice, and classism. By addressing these systemic inequalities head-on, we endeavor to dismantle oppressive structures and create a more equitable society for all.

What moves us

  • EMBODIMENT

    Embraced Body practices radical acceptance of our own bodies as a pathway to respecting all bodies. We transform anti-ableist frameworks into supportive thoughts, behaviors, and actions.

  • INTEGRATION

    Embraced Body believes that all parts of ourselves are valuable despite the messages society gives us. We create collaborative spaces of reclamation that encourage the disavowed parts of self back to the whole.

  • PLAYFULNESS

    Embraced Body infuses joy and ease into the work of tackling oppressive systems. We, as multiply marginalized people, understand that without joy, we cannot move from surviving to thriving. Levity makes our work sustainable.

  • ALCHEMY

    Embraced Body transforms everyday experiences into opportunities for expansion and sustainable growth. We approach our work with a process orientation that allows for the organic emergence of cultural change.

  • LIBERATION

    Embraced Body is committed to shaping a world free from oppression. We initiate politicized healing as a pathway to individual and collective freedom.

India Harville, Founder of Embraced Body is a young Black woman. she is wearing a white dress and smiling into the camera. Her hair is in long locs, she wears a brown belt and gold bangles.

MEET THE FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

India HArville

As a Disability Justice consultant, public speaker, somatics practitioner, and performance artist, India Harville has made it her mission over the past 20 years to open people's minds to the wonder of their own bodies.

In 2016, she founded what is now known as Embraced Body, an organization that began by providing accessible classes to Disabled communities. Since then, the’ve made affirming art funded by major philanthropic organizations and trained countless teams on accessibility and Disability Justice.

The intersection of India’s own identities as an African American, queer, Disabled/chronically ill, femme, cis woman, informs all her work, from performing to educating to consulting. No matter what she is doing, she sets forth the example that however our bodies show up the world, they are perfect, worthy of existence, and capable of magic.

PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS

How we got here

Embraced Body wasn’t built in a day! Expand each year to explore major milestones in the organization’s history.

  • Embraced Body (formerly Loving the Skin You Are In) was founded by India Harville.

    We provided accessible dance, massage, and somatic classes to Disabled communities and offered performance work rooted in the Black Disabled experience.

  • Embraced Body housed the Access Centered Movement Collective, a Black-majority Disability Justice Collective that provided access consultations and audits and created a training program on how to create more accessible, social justice centered movement, meditation, and dance spaces. White allies started funding workshops and healing spaces for Black community members as a form of basic reparations work.

  • As the assault on Black bodies, especially multiply marginalized Disabled Black bodies, became even more burdensome, we deepened our commitment to centering Black folks in our work. We created a curriculum about the legacies of chattel slavery and racialized violence and how those histories impact Black folks' ability to embrace Disability Justice. We created healing spaces for Black people navigating grief.

  • Embraced Body rebranded and re-centered our focus on uplifting Black Disabled artists as cultural change-makers with the capacity to shift black narratives about disability. We received a multiyear grant from Solidaire’s Black Liberation Pooled Fund to support our work.

  • Embraced Body started providing mentorship to emerging Black Disabled artists and started convening Black Disabled artists to create collective works. We incubated Secrets and Silence, a performance piece about Black families and transmuting unhealthy secrets with the medicine of silence. We trained multiple Black-led and Black-majority organizations on accessibility and Disability Justice.

  • We founded the Black Spirit Dance Collective with other Black, fat, neurodiverse, Disabled, queer/genderqueer artists. We created the performance On Our Own Terms, which explored radical acceptance of ourselves as artists in a world that doesn’t affirm Black, fat, queer/genderqueer, neurodiverse artists. We shared a work-in-progress version of the show in June in New York with support from the Mellon Foundation. Embraced Body also started creating additional curricula for inviting Black people into deeper relationship with Disability Justice.

the Embraced Body Team

  • India Harville, a Black woman smiling at camera with purple blouse and long locs

    INDIA HARVILLE
    Founder & Executive Director

  • JJ Omelagah, a Black nonbinary person smiling at camera with argyle vest and shaved hair

    JJ OMELAGAH
    Program Director

  • Nico V Harville, a yellow lab service dog wearing a tuxedo vest and blue bowtie. His tongue is out.

    NICO V HARVILLE
    Service Dog & Very Good Boy

  • Cam Wooley, young white woman with brown hair and pink highlights, wearing a black top and grey cardigan.

    CAM WOOLEY
    Founder’s Personal Attendant

  • Dana Garza, a queer, disabled, Mestiza nonbinary person smiling with glasses and black bangs. They’re wearing purple lipstick and a leopard print top.

    DANA GARZA
    Administrative Assistant

  • Erika Hambrick, Black woman with natural hair in a bun smiling. She wears a grey henley and a gold necklace.

    ERIKA HAMBRICK
    Founder’s Personal Attendant

  • Ifasina Clear, a Black genderqueer person with shoulder-length braids styled to one side and a brown hat. They are wearing a gray top with multiple illustrations of black and brown faces.

    IFASINA CLEAR
    Black Spirit Dance Collective Artist

  • Kayla Hamilton, a dark brown-skinned Black woman with tied up braids smiling and wearing glasses. She has on a red top with a white abstract pattern and a black headset around her neck

    KAYLA HAMILTON
    How We Move Co-Facilitator & Ongoing Collaborator

  • A young Black woman with braids pulled into a ponytail. She wears metal glasses and a black sweatshirt.

    KIERSTEN SHORTS
    Founder’s Personal Attendant

  • Susana Baker Boey, a white Latina woman with long brown hair swept over one shoulder. She wears a dark green top and tortoise shell earrings.

    SUSANA BAKER BOEY
    Marketing & Operations

  • Tammy Johnson, a happy Black woman with locs pulled up on her head. She wears a blue blouse with big yellow patterns and red lipstick.

    TAMMY JOHNSON
    Black Spirit Dance Collective Artist

  • Taunya Black, a black woman smiling with long curly hair. She is wearing a blue top with a white sweater and pink lipstick.

    TAUNYA BLACK
    Politicized Healer and Ongoing Collaborator