Laurie Rubin Performs and Serves on Panel for Disability Awareness Conference at the White House Rubin Becomes Activist in National Debate Story by Michael Chipman Opera production photo by John Seyfried
	RELATED STORY Mezzo-Soprano Laurie Rubin Chosen to Sing at White House in Washington, D.C.		Laurie Rubin, junior voice major from Los Angeles, studies with Richard Miller, professor of singing. "I think the experience left an impression on the audience," says Rubin. "People seemed to like what they saw and heard. I met several disabled people who have high-profile and upper level jobs in organizations around Washington, including many on the President's committee. It was so inspiring, but it also showed me how people can be totally unaware of things outside of their experience. This will be an annual event so we hope that the President will attend an event in the near future. We hope that this becomes as big a deal as other issues on the national agenda." That's how mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin, a junior from Encino, California, describes her October 12 visit to the White House in Washington, D.C., where she performed and served on a panel as part of the Very Special Arts (VSA) Handicap Awareness Conference. The conference, held in the Indian Treaty Room on the White House complex, included a formal dinner, a panel discussion, exhibitions and performances by artists with disabilities. Rubin, a singer who was born blind, saw the event as an important venue for bringing disability awareness to the forefront of national debate. VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities through the arts for people with disabilities. Each year, VSA arts brings the power of the arts into the lives of 3.5 million people worldwide. "When it was my turn to perform I said how wonderful it was that we were all breaking new ground. There is no reason that our disabilities should not be celebrated. I believe we should search for ways to make people more aware of our disabilities and use our disabilities to help in our art. I told them that my blindness helps me get into my singing. I sang an aria from 'La Cenerentola' and then closed with a song made popular by Andrea Bocelli, who is a blind person breaking new ground in opera. "It was amazing to be with all those people," says Rubin. "I was one of six presenting artists. One artist, Rob McQuay, is a singer who had broken his neck in a water accident and was paralyzed from the neck down. He still performs in his wheelchair but he said that people in general don't take him seriously as a professional because of the wheelchair. Similarly, I have found that people immediately assume that I'm not a professional singer because I'm blind. (from left to right) Ariadne Votava as Pousette, Marc Callahan as Lescaut, Marcia Davis as Javotte, and Laurie Rubin as Rosette in Manon, November 1999. "One of the other performers, Anita Hollander, is a woman from New York who has been singing musical theater professionally since the age of eight. She lost her leg to cancer at age 21 and now uses a prosthetic leg. At one point, while singing her number, she took off her leg, which I think scared many people in the audience. I was so glad she took off her leg because it is time for people to stop being afraid of disabilities and realize that the disabled, despite a few differences, are just normal people. Our disabilities should be celebrated, not feared." Rubin says the other presenters included an architect who is deaf, a painter with rheumatoid arthritis, a female saxophonist in a wheelchair, a native American sculptor who is blind, and a comedian named David Roche who has a facial disfigurement. "The left side of David's face has a swollen tumor of blood vessels," says Rubin. "He doesn't have a lower lip. He said that as a teenager it was difficult for people to take him seriously or feel comfortable around him. He is a functional person in every way, except for his disability, but people only see the disability. "I just can't get over how much ignorance there is out there," says Rubin. "Even the mildest ignorance leads to the most unfair decisions, for example, in job hiring. Stevie Wonder is blind and I wish that he were more involved in helping people with disabilities. People are afraid of drawing attention to disabilities and we need to take action. Rubin adds, "I remember writing a poem when I was a little girl and at the end of the poem I said how I was thankful for my blindness. I showed it to my grandmother and she was almost offended at what I had said. Disabilities are not something we should be ashamed of. I hope that events like this one can help people to get beyond their fears and be comfortable around people with disabilities."
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