Myrna Clayton With SHOWAbility

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program. The accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Myrna Clayton with SHOWAbility. Welcome.

Myrna Clayton: Thank you. I appreciate it. Lee.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about SHOWAbility. How you serving folks.

Myrna Clayton: You know it. SHOWAbility empowers talented performing artists across the disability spectrum, whether that’s born or acquired, a parent or not, a parent. And we’re excited about supporting artists that are that are musicians. Singers as well as actors were frequently contacted by casting agents looking for actors with disabilities.

Lee Kantor: So what is the genesis of the idea? How did this come about?

Myrna Clayton: You know, I’m a professional singer. That’s what I do. And I happen to see a young boy about 11 years old a while ago. But I say a while ago, like over ten years ago, struggle to get up three steps into a church pulpit in order to sing, but leave. When he started singing, he was phenomenal. And I didn’t have the presence of mine at the time to ask his name or anything. But he crossed my mind about five years later and I began asking musicians, corporate band, you know, choir directors, school school band directors, and, you know, and chorus directors. If they knew any singers with disabilities. And Lee, no one knew any singers with disabilities. And that just didn’t make sense to me. And and so at that point, I began just kind of asking around more and more. And I started the organization because I was like, there’s an opportunity and there’s a need. And so it went from there.

Lee Kantor: So what did you see as the opportunity?

Myrna Clayton: Well, first of all, as a singer, we understand that everybody has a talent. And I knew at that time I did not know the statistics. Now I know the statistics. The disability community is the largest minority population in the country. 26% of the US population have a disability. That’s 1 in 4 that have a disability. I didn’t know that statistic then, but I knew that. That if no one knew anybody, then there was a, there was there was something there just to let you know. Also, I have an MBA and I worked in corporate and I worked in new product and new business development. And so I operated conceptually looking at research to find needs. And the other piece of that, if you just add one family member to the disability community, that 26%, that’s 52%. That means that over half of the US population is connected to this population. And that means, from a business standpoint, that there’s huge opportunity subsequent to that, the discretionary spending power is larger than the the Black and Latino population combined. The spending power is $21 billion that the disability community has. We in the general population I say we I give us an out. I don’t have a disability and I give us an out because from childhood we’re taught not to point and not to stare. And so pretty much we have blinders up and so they don’t even come to our minds. But when you look at the opportunity and you see no one’s fitting that need, no one’s meeting that need.

Myrna Clayton: And often times as well, when we think about the disability community, we think about the special ed class. We don’t think about those persons like a Stevie Wonder, or we don’t think about persons that have that are wheelchair users. We don’t think about that again, that doesn’t come to mind. And then along with that, because, um, we’ve been we we, we get nervous when we get around. So we’re not comfortable. We never learned how to engage. And so what we do is we look the other way, we turn we we don’t even, um, oftentimes speak, you know, because we don’t know what to do. We’re uncomfortable and we don’t like being uncomfortable. We don’t like looking quote unquote, ignorant to the situation. And so because of that, um, we we don’t know. And we’re missing out on the opportunity, the business opportunity within this population. And again, what along with the person with disability, there’s a whole family that comes along with them and there are certain needs that they have. And, um, and so our thing was about, um, artists meeting employment and enjoyment people want to have everybody wants to have a good time. This this disability does not mean not able doesn’t want. They’re human beings just like everybody else. That’s a human being. They’re not robots. We’ve got enough bots around here going around now. Um, these are human beings that have the same desires and needs and wants that everybody else. And so everything that you need, Lee, they need.

Lee Kantor: Now, once you had kind of this, uh, aha moment of, hey, there should be a place for people with disabilities or they should be more visible. At what? How were you playing in this ecosystem? Because I would imagine once that light bulb went off, now all of a sudden a lot of things become visible. Like you were like, okay, there needs to be communication with casting directors. There needs to be communication with creative people to include, uh, people with disability in the performing arts. Like what part does show ability, you know, play in?

Myrna Clayton: We actually, um, first of all, when we started casting and all of that was not we started in actually 2011 and casting and all of that wasn’t even on the page. Our biggest thing, again, we’re working with performing artists. And so our biggest thing was getting on stage. And most stages are not accessible. Um, we can’t get on stage though. There is an Ada that’s there. And so the biggest thing for us is finding the talent and identifying the talent so that when the opportunity presents itself, we can be we can we can present them and have them, um, ready when I’m saying them. Talented persons, talented artists, just like any other presenter of talent, um, you’re making sure that they are ready for the opportunities. Now we have shows, we have concerts. Um, we actually also have, um, right now we have an inclusive chorus that’s made up of talented singers with and without disabilities. And what we’re doing is actually singing the national anthem at major sports events. Um, and so that’s something that we’re reaching out to do. We’re also bringing attention to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the fact that the general population needs to know. And so we’re having, um, an event July 26th coming up. Um, that is, um, collaborating with major organizations like, um, Bobby Dodd Institute, like, um, the states Ada coordinator, like Southeast Ada, like Disability Link and a number of disability organizations, um, to let the population know there are 61 million people in the US that have a disability.

Myrna Clayton: We don’t realize how huge this is. And so, um, and so we’re trying again, our thing is to reach our target audience is the disability community, not the general population. Because again, we’ve got that. This is not a niche, 26% is not a niche. And so we’re looking to to create the awareness and for opportunities again for employment and enjoyment. Um, and so we’ve when we began, when we started, we started realizing that so many people were not aware. And so it’s a lot of consulting that I do. Um, and um, it’s preparing the artist as well. And the performers to. Engage with others and meeting inform others on how to respond to them. Accessibility and accommodations are very important for this population. And so we’re looking and wanting to in. Um, uh, engage that in terms of the casting agents. They find us because they have the need we, you know, there when, when a, when, um, when a movie is looking has, has a has a position for a role, then they’re sending out for, for actors and so they contact us. Acting was not on our radar in the very beginning. But three things happened in 2019 that were significant within the disability community and the entertainment industry.

Myrna Clayton: Number one, and you may or may not know about these, these folks, but number one, Cody Lee, young man who was blind and on the autism spectrum, won America’s Got Talent number one artist grand prize. That happened. Number two, Ali Stroker, who is an actress on Broadway, won best actor Tony award for best actor. Um, for her the production of Oklahoma! Now, of course, Oklahoma is not written for wheelchair users, but she’s a wheelchair user. And guess what? Every show, not every night, every show, whether that’s matinee, midday or evening, she had to be lifted on to stage on her in her wheelchair in order to perform. Can you imagine? Yeah. And but she won Best Actor. And then third thing that happened in 2019 was there’s a documentary that was released on Netflix called, um, Crip Camp. That’s that introduced, um, the plight that led ultimately, ultimately to the 504 and eventually to the Ada. Those three things were significant and really brought to the forefront the the disability community. And after that, right, was the was the pandemic. And in the midst of the pandemic, we had persons from, um, casting agents contacting us saying, hey, because they’re not that many, um, organizations that boast about having access to talented artists with disabilities.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re defining disabilities, is it everything from, like you mentioned, people in wheelchair, you mentioned people you know with vision or hearing challenges, but also autistic. Does that fit in there as well?

Myrna Clayton: We say the across the disability spectrum. And so that is someone who’s born with a disability, whether that’s cerebral palsy, that’s blind, um, that’s deaf. Um, and and then as well as, um, someone who’s acquired and that’s what the Shepherd center refers to it. They’ve acquired a disability, meaning they had a car accident or something happened. And so that’s a wheelchair user or someone who has an invisible disability, you know, that, you know, brain trauma, things like that. Our thing is the talent has no bounds. There’s no limit to the talent. It’s about the performance and the ability to perform. Um, and so for us and yes, included in that is Down’s syndrome, autism, those with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities. It just depends on the talent and and and um, a person’s ability. I tell people quick, this is not a kumbaya thing. Nobody wants to be patronized. We are, uh, very much so for folks who are talented, um, we say that we want to be for the arts and entertainment industry what the Paralympics and the Special Olympics are, and the sports industry, and that is showcasing talent and excellence. And it puts it in perspective because we’ve got it. We’re not, you know, there there are businesses that are out there that are doing it. It just so happens that for most of us, we’re not aware of it because again, we we don’t we never learned how to engage. And so for us, for the most part, they’re hidden in plain view.

Lee Kantor: Now is this is the scope of your work. Stop at training aspiring performers.

Myrna Clayton: Um, that’s a great question. And no, um, we do artist development and then we then present opportunities when when job opportunities come, you know, they reach out to us, we then facilitate them going for that opportunity. Um, we also have shows and events, um, and present them, you know, for things like that. As, as I mentioned, the inclusive course we’ve performed at the Atlanta Gladiators, we’re going to be performing at Georgia State’s, uh, opening game. Um, we’re looking at performing at the Falcons and Atlanta United. Um, and our goal for that is really creating awareness of the talents within the disability community. Um, we also have, um, some of our outcomes. Are we actually present artists, like there’s a young man that’s um, that’s, um, on the autism spectrum, and he, he well, he’s now 20, but when we met him, he was 16, and he sounded like a 35 year old Elvis Presley. And he and he was phenomenal. And, um, he had all the mannerisms, all the dancing moves and everything. And his. And his name is, his stage name is Elvis. Um, and so we present opportunities and showcase talent like that as well. Um, and so there’s so much talent our, the what differentiates us is it’s performing arts, um, artists that have visual arts or sculpting. That’s not what we do. We do anybody that would want to be on stage or in front of a camera, um, or work on a crew, then that’s what that that’s our space. Um, and presenting talent.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you ever go into, um, maybe the production company or a writers room to explain, um, kind of the benefit and the value to them to be to maybe expand their, you know, maybe unconscious bias to include people with disabilities in their creative work.

Myrna Clayton: Um. The honest answer is no. Um, if they’re interested, then we will do it. But, um, it’s a huge, uh, it’s a huge ask, um, to, to introduce, um, the possibility and change someone’s perspective. They’re already nervous and uncomfortable. Um, where again, my our target audience are those people who are connected to the disability community. Again, it’s 52% of the US population. So that 48% they can they’re going to eventually come around. But I’m not wanting to convince someone of the opportunity here. Um, there are there are people with that that are connected, that are family members, you know, that, see it and get it. Um, and because it’s, it’s it’s such a hard it’s a, it’s a hard pull, um, in order to convince someone of the opportunity. Um, and I’d much rather go where we’re appreciated and not tolerate it.

Lee Kantor: Well, I just didn’t know if there’s any kind of educational or evangelistic element to this where it’s not that people aren’t including them as part of their scripts or their writing or their video game or their, um, music video, that they just it isn’t occurring to them, you know, because maybe it isn’t as present as it would be if somebody had a cousin or a brother or somebody with a disability. That would be of course I would include that or yeah, that would be great. Let’s let’s have one of the characters be somebody in a wheelchair.

Myrna Clayton: And, um, that is happening. Um, and believe it or not, it’s happening a lot in terms of people are becoming more and more aware. One of the things that when we when the mere fact that we show up, we’re informing and educating, uh, for example, when we go to theaters and the stages aren’t accessible, I’m educating as we go. We can’t get on stage. And so there’s an opportunity for education in that respect. Um, if and when we’re doing casting calls, a lot of times the folks that are below the line, if you know about film, they’re not knowledgeable at all about the disability community. They’ve been they’ve been hired, uh, to accommodate a person, but they’re not aware. And so something that we’re looking to do coming up this October is have an event, an expo where we’re looking to educate, um, those that are below the line, um, in the film industry, um, about opportunity, about just kind of how to accommodate persons, uh, that have a disability because, um, again, they don’t know what to do. They don’t know how to engage. And so it’s it’s very much an informative space. And we’re looking to have that expo coming up in October. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. And so that’s why we chose October. And it’s going to be, um, the end of October, Cadillac around the 26th or the 20th. We’re we’re in the final stages of preparing and planning that we’ve we’re we’re in the preliminary stages of, of fine tuning and, and probably, um, the month of July, which is the Ada month.

Myrna Clayton: Um, um, is really going after more aggressively on our, um, our sponsors for, for that particular expo, but we’re anticipating, um, a good 2 to 300 people to come to that expo as a starting place. Um, but yes, um, we are, like I said, every time we show up, we’re, we’re informing people. And, um, as they’re informed, then they’re able to become the evangelist for us. You know, um, one of the things that we’re sad about is, and I’m so grateful for you is, um, media does not cover this topic that much and, um, hardly ever. Um, and I think, again, because people are uncomfortable about the topic and, um, and so therefore we much prefer to go where we’re, again, appreciated and not tolerated, because again, that’s 52% of the US population who understands. And so we’re not talking about, you know, 10% or 2%, you know, that’s niche. Um, but 26% of the US population, um, there, there’s, there’s a, there’s a need there and there’s an opportunity there. Um, and um, and so having conversations with you and people like you, um, um, platforms like you is a part of that informing and that evangelizing. Um, because I obviously I don’t shy away from telling the story, but in terms of our business strategy is our target audience is the disability community and those who love them. That’s our target audience.

Lee Kantor: Now, is the target, um, Atlanta centric right now because you’re here in Atlanta, but this is a big film and entertainment town. So that gives you access to people that are from all over. Or is this is it are you looking to go nationwide or international? What’s kind of the the dream here?

Myrna Clayton: Um, actually the we’re actually metro Atlanta and not just Atlanta city. And we expand out, um, into, uh, into Georgia and very much so the plan is, is sort of a tiered into, you know, the southeast. And I’m, um, commissioned by the US State Department to represent American music abroad at US embassies around the world. And so as a singer, um, I’m global, and I, um, my cause is the disability community. And so it’s very much a global situation because disability is not unique to America. And so I’m doing my consulting, I’m doing my, um, evangelizing, I guess, if you will, whenever I am performing abroad, because I’m asking, hey, I want to have persons with disabilities invited no matter if they don’t want to come. That’s a whole different thing. But invited to come to the shows and it highlights, you know, the the inaccessibility of some theaters and the accessibility of others. And again, it brings to their awareness, because I’m making the request as the artist that’s coming to perform, um, of the of the opportunity of I don’t want to say, you know, the missed the or the lack thereof. Uh, but it also informs me that America is not ahead of the game as it relates to disability.

Myrna Clayton: There are so many countries that are much further ahead than America. Um, as it relates to the disability community. Um, and so, um, so it is a global situation because the disability community is global. This is, again, not unique to America. Um, but in terms of show ability, we are taking our steps, um, because we definitely see the need in Georgia. Um, and um, and then going from further in America. So yes, National, we’d like to do things like have a, um, either a franchise. Eyes or a or a or chapter or something in other, in other cities. Um, um, but for right now it’s hey. Yes. Again, film is is hot here, here in Atlanta and in Georgia. Uh, but we were here before that. Um, and we’re happy to ride that momentum rather than, you know, just kind of try to, um, do anything other than ride the momentum. Because, again, the need is there. They reached out to us because, again, there’s not another organization like show ability in the country that focuses on talented performing artists across the disability spectrum. And so, um, we very much so want to expand.

Lee Kantor: And so what do you need more of? How can we help?

Myrna Clayton: Thank you. Um, we’d love to, um, have sponsors. We’d love to have, um, receive grants for nonprofit 500 1C3 nonprofit. And so, um, that we’d love to have volunteers because we always are in need of volunteers. Um, and not just volunteers that kind of show up for the event, but volunteers who are skilled volunteers like we right now, um, need marketing, um, support, uh, for that. And so that kind of help and then what you’re doing right now is so very helpful because your audience now is informed. And so we appreciate that. Um, and then the other piece, we need artists. You know, oftentimes we find that artists don’t want to self-identify. And you can imagine why, you know, um, and so they don’t want to come into the spotlight because no one wants to be jeered at or, you know, you know, made fun of, um, and it really takes a certain kind of personality of an artist to push past that. And so we are always looking for artists that are talented. And so we have auditions and so folks can reach out to us at our website. Um, or they can contact me. Our website is show ability. Org. They can send emails to info at show ability. Org or they can contact me directly at um Clayton at show ability org. Um, but however persons feel that they are interested and would like to be a part, we want them with our event coming up in um, um, in July. Um, we’re looking for volunteers for that and so they can reach out to us for that.

Myrna Clayton: And then lastly, um, we are very much so, um, looking for persons who are connected that are in our target audience and that are connected to the disability community, a person, say, for instance, an artist especially, you know, artists are sensitive, you know, so they may not say, I want to do it, I want to do it, but there may be someone that has heard them, whether that be a teacher or a friend. And, you know, hey, I want that person to to contact me and then give me that artist’s information and then I’ll contact the artist. Artist, because a lot of times persons will make recommendations and the artist will never contact, but I’ll contact them and I’ll be able to say, hey, Lee told me that you’re amazing. You’re an amazing musician. I’d love to hear you, you know, can you send me a tape or can I come and hear you perform someplace? And it starts like that. And it’s really an encouragement to just kind of come out of your shell and, um. Or I heard that you’re an actor. We got some opportunities, and we’d like to present to you. Um, and so it goes from there. So that’s those are the kinds of things that we would love to have. And then lastly, from a media standpoint, um, Lee, for you to tell your colleagues, hey, this is something that, um, is worth talking about. Um, and so I again, I appreciate you so much for giving us this platform.

Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Myrna Clayton: Thank you. Thank you so much, I appreciate you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Cantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.