{"id":16659,"date":"2019-06-04T00:48:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T00:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16659"},"modified":"2019-06-05T03:04:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T03:04:38","slug":"how-americas-got-talent-contestant-kodi-lee-shattered-stereotypes-about-disability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-americas-got-talent-contestant-kodi-lee-shattered-stereotypes-about-disability\/","title":{"rendered":"How &#8216;America&#8217;s Got Talent&#8217; contestant Kodi Lee shattered stereotypes about disability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/stan-link-749916\">Stan Link<\/a>, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/vanderbilt-university-1293\">Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t seen Kodi Lee\u2019s May 28 performance on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pDPdRYF7hTQ\">it\u2019s worth a watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old Lee is blind and has autism. His rendition of Leon Russell\u2019s \u201cA Song for You\u201d brought the crowd to its feet \u2013 and thrilled viewers at home. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLoved this moment so much! Stood up and cheered in my living room!\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Oprah\/status\/1133563317564239872\">Oprah tweeted<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Much of the media coverage portrayed Lee as someone who, in developing his musical ability to such a high level, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/who-kodi-lee-agt-golden-buzzer-1438685\">overcame all odds<\/a> \u2013 a common though sometimes troublesome trope used to describe people with disabilities who achieve any measure of success.<\/p>\n<p>Lee is certainly an exciting talent. But as someone who <a href=\"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/mlas\/courseinformation\/history\/2018-fall.php\">teaches a course on the intersection of disability and music<\/a>, I was moved by other aspects of Lee\u2019s performance as well.<\/p>\n<figure>\n            <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"260\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pDPdRYF7hTQ?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Lee stunned the judges during his May 28 performance on \u2018America\u2019s Got Talent.\u2019<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One challenge for people with disabilities can be that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dsq-sds.org\/article\/view\/979\/1173\">others tend to conflate their disability with their personality and identity<\/a>. Their disability becomes the defining aspect of who they are, which can prevent people from realizing that those with disabilities can have rich interior lives. <\/p>\n<p>So listening to Lee sing about love \u2013 mature, adult love \u2013 I heard a 22-year-old man whose voice and delivery brimmed with emotion and rang with authenticity. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been so many places in my life and time,\u201d he begins. \u201cWe\u2019re alone now and I\u2019m singing this song to you,\u201d he croons, evoking deep intimacy and connection. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dsq-sds.org\/article\/view\/1675\/1596\">Infantilizing<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/meloukhia.net\/2014\/05\/desexualising_disability\/\">de-sexualizing<\/a> people with disabilities is still commonplace \u2013 as though physical or intellectual disability should necessarily exclude the ability to feel desire and the longing to be desired. <\/p>\n<p>Lee shatters these notions. To sing these lines believably means to have lived them or to have imagined their truth.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most joyful aspect of Kodi Lee\u2019s performance, however, is rooted in the dimension of time.<\/p>\n<p>Philosopher and disability theorist Licia Carlson <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=TJWFCgAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=oxford+handbook+disability+and+music&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi3g5aBhsfiAhWoUt8KHXVoCdoQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&amp;q=oxford%20handbook%20disability%20and%20music&amp;f=false\">has written<\/a> that \u201cthe experience of disability may be defined in negative terms when people fail to live according to what is considered to be normal time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, because many tasks can take longer for someone with a disability, keeping pace can feel like a constant struggle.<\/p>\n<p>This is where music can be such a beautifully transporting experience. It has its own time that\u2019s not tied to that of the real world. With its tempo, rhythm and dramatic pacing, music creates its own temporal universe. <\/p>\n<p>While listening to Lee perform, everyone in the audience was listening along at his speed, which, as the performer, he controlled.<\/p>\n<p>It was a rare opportunity for disabled and non-disabled to be fully present together, under the same umbrella of time and space. <\/p>\n<p>Finally, I think it\u2019s important to return to the title of the show: \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>After the Industrial Revolution, the ability to contribute labor and earn a paycheck <a href=\"https:\/\/15minutehistory.org\/2017\/01\/18\/episode-92-disability-history-in-the-united-states\/\">became defining features of what it meant to be American<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>If being a \u201ctrue\u201d American traditionally implied independence and autonomy, this one element of national identity alone could be enough to stigmatize people with disabilities.  <\/p>\n<p>Kodi Lee belted out an overwhelming assurance \u2013 as if it should have ever been needed \u2013 that a blind man with autism is also included in the definition of America.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/118161\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important\" \/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/stan-link-749916\">Stan Link<\/a>, Associate Professor of the Composition, Philosophy and Analysis of Music, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/vanderbilt-university-1293\">Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-americas-got-talent-contestant-kodi-lee-shattered-stereotypes-about-disability-118161\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stan Link, Vanderbilt University If you haven\u2019t seen Kodi Lee\u2019s May 28 performance on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent,\u201d it\u2019s worth a watch. The 22-year-old Lee is blind and has autism. His rendition of Leon Russell\u2019s \u201cA Song for You\u201d brought the crowd to its feet \u2013 and thrilled viewers at home. \u201cLoved this moment so much! [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[263,2813,53,3377,6418,4424,1728,536],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16661,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16659\/revisions\/16661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}