RENEGADES is a series of documentary shorts showcasing the lives of diverse, lesser-known historical figures with disabilities, exploring not only their impact on and contributions to U.S. society, but also the concept of disability culture, which honors the uniqueness of disability. Hosted and narrated by the musician and disability rights advocate Lachi, who is blind, and created and produced by a team of D/deaf and disabled filmmakers, the series is designed to increase public knowledge of disability history, and encourage cross-cultural understanding between non-disabled people and those with disabilities – who make up more than 1 in 4 adults in America today.

Born with with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a condition that made her limbs unusable, Celestine Tate Harrington (1955-1998) was a street performer in downtown Philadelphia and on the Atlantic City boardwalk in the 1980s and 1990s who impressed audiences with her skill at playing the electric keyboard with her tongue. In 1975, when the Philadelphia Department of Public Welfare attempted to take away her infant daughter, claiming that Harrington was physically incapable of caring for a child, she successfully defended her right to parent. In the courtroom, Tate Harrington demonstrated her skills – dressing and undressing her daughter, and changing her diaper, using only her lips, teeth, and tongue – and retained custody.

In Celestine Tate HarringtonL Building a Legacy, RENEGADES explores how Tate Harrington’s fight to be a mother and earn an independent living was a revolutionary act, in the face of laws that cite disability as grounds for termination of parental rights to this day.