Pop/EDM singer Lachi has probably put as much work into being an artist as she has into being an advocate for the disabled community. She has sung at the Lincoln Center and the White House, spoken at the United Nations and become a member of the Grammy Advocacy Committee, where she has helped make the awards ceremony more accessible for artists with disabilities. The artist has also brought in members with disabilities to the Recording Academy, including Namel Norris, Gaelynn Lea, Siedah Garrett and Ryan Nelson. Lachi has accomplished all this in addition to her work as co-founding with Lea the Ford Foundation-funded global network RAMPD, or Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities, which has collaborated with such entertainment giants as Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The singer, who is legally blind, has penned a new song to honor the late Judy Heumann, special advisor for international disability rights under the Barack Obama administration, entitled “Lift Me Up,” which released July 25.
Lachi first became aware of the late activist in 2018 (who starred in Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp) after seeing a video on Comedy Central’s Drunk History. “I came across her in that now infamous episode that was talking about her and the 504 Sit-in,” she says about the 1977 protest in which people with disabilities occupied U.S. federal buildings. Heumann’s story inspired Lachi to create her own lane for disability advocacy: “That was actually when I decided I want to advocate for my own disability. I see a badass woman doing it. Why can’t I also be a badass woman doing it from the angle of a Black woman?”
She says Twitter sparked the two women’s friendship. “I got a DM from Judy’s assistant going, ‘Judy’s a huge fan of your music, and she wants your songs to be the head of her podcast,’” she says of The Heumann Perspective audio conversations. “And when we first got together, it was over. We were just both bad bitches. We just had a great time.”
When the disability rights advocate passed away earlier this year at the age of 75, the singer wanted to pay tribute. “She was a mentor to me,” says Lachi of how Heumann guided her in starting RAMPD. “She said, ‘You make an organization by calling all your friends and saying, I’m making an organization, and then calling a bunch of other organizations and saying, Hi, I have an organization.’ That’s how you do it.”
The advice bore out. Says Lachi, “In our initial outreach, we got 200 responses and were like, ‘So this is necessary.’ Gaelynn and I, we’ve toured, we’ve been around the block, we’re established artists. And we wanted to make sure that there are more of us, that we can start getting more people in rooms prepared to speak on behalf of music professionals with disabilities.”
Lachi wrote “Lift Me Up” to honor her good friend’s legacy, turning her grief into music. “I sat at my piano and started writing and didn’t even realize I was crying until I saw the teardrops on my hands while I was playing,” she says of the song that was co-written with other artists with disabilities. “I teamed up with James Ian, who was also a great friend of Judy’s and a singer who’s a part of RAMPD — he has SMA, spinal muscular atrophy. And then Gaelynn Lea calls up — she has Brittle Bone syndrome — and she was like, ‘I’m about to be part of this song.’” It also involved the work of Sony deaf sound engineer, Kulick.
Alongside Lachi, the accompanying music video features viral sign-language interpreter Amber Galloway; TikTok stars Otis Jones and Nell Russell, also ASL translators; and Tony-winning actress Ali Stroker. “Right in the beginning, we have audio that describes what’s going on in the video for blind viewers that’s voiced by Ali, who was a good friend of Judy’s. And the full circle is that Ali played Judy in that episode of Drunken History.”
When describing herself, Lachi uses only so many words: “Firstly, I am Lachi, she, her. I’m a Black woman with cornrows, and I identify as blind.” She is partially blind due to a birth defect called coloboma, which is a tear in the iris, retina or other main structure of the eye. She became inspired to become a singer out of the lack of diversity regarding disabilities: “When I was 8, I pointed at the TV and said, ‘Mommy, I want to do that.’ I didn’t see people that looked like me. Neither did my mom, my teachers, my friends. It was very difficult to put together, like a vision board of how to do that for a blind Black girl.” She says her disability may have cost her a few music deals: “I was tripping over cables. I was missing handshakes at these dark clubs I would have to be at — these kinds of handshakes are the ones where you can get a deal.” Instead of considering it to be a hindrance, she began thinking of her disability as her superpower: “I decided to turn around and come out loud and proud about my disability, for my career and for my own mental health. Hiding my disability, it was like, this isn’t me. Hiding is not how I’m gonna be bold.”
Lachi feels that Hollywood has a long road ahead in representing people with disabilities onscreen. “We are starting to see more folks in front of and behind the camera from groups like the RespectAbility Coalition [a non-profit that also fights for disability policies and rights] and RAMPD,” she says. “But there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, especially with authentic representation.” She believes that when a script calls for a person with disabilities, Hollywood should use actors with disabilities. “Somebody came to me and said, ‘Should we get a blind person to play a blind superhero?’ If that blind person has acting experience and choreography experience, then yes. There is a spectrum from totally blind to partially blind. I know at least a dozen blind and partially sighted black belts that can play superheroes.”
Lachi also thinks more work needs to be done to provide accessible entrances and representation of disabled leadership in the boardroom. Ultimately, however, she says she’s “very privileged to be at the forefront of the disability culture movement. I take it very, very seriously,” she adds, and then pivots to a more lighthearted tone: “You know, I glam up my canes with pearls and jewels, and I’m always trying to look fly, and I’m always having a good time and a big smile on my face.”
