Artist, activist, and educator Emily Sara introduced me to how art by disabled artists can open us up in ways I’d never thought about before.

I wrote a for the Boston Globe, but there was so much to say about who she is, what she wants to do, and her frameworks for thinking about art and life that I didn’t have space to synthesize in that story how artists with disabilities are crucial leaders. My editor hit the nail on the head with his headline, though: “An artist with disabilities recasts the meaning of ‘disabled.’In her work and activism, Emily Sara is on a leading edge of artists calling disability ‘a powerful generative force.’”

Here’s why she’s right.