Frank Buffalo Hyde, an Indigenous artist who’s been featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and other museums across the United States, was born with one arm and one leg due to a birth defect after his father was exposed to Agent Orange.
In this episode of “Enable: The Disability Podcast,” he speaks about the use of prosthetics and other resources, the ways he tried to avoid feeling different as a child, and the healing power of humor and pop culture in his colorful artwork. Other topics include Bigfoot, Sasquatch, UFOs and cryptozoology, plus the reality TV competition he appeared on.
“For me, I came into the art scene and became a professional artist at a time where I had to fit into a world that wasn’t necessarily made for me so I didn’t necessarily let my disability define me,” Hyde says. “People would find out later when I sign my work and… [be] pretty shocked. And a lot of people would ask me, you know: ‘Are you left-handed?’ (laughs) I’m like, ‘Yes.’”
For more about Hyde, an Onondaga/Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) painter who was born in New Mexico and largely grew up on the Onondaga territory near Syracuse, visit his website: frankbuffalohyde.com
“Enable: The Disability Podcast,” which highlights amazing people with disabilities and different abilities, releases new episodes weekly on YouTube and all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple, Amazon and iHeart.
Follow facebook.com/enablepodcast or @enablepodcast on Instagram and TikTok for more.
About the hosts
Geoff Herbert, who was born with a profound binaural hearing loss, is a reporter, SEO Lead and content supervisor for syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. Despite being mostly deaf in both ears, he’s also worked as a DJ for 25 years, including 10 years in radio (as “DeafGeoff”) and 10 years as a wedding DJ in Upstate New York. He learned how to communicate orally with hearing aids, lipreading and speech therapy, and embraces assistive technology like visual waveforms in music programs, closed captioning/subtitles, and video calls.
Kurt Hower, who has worked at Advance Local for over 35 years, is a leader both in the media industry and in the community. He has been actively involved in leading change as the print industry has continued to rapidly evolve, while also serving on a variety of boards including the Central PA Chapter Arthritis Foundation Board of Directors where he was Chairman of Board Development and a member of the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee. Hower has ankylosing spondylitis, a rare disease that causes arthritis of the spine, and encourages others to focus on what they can contribute to society rather than their challenges.
Note: Views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of Advance Local.
