San Francisco-based filmmaker Maya Chupkov will be bringing her message of strength and resilience to the Chicagoland stuttering community in partnership with Northwestern University during a panel discussion on Wednesday.
The panel, titled “Beyond Resilience: Using Film As a Catalyst For Change in The Stuttering & Disability Community,” will be held April 9 at Lutkin Memorial Hall, 700 University Place.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The event will feature Chupkov and Reveca Torres, a Chicago-based filmmaker and disability advocate, who will be sharing clips of projects and sharing stories that speak to their lived experiences.
“Stuttering is very different from person to person,” Chupkov said, adding everyone’s experience is not only different, but that stuttering can manifest itself in various ways across different levels. “There are some days where I struggle a lot, and some days when I am more fluent.”
Chupkov said she was always able to manage and “hide” her stutter for 29 years, but she decided to “come out” during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating her “Proud Stutter” podcast, which launched on International Stuttering Awareness Day in October 2021.
“I had never really talked about my stutter because there is a big stigma around it still. We see it in popular culture,” she said. “Getting made fun of, getting characterized as not being sure and not being smart. That haunted me throughout my life, and that is why I didn’t want to disclose it to anyone.”
On the podcast, Chupkov shares not only her story but also has guests on to share their own experiences, releasing episodes every other week.
Following the podcast, Chupkov expanded to a nonprofit which has allowed for more outreach and events.
The event with Northwestern is the first time “Proud Stutter” has partnered with a university, she said.
According to Chupkov, the partnership came about following her finding about “Break the Blocks,” a series of improv workshops aimed to help young people who stutter.
The workshops were facilitated by Elisha Boxer Magnifico, assistant clinical professor and speech-language pathologist, and David Catlin, head of acting for Northwestern’s Department of Theatre.
After having Magnifico and Catlin on her podcast, Chupkov reached back out and pitched the idea for the event.
Clare Cooney, a filmmaker, will be one of the supporters in attendance, saying she wanted to support the cause after learning how many filmmakers and other creatives also struggle with stuttering. Cooney said began focusing more on filmmaking to use her own voice to tell stories, including an upcoming thriller about a woman who stutters.
“The mission behind Proud Stutter is something that I discovered for myself in the last few years,” Cooney said, adding she wasn’t always upfront about her stuttering growing up.
After having gone through speech therapy as a child, Cooney said she struggled a lot but was grateful for having supportive parents who sought out resources.
“I got made fun of plenty by students, by other teachers, by grownups who didn’t know why I was making the sounds I was making,” she said.
While she continues to struggle on the daily, Cooney said her stuttering appears in various ways which often leads others to not notice, however she wants to be part of the support for others in the community.
“It is meant to be a very inclusive conversation about how filmmaking should be more open to people who have a disability or stutter,” Cooney said.
Following the panel discussion, the event will also feature an audience engagement portion where guests can share their own personal experiences along with a reception at a local bistro.
While the event is free and open to the public, the reception will be first-come-first-served due to limited seating, Chupkov said.
The event will be moderated by Danielle Scruggs, founder of Black Women Directors, with remarks from Magnifico, Catlin and Catherine Carrigan, director of academic programs at Northwestern.
“This event is really about intersectionality and seeing the humanity in each other’s stories,” Chupkov said. “I am really hoping people will walk away with a deeper understanding of stuttering and how it connects to all these different things we go through in life and learn how to apply it to their own work and their own lives.”
Tickets are free but registration is required. To register, visit proudstutter.org.
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