by Edith Cody-Rice
Last Thursday evening was a very special night for Almonte Readers and Writers. In the series “Delve” which features in depth conversations with authors at the Equator Coffee Shop, Kim Kilpatrick presented a combination of an interview and a performance in a discussion moderated by Emily Pearlman, an award-winning theatre artist and educator from Almonte. Kim is the daughter of Almonte resident Marilyn Campbell and has been blind since birth. A lack of sight has never held Kim back. She has a thirst for life and a perceptive understanding of the world around her in which she operates.
Kim has always been remarkable. Her parents advocated fiercely for her as a child, insisting that she be treated like all other children, that she be allowed to have scissors in kindergarten, for example, and her father threatened to go to the press when Lisgar Collegiate wanted to deny her admission because of her blindness.
As a result of her enthusiasm and eager grasp of life, Kim has become an extraordinary individual. She was a Paralympian in swimming, she advises many organizations on accessibility and is consulted on accessibility for city infrastructure in Ottawa and beyond. She has been employed to consult for live description performances by the NAC and other local theatre groups and is an accomplished storyteller and actress, with four one person shows to her credit which have been performed across Canada. Her shows usually explore, with humour and insight the experience of being blind, of learning to live with a guide dog, of advocating for herself (which she says she finds exhausting). She makes her audience understand that not being sighted is not abnormal and not a tragedy. She looks forward to the day when people with what are called “disabilities” will be treated with the normalcy and respect they are due, as is every other individual.
During the evening, Kim talked about her love of language, instilled in her by her parents reading her stories. She is a firm believer in the power of words and she performed portions of one of her shows to illustrate how she acts. Of course, she must memorize everything, which she appears to do with ease, but her preparation for her performances is extensive. She records and rerecords her voice and adjusts her cadence until it is just right, and it is. Her performances sell out in venues across the country
Kim was asked by a writer in the audience how to make a blind person understand a description of, say, a beautiful sunset. She responded that there may be equivalences in other senses that would allow a blind person to understand. For example, there might be the feel of a breeze. Her mother recounts how Kim loves to listen to birds, wind and sounds of cottage life at their chalet in the Gatineau Hills Kim is acutely sensitive to sound, and the sensation of touch, which make up much of her world.
It was a remarkable evening.
Full disclosure: The author is a director of Almonte Readers and Writers.