In Memory and Power: Patty Berne

Image Description: Patty Berne,a Japanese-Haitian person with light brown skin, smiles playfully with love and light shining from their brown eyes. They wear an off the shoulder opalescent blue dress and an amethyst pendant. Their brown hair is pulled back into their signature two buns. Behind Patty is a pink background with radiant red and yellow flowers. At the top of the image, iridescent capital letters spell out “PATTY LIVES THROUGH US.” On the bottom right corner is Sins Invalid’s logo, a black rectangular box with white letters that read “Sins Invalid.”

We are heartbroken beyond words. Our beloved Patricia (Patty) Berne joined the ancestors on May 29, 2025. She left her body with peace and grace surrounded by chosen and birth family in a space filled with tenderness, grief, and immense love.

Patty—Disability Justice leader, comrade, kin, auntie, artist, mentor, visionary—touched and transformed countless lives. She was, is, and will always be a force of nature, a tsunami of love. Patty was co-founder and longtime Executive and Artistic Director of Sins Invalid and a primary architect of the Disability Justice movement, its 10 Principles, and core practices that center the lives, wisdom, and leadership of disabled queer and trans Black and brown people.

Patty directed 11 major performances, co-produced two documentaries, developed transformative curricula, globally trained thousands, and co-founded the Crip Survival Network in 2022. Their life was an unshamed claim to beauty rooted in cross-movement solidarity, collective access, and collective liberation.

For those just learning about their work: Patty dedicated their life to making revolutionary art, organizing across multiple movements, and uniting us to build power. From Haitian and Palestinian solidarity, to movements to end sexual violence, abolish white supremacy, win climate justice, transform the medical industrial complex, and of course dismantle ableism, Patty always had freedom in their mind and heart. Patty’s vision helped seed an entire ecosystem of Disability Justice—an approach to movement-building that rejects disposability and insists on interdependence, dignity, and creativity as necessary conditions for freedom for everybody.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will hold spaces to honor and celebrate Patty’s world-shifting legacy. As they would wish: we will mourn, we will make art, we will learn, we will resist—and you will be invited to join us.

Please stay tuned, and hold us with grace, tenderness and patience, as we take the time we need to process the enormity of our pain and to plan. You are in our hearts.

As we grieve, please care for each other in the ways Patty taught us:
Check in on a friend.
Cook a meal.
Support someone at the edge.
Practice Disability Justice in real time.

We are all part of Patty’s legacy:
You who get masks to community.
You who organize from bed.
You who provide access support at a protest.
You who create beauty from resistance.
You who build the liberated world we deserve.

Patty was skin, tooth, and bone. Now, she is starlight.

May her brilliance continue to guide us.

-The Sins Invalid Team

STATEMENT IN ASL

Grief & Gratitude Circle

A colorful digital flyer with a watercolor-style background blending pink, purple, green, and blue. Large pink, orange, and red hand-drawn roses decorate the top left and top right corners. Centered at the top in bold, all-caps pink letters that read: “GRIEF & GRATITUDE CIRCLE.” Below, in a peach-colored oval shape, bold black text reads: “TUES, SEPTEMBER 2 / 2–4pm PT / 5–7pm ET.” Near the bottom right, purple and pink text states: “AVAILABLE IN ASL, ENGLISH, & SPANISH WITH ENGLISH AND SPANISH CART.” At the bottom left is a black rectangle with white text that reads: “Sins Invalid.”

Image Description: A colorful digital flyer with a watercolor-style background blending pink, purple, green, and blue. Large pink, orange, and red hand-drawn roses decorate the top left and top right corners. Centered at the top in bold, all-caps pink letters that read: “GRIEF & GRATITUDE CIRCLE.” Below, in a peach-colored oval shape, bold black text reads: “TUES, SEPTEMBER 2 / 2–4pm PT / 5–7pm ET.” Near the bottom right, purple and pink text states: “AVAILABLE IN ASL, ENGLISH, & SPANISH WITH ENGLISH AND SPANISH CART.” At the bottom left is a black rectangle with white text that reads: “Sins Invalid.” Click here for image description in ASL.

Sins invites our beloved community to join us in grief and celebration as we honor the life and world-shifting legacy of Disability Justice leader and Sins Invalid’s Co-founder and Executive and Artistic Director, Patty Berne.

This Grief and Gratitude Circle will center art and creative expression to hold our grief, our love, and our memories of Patty. Together, we will carry forward the loving labor of Disability Justice that is a powerful part of Patty’s legacy. We will mourn, we will honor our ancestors, and we will center our crip brilliance and artistic vision.

To participate, please register through the link in our bio and in our website. We look forward to holding this sacred space with you.

You can contact the Sins Team at pattypresente@sinsinvalid.org

Celebration of Life: Patty Berne

A colorful drawing of Patty Berne, a Japanese-Haitian person with light brown skin, looking youthful and happy, their face shining with light. Patty’s hair is long, dark and curly, and she looks to the side with a dimpled grin. They wear an off-the -shoulder blouse and are surrounded by flowers from their garden including pink and orange toned roses. Text across the top reads Celebration of Life in pink and orange, with Patty’s signature in white. The bottom of the image reads: August 9, 2025, East Bay Church of Religious Science, tinyurl.com/PBcelebrationoflife. There is a qr code in the lower right corner, that leads to a page with more info.<br />

Image Description: A colorful drawing of Patty Berne, a Japanese-Haitian person with light brown skin, looking youthful and happy, their face shining with light. Patty’s hair is long, dark and curly, and she looks to the side with a dimpled grin. They wear an off-the-shoulder blouse and are surrounded by flowers from their garden including pink and orange toned roses. Text across the top reads “Celebration of Life” in pink and orange, with Patty’s signature in white. The bottom of the image reads: “August 9, 2025, East Bay Church of Religious Science, tinyurl.com/PBcelebrationoflife.” There is a qr code in the lower right corner, that leads to a page with more info.

We invite our beloved community to join us for a Celebration of Life for Patty Berne – cherished Disability Justice Leader and visionary artist – on August 9, 2025. This gathering is a hybrid event at the East Bay Church of Religious Science in Oakland, CA and via livestream at 3-6 PM PT | 5-8 PM CT | 6-9 PM ET. It is lovingly hosted by Patty’s family.

Grief is a portal of potential and transformation. What we grieve, we love and our love is powerful. While we mourn, we will also come together to honor, uplift and rejoice in Patty’s world-shifting legacy, knowing that Patty’s life’s work, collective liberation, can and will only be completed through us.

Access Information: Living into our values of disability justice, as Patty taught us, this will be a Covid-safe gathering and masks will be required. This event will be in spoken English with interpreting into ASL and Spanish for folks who attend both in person and remotely; remote attendees will also be able to access captions in English and Spanish.

For more access info and event updates, please visit: tinyurl.com/PBcelebrationoflife. We will share additional information in the coming days. An ASL video of the Celebration of Life information is available here.

Though collectively our hearts ache, it lifts our spirits to be coming together with you soon in solidarity amid sorrow, in skin tooth and bone, honoring and celebrating our beloved comrade, friend, force of nature, and kin, Patty Berne. Until August 9th!