Brain Injury Survivor and Disability Advocate Cazoshay Marie Uses Her Platform and Art to Amplify Others Living with Disabilities

Cazoshay Marie considers herself to be a behind-the-scenes person. But after sustaining a brain injury in 2017 and experiencing firsthand the struggles that survivors often must navigate, she knew she couldn’t sit back and let other people go through what she was going through.

“That really catalyzed me to become an advocate,” she says.

As a disability advocate, Cazoshay strives to make everyone aware of the challenges people living with brain injury and other disabilities face.

“One of the key points is making sure that people outside of the community understand what we’re going through, and understand that they could become a part of this community at any time,” she says.

Cazoshay has spoken at several conferences and panels, appeared on the PBS NewsHour, and written for the Huffington Post. She is also a member of the Brain Injury Association of America’s Survivor Advisory Council and is a TBI Ambassador for the TBI Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center.

Her desire to improve awareness and accessibility for people living with brain injury and other disabilities expands to one of her lifelong passions – art. Growing up in a creative family, art was always a significant part of Cazoshay’s life. “I was very shy growing up, and art was a way for me to be able to express myself and the things that I was experiencing that I felt I couldn’t say in words,” she shares.

But following her brain injury, Cazoshay had to step away from art. “About a year after the accident, I made a couple of paintings, and it literally nearly killed me to do it,” she shares. “For that to be taken away from me, in such a dramatic and traumatic experience where it really would have been helpful for me to express myself in those ways – but because of my symptoms, I wasn’t able to, for many years.”

Last year, however, she was able to return to creating art after receiving additional physical therapy and vision therapy. While it still triggers symptoms like migraines, fatigue, and tremors, physical therapy and vision therapy have helped. She saw how much more difficult it can be for a person living with disabilities to break into the art world.

Rather than feeling discouraged, she saw an opportunity to amplify and include more members of the brain injury and disability communities in the art space. She started hosting virtual showcases for other artists and poets who are living with disabilities, as well as their caregivers. “I think that’s easier for me, and also for other people with disabilities,” she says.

Her next virtual art show, “I, Too, Sing America,” will be held on Saturday, July 11, at 3 p.m. ET. This virtual art show will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States and feature art and poetry from survivors of brain injury, people with disabilities, and caregivers. “I want to provide an avenue to more visibility, to say, ‘we too sing America.’ We are part of America, we are part of what makes America the amazing country that it is,” she says.

Cazoshay also uses her platform and background as an artist to support organizations like the Brain Injury Association of America by participating in competitions that provide an opportunity to fundraise for BIAA. “They’re doing such incredible work,” Cazoshay says. “The things that they are doing for the brain injury community are so important and so vital. They’re covering so many different things in terms of supporting the brain injury community, that it’s really important for me to try to give back, in even a small way, to an organization that’s doing so much for myself as well as the brain injury community as a whole.”

To attend “I, Too, Sing America,” register here.