Celestine Tate Harrington: Building a Legacy

Celestine Tate Harrington (1955-1998), born with a condition that left her limbs unusable, was a street performer in downtown Philadelphia and on the Atlantic City boardwalk in the 1980s and 1990s, who impressed audiences with her skill at playing the electric keyboard with her tongue.

In 1975, Tate Harrington had her first daughter, Nia. When the Philadelphia Department of Public Welfare attempted to take away her infant daughter, claiming that Harrington was physically incapable of caring for a child, she successfully defended her right to parent. In the courtroom, Tate Harrington demonstrated her skills – dressing and undressing her daughter, and changing her diaper, using only her lips, teeth, and tongue – and retained custody. She went on to share her story on radio and television shows like Howard Stern, Sally Jesse Raphael, and Donahue. Tate Harrington even self-published a book which she wrote with her tongue on a typewriter titled Some Crawl and Never Walk (1995). Renegades: Celestine Tate Harrington demonstrates how Tate Harrington created a legacy by working every angle given to her and using the limited preconceived notions of others to change the narrative of who she was, and prove that she was capable of raising and providing for a family and breaking the cycle of poverty for generations to come.

The fundamental right to parent without interference has been argued in courts and is protected by the U.S. Constitution. But a recent study found that nearly 20% of children in the U.S. foster care system have a parent with a disability. Almost fifty years since Tate Harrington’s custody battle, 42 States and the District of Columbia have laws in place that cite parental disability as grounds for termination of parental rights. For Tate Harrington, fighting to be a mother and earn an independent living was a revolutionary act, and her struggles mirror those of the broader disability community today.

The episode features interviews with: Nia Tate-Ball and Coronda Tate, Celestine Tate Harrington’s daughters; Jannie Watson, Nia Tate-Balls’s godmother; Tamogene Tate-Ebataleye, Harrington’s sister; Alberto Esquenaz, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, and Nathaniel Mayer, M.D., Physical Medicine and Rehab Specialist at Jefferson Moss Magee Rehab; and Robyn M. Powell, Ph.D., J.D., Family Law & Disability Rights Attorney.

About Renegades

Renegades is a series of five 12-minute short films showcasing the lives of diverse, lesser-known historical figures with disabilities, exploring not only their impact on and contributions to U.S. society, but also the concept of disability culture, which honors the uniqueness of disability. Hosted and narrated by the musician and disability rights advocate Lachi, who is blind, and created and produced by a team of D/deaf and disabled filmmakers, the series is designed to increase public knowledge of disability history, and encourage cross-cultural understanding between non-disabled people and those with disabilities – who make up 1 in 4 adults in America today.

Infused with the spirit of the disability movement’s mantra, “Nothing About Us Without Us,” Renegades places a focus on authentic storytelling, with a cast and crew composed almost entirely of disabled people, and a talent incubator model of filmmaking to mentor emerging directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors with disabilities.

About the filmmakers

Cashmere Jasmine is the director and producer of Renegades: Celestine Tate Harrington. She is a Director of Afro-Caribbean descent who has worked across mediums including music video, independent film, and short-form digital media. After being diagnosed with End Stage Kidney Renal disease, she started her own media production company and produced several short films that went to dozens of festivals and garnered over 1.5 million views. As a Writer and Director she crafts genre-bending media that revolve around taboos and the complexities of identity seen through the lenses of class, race, disability, and even criminality; deconstructing perceptions with her real-life experiences with dark humor. In 2021, Cashmere was in the inaugural class of Amy Aniobi’s TRIBE, a mentorship program for TV writers, the Black Magic Collective’s All Access Fellowship, and RespectAbility’s Summer Entertainment Lab. She also received the Sundance Uprise grant for her short film, Oreo, which became a 2022 Slamdance Unstoppable Festival selection. Her feature Down the Rabbit Hole, about an irresponsible dialysis patient, earned her a spot in the Sundance Accessible Futures Intensive workshop. Her film for Disney’s Launchpad program has two NAACP award nominations and is now streaming on Disney+.

Marsha Hallager is the producer and writer of Renegades: Celestine Tate Harrington. She is a multifaceted writer, producer and director who creates groundbreaking and critical content. Hallager started her career in radio, in Philadelphia, PA. She credits radio as her entrée into the world of television and film production. She is an accomplished independent documentary filmmaker, writer, producer and rising director with a keen sense of storytelling. Hallager’s achievements are multi-disciplined – she has worked across various genres, including unscripted to scripted television to horror films and feature documentaries. Hallager served as one of the executive producers and producers on the award-winning documentary, One Child Left Behind: The Untold Atlanta Cheating Scandal, and recently produced a music documentary featuring a GRAMMY award-winning artist. Her disability has taught her the value of resilience and perseverance, and she aims to create films that not only entertain and inform, but also inspire and empower audiences to overcome their own challenges. Through her work, Hallager aspires to highlight the emotional, physical, and societal barriers that individuals with invisible disabilities face on a daily basis.

Original artwork for Renegades by Adriano Araújo dos Reis Botega.