With her new book, producer and podcast host Maya Chupkov is turning her journey of self-love into an opportunity to uplift the voices of people who stutter, like herself.
Chupkov’s new comic book, “My Stutter: Life of Verbal Turbulence,” will be launched at an event on Monday, Feb. 12 at Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena. The self-published book is on sale at in-person events, bookstores and online.
The free event aims to destigmatize stuttering as a disability — while bringing together a diverse community of people who stutter and their loved ones, Chupkov said.
Chupkov, who resides in the Bay Area, started her podcast “Proud Stutter” during the COVID-19 pandemic while going through depression and searching for a creative outlet. She also wanted to build a community that promotes speech diversity. Once the podcast started attracting viewers, Chupkov said she was able to connect with other stutterers.
“I had never really talked about my stutter before the podcast, just because it wasn’t something I felt comfortable about,” Chupkov, 31, said. “It was really hard to suddenly talk about it. But as I started doing the podcast, I noticed that my relationships with my stutter got more positive.”
The spoken word event, in partnership with Design Matters and Sappi Ideas That Matter, will feature a “My Stutter” book reading, along with special guests from L.A.’s stuttering community and special guest Katie Hettenbach, a stuttering comedian.
“Stuttering is a disability that hardly gets represented correctly in popular culture and the media. As a woman with a stutter, born and raised in Burbank, I’ve always felt misunderstood and I know I am not alone. I’ve interviewed over 50 people who stutter from different backgrounds and I keep hearing the same thing — our disability is misunderstood and many of us hide our voices in the shadows,” Chupkov said.
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders defines…
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