Poster Design by Justin Sloane, with poem by Jen Fisher.
Jen Fisher Poet Born in Florida in 1981 Lives in NYC
[Image description: scan of a multi-media portrait-oriented print which includes elements of text, photos, and graphic design. The entirety of the piece is printed in black on white background except for a rectangular space in the middle of the page where 17 small dainty wildflowers of different kinds have been edited to fit next to each other horizontally. The flowers are all printed in the same light green color, have thin stems and small leaves, and are varying heights and shapes. above the flowers is a landscape-oriented rectangular graphic design of 24 small black circles which outline the border of the rectangle; inside the border of circles are a bunch of thin black dashed lines all radiating out from a circular blank space that looks very celestial. The bottom quarter of the scan contains two side by side rectangles. The one on the left is made up of a thick border of one long thin squiggly continuous line that mimics the way a ribbon might move/fall, there is nothing in the center of the rectangular border. The other rectangle is an inverted black and white photo of what looks to be a shattered window/glass of some kind; the colors are inverted so the majority of the photo is black and the crack marks are all white. The rest of the space on the page is filled by black bold uppercase text which rectangularly spirals inward towards the central flowers and rectangle design. from the top left, the text reads, “BOILING LIGHT BOILS OVER,” “A PANTING BREATH,” “RELEASE SMOKE FROM FIRE,” “IN BELLY TURNS SHARPENED EYES OPEN WIDE LEGS SPREAD GODDESS INCASED,” “IN BODY ACHES,” “THE SUMMIT OF HER BREASTS POOLED IN TEARS,” “CRYING IS A RELEASE TO BREAK THE BROKEN.” Each of these phrases is separated by various different small, simple black symbols including several flowers, a butterfly, a spiky circular ring, and a wide, short black rectangle.]
Sick in Quarters (SiQ) is a network of disabled and chronically ill artists and activists, connected to each other and working in collaboration through the internet. Because of our own struggles with self-advocacy, we recognize a need for information that has not been easily shared within our own histories of navigating illness inside bureaucratic systems. Through curating a library of knowledge based on lived experience, in addition to community-building workshops, we seek to empower our comrades and peers with a greater sense of agency while navigating the path of their own care and treatment.
Historically, disability has been the exclusive domain of the biological, social, and cognitive arenas that shape practice in education, rehabilitative medicine, and social work. But people with disabilities never seem to be included in the normative order of things.
There remains much to be learned about understanding disability as part of the larger human experience. Policies and practices that have a direct impact on the material reality of living with disability are rarely examined by society. People with disabilities know that the fundamental issue is not one of an individual’s inabilities or limitations, but rather a hostile unadaptive society.
Sick in Quarters prioritizes the perspectives and voices of intersectionally-marginalized disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill, and neurodivergent people to make navigating disability less solitary, less daunting, and a more informed endeavor — where individuals can feel empowered and supported by community.