Can you explain the concept behind this cover art?
This image expresses the current moment of authoritarian crisis and destruction. It also imagines possibilities for new growth through the “fire seeds” in the foreground. Many seeds, like those of the giant sequoia, require fire to crack open and germinate.
How did you get into making art and what role does it play in your organizing?
I’ve always made art, and I came into making political art through possibility models in the Bay Area, like Emory Douglas, Dignidad Rebelde and the Center for Cultural Power. When I was a young, disabled trans person, art helped keep me alive. Over the years I’ve helped lead many cultural organizing projects with trans, disability, and racial justice organizations. Art can help us see ourselves beyond oppression, connect us to others, and fuel our movements.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Right now I’m drawing inspiration from the more than 80 million people who, like me, have also been severely disabled by long Covid and ME/CFS, and who are trying to survive despite abandonment by governments, societies, and the medical industrial complex. Despite these being some of the most common serious illnesses, there is hardly any funding for research and hardly any public awareness. And since many countries don’t recognize these as real diseases and disabilities, some people are not only not receiving care, but are being incarcerated for being sick.
What does resistance mean to you?
Right now, as a severely sick and disabled person, my existence is resistance.