For decades, my mom and I have been a dynamic duo using the arts to creatively fight for women’s rights. And now we are using the arts to fight for my life.
Tag: Chronic Illness
HIV Will Not Stop Me: Girls Speak Out on World AIDS Day
It’s been 32 years since HIV was first discovered. Since then, it’s fair to say that we have come a long way. Just slightly more than 2 million people were […]
Eye-Opening Dispatch from “Kingdom of the Sick”
Laurie Edwards is all too familiar with life in the “kingdom of the sick,” which is how cultural critic Susan Sontag famously described the hidden world of chronic illness. From […]
Women’s Rights Key To Effective Global AIDS Response
As the XIX International AIDS Conference proceeds in Washington, D.C., this week, its pertinent to note that a new report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body […]
Rivka Solomon Acts Up, Chronic Fatigue Be Damned
Rivka Solomon’s 2002 anthology, “That Takes Ovaries!,” still inspires action. That book (and play of the same name) even spurred its own international movement, serving as a blueprint for at least 600 open-mike speak-outs and performances in which girls and women celebrate their own “ovarian acts.” But Rivka has done much of this from bed.
Anorexia, 138 Years Ago
On the final day of Women’s History Month, let’ s take a moment to remember Miss A, the first woman medically diagnosed with anorexia, and the pioneering doctor who used […]
How an Ill Woman Found Common Ground with a Wild Snail
What appears at first to be a simple creature is actually a complex being, capable of everything any other animal form is capable of: a complex love life, an epicurean appetite, finding a comfortable place to sleep, skilled locomotion, multiple defense mechanisms…
The 24-Hour Treatment for Anorexia
For years now, eating disorders patients and their families been watching and waiting for clinical trials to verify what treatment experts have been observing in practice: that the family-based Maudsley […]
Sexy Cancer
One friend likes it on the coffee table. Another friend posted that she likes it on the floor near the couch. Then there’s one who like it on the desk. […]
Did You Know It’s Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Week?
Today, September 30, is the last day of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month; tomorrow, October 1, is the first day of Breast Cancer Month. Are they connected in any way other […]