Jesse Rice Evans

how are you doing? 

I'm OK! I like staying home and my chronic fatigue likes sleeping when I'm sleepy, so staying in bed much of the day facilitates a nice napping practice. Trying to stay away from my phone and turn off notifications as much as possible to tone down my anxiety. 

how do you feel?

Without my regular bodywork and in-person medical support, I'm definitely feeling more vulnerable to chronic pain. I've been dipping into my work with entheogens as my anxiety, complex PTSD, and depression have flared up in response to the public health crisis, and that's helped steady me quite a bit, as have yin yoga and my steadfast (remote) therapist. Today, I feel fatigued, but not rushed. Currently in bed with all the pillows.

what do you need?

Some simple food! Cooking meals for me and my boyfriend (working full-time from home) has been exhausting. Easy food has never been so tricky to get my hands on, and I want popcorn and sliced pineapple so badly. 

what do you wish was different?

That everyone would quit assuming that sick peoples' families are supportive! My mom is the best, but she struggles to understand my experience with chronic illness and disability. No one else has ever even asked me about it. This is the case for lots of queer and trans sick and disabled folks, and I don't wish that my family supported me, but I do wish abled people would stop asking if I am planning to quarantine "at home." My home is right here, a one-bedroom in Brooklyn with two shelter cats and my cat-human hybrid partner. 

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha coined the term "Crip Emotional Intelligence." What crip intelligence, whether emotional or otherwise, that you have developed is coming in handy right now? 

I've pissed off all my non-accomplice abled acquaintances so much that I'm not getting much in the way of clueless, out-of-touch sympathy for my occasional housebound-ness that many sick and disabled pals have been sharing. My strict boundaries around how much ableism I tolerate from colleagues and collaborators has dramatically filtered my social circles, so now I only really hear from femmes, crip accomplices, and crazy/sick/disabled folks asking how I'm doing and what I need. Assertiveness and boundary setting and enforcing is my latest superpower!

what are you dreaming of?

Not being a child. Running errands. Taking the subway. Napping. Animal Crossing. My girlfriend, with whom I'm not quarantined. 

Jesse Rice-Evans

Doctoral Student, English Composition and Rhetoric | CUNY Graduate Center
Web Development and Documentation Fellow | CUNY Humanities Alliance 
Digital Pedagogy Fellow | OpenLab at City Tech | HASTAC Scholar 2019-2020

jessericeevans.com
jessericeevans@gmail.com

Pronouns: she/her/hers