I am amoung many trans artists that rely on SNAP and Medicaid to live. I just finished installing an exhibit that opened yesterday at Vox Populi Gallery. It is representative of 38 artists. It’s called “first, then, next, finally.” And it’s about sequencing. It includes books and many other time-based objects and artworks. This was a large amount of work, mental and logistical labor, as well as physical and conceptual. I received a small honorarium, and help from many other largely volunteered workers.
I may receive a tiny honorarium here or there, OR even a grant or award if I’m lucky (VERY lucky). But it would not be enough to rely on, and certainly would not be enough to make up for losing SNAP and Medicaid (as the B.B.B. demands). I am on an incredibly lop-sided and utterly inadequate residency of the state, and the thousands of hours of work I do which produces important cultural impact, goes uncompensated. Every trans artist I know is or has been supported by these services, and we are making beautiful and important work for our communities. Removal of these mechanisms of support, is another tactic to remove trans people from public life. Art is public, it’s either made in public with community, or shared with community.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again ARTISTS ARE WORKERS. Just because my work is largely unpaid does NOT mean I’m not working. I can say for certain, and without bragging that my artistic labor creates value and so does yours.
In my journals lately, things have been listing darkly. The first half often recounts my general levels of exhaustion or pain for the day. And then, the second half wonders, in a tone between despondent and rage, what is to be done.
If the city does not value the sanitation workers, 911 operators, the water department, airport workers, library workers, crossing guards, public housing workers, and more, (as documented by this current strike, the largest strike in Philadelphia in 40 years making up 9,000 workers represented), then what hope do I have? I’ve listed the sectors of workers in the DC33 Union, who are now striking here in Philadelphia. But historically the city and the state have shown to be disregarding, uncaring, neglectful, and outwardly violent against all manner of workers critical for its daily function.
When I grew up I was taught about “community helpers” with reverence. Teachers, trash collectors, mail carriers, librarians, crossing guards, fire fighters, EMTs, nurses, and more (the police are notably left off this list). Who could be more important in the lives of children? These daily laborers are on a community stage- sorting and moving objects in the proper order, ever present, ever helpful. I assumed (and I believe I was even told this) that these workers made good pay. From a young age I persisted in my will to be an artist*, a societal role I was constantly assured that would be fraught with poverty, addiction, starvation, and illness. And if I was lucky, a rich benefactor would pay me something. I can’t think of anyone I know with a wealthy benefactor, but I do know many artists who are able to afford their groceries, if successful in passing the many tests, riddles, and trials assembled by the DHS, through the often late monthly payments of $291. I do know many artists who are disabled, myself included, who would not survive without Medicaid health insurance, again after bi-annual reapplications, making it possible to seek the medical care they require. It is difficult to assure my imaginary bad faith reader who says with a clenched fist and gnashing teeth, “Get a job!”. I already have, I do it every day and so do other artists. Artistic labor is also a community service. It is public, it is collaborative, generative. It’s not the private work of corporations or banks or equity firms, it rarely produces meaningful capital and if it does it’s essentially by an accident of the market and almost immediately the workers who produced the work are alienated from the value they produced. Like any product today, it can be hoarded, invested, hidden, rented, owned. It can be stolen, stored, and lost. But these activities and the results are the hobby of the rich - artwork is not these things and artists don’t work in this way. Artists are often seen as producing selfishly - their product an object of their own expression and no gift to others aside from the financial value the object can accrue after the artist dies. This is obviously untrue and an elite myth perpetuated to support the market and it reveals still another sadder point; that art is the only form of expression, withheld to the few and inaccessible to most.
Couldn’t a crossing guard’s shift or a water department worker’s pipe patch or a sanitation worker’s route be seen as a form of expression? We’ve seen artist workers both in and outside of these professions repeatedly highlight this. Expressions of care, community, creativity, aesthetic, and rhythm? And if not, how can the workers design their labor (in a more supported way because certainly they do this already), to support expression? How can workers gain controls over the patterns of their days to facilitate creative and expressive forms of labor? I can only do this for myself within my work as an artist, the most recent public entry of which is this essay. The workers as represented by the DC33 are the ones to answer that question for themselves. As of today they are demanding comfort provided by a living wage.
*I was a full time preschool teacher for 7 years. I did not make a living wage, and was not part of any teacher’s union. Any attempts I made to organize my coworkers was met with disciplinary action. All of these factors contributed to the end of my teaching career.
I’ll share here a couple links shared by the strike caption, there are additionally other asks for people to show up to picket lines and support in many other ways that are daily changing, please do your own research.
“If you'd like to keep making calls to the City Council and Parker Administration here's the script and numbers you can call. Just let them know you stand with DC33.
You could also keep sharing the strike assist form to anyone you know that might want to help.”