Spring is upon us!

Hello Amazing Readers,Happy Spring. I have been working diligently behind the scenes to continue advancing  pain visibility and social justice. I'm enthusiastic to share my refined mission statement:

My Pain Activism & Education mission is to teach about pain as an intersectional social justice issue and implement grassroots strategies to stop prejudiced treatment and marginalization of people with chronic pain conditions.

In March I submitted a scholarship application to the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund for students working for social change. I have wanted to apply for a few years and it feels great to have my application submitted. Writing my personal statement provided a great opportunity to highlight my academic goals and activism:

• Studying pain not only as a disease and illness, but also as a product and strategy of oppression, examining how social construction of “health,” collective and intergenerational traumas, enforced economic subordination, colonialism and the medical-industrial complex contribute to pain conditions.
• Analyzing the institutional, interpersonal and internalized oppression of people in pain, including how the US government, capitalist interests, media, religion and medical establishments gain from, and perpetuate, disparities in chronic pain treatment.
• Promoting underrepresented perspectives of people with chronic pain, encompassing people of different racial, ethnic, economic, age, and disability backgrounds; people who are queer, intersex, transgender and of multiple gender identities, as well as fat people/people of size.
• Developing publicly available tools for people in pain to shift the power dynamics of who/what controls our narratives and counter stigmatization, negative biases and discrimination.

As a long-time LGBTQI+, disability and anti-oppression activist, my strategy of addressing pain from a multidimensional perspective is informed by, and rooted in, what I have learned from the intersectional movements I am a part of. For example, the disparities in how people with chronic pain conditions are treated, especially women, people of color (black people, particularly) and the poor, are well documented. However, no pain advocacy organization prioritizes intersectional social justice organizing. At the heart of my activism is an understanding of pain in direct relationship to white supremacy, hetero-patriarchal sexism, transphobia and ableism. By addressing pain—inclusive of anatomical, emotional, social and spiritual pains—from a human/civil rights approach, I strive to broaden not only what pain is thought of as, but also how pain is thought about.

In other news, I am preparing to begin production of the Unshame Pain Video Project in a few months. Thanks to everyone who has supported this project and helped me to raise the money to get this far (it's never too late to donate). Starting production will be a huge milestone!Before I sign off I want to share some brilliant resources with you:Disabled Writers, https://www.disabledwriters.com/From their website: "Disabled Writers is a resource to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists, and journalists connect with disabled sources."Health Justice Commons, http://www.collabchange.org/health-justice-commons-link/From their website: "Health Justice is a new mindset. It is a way of seeing our society, its institutions and our daily interactions within them which prompts us to evaluate how our social dynamics support or compromise health."As usual, I have much more that I'm developing. More to come soon!In solidarity,Ma'ayan