Calling All Radical Resters

Recently I’ve transitioned from the grind of full time teaching, and my career has taken a shift - as I’ve begun prioritizing advocacy and activism work. As a disabled and neurodivergent mother, artist and designer, internalized ableism occasionally creeps in wanting to control and degrade my creativity. I still continue to deal with the perpetual burnt out from my previous professional experiences. 

This “Calling all Radical Resters” design is inspired by my writings and sketches taken from my personal entries in the “Journal of Radical Permission: A Daily Guide for Following Your Soul’s Calling” by Adrienne Maree Brown and Sonya Renee Taylor, as well as “Rest As Resistance: A Manifesto” by Tricia Hersey. Collective liberation stems from the understanding that we have struggles that are all deliberately and intimately connected, and that working together, through community, allows us to use the labor of love-justice to transform our circumstances. Rest is the result of justice against the idea that our worth is tied to what we can produce and what we can contribute to an economic bottom line. It is the declaration against fear, tempered with collective care, in the fight against oppressive dynamics. And because of that - it is radical.

The eye represents the viewer being seen by the designer. There is solidarity created as the viewer feels seen and heard through the design. The eye also isn’t entirely open, showing that even in rest we can resist, and through our imaginations we can dream radical dreams.

Jen is a disabled and Neurodivergent Afro-Latina art activist and design educator whose visual work aims to uplift disability justice narratives in design. Jen uses photography, zines and collage art to explore the intersection of content and caregiving, emphasizing redesigning ableist visual culture. 

Jen has presented her disability justice activist work and collaborated with a number of brands and art spaces across print and digital such as Twitter, Target, Converse, and Apple. Her photo and design work has been featured in The Washington Post, AfroPunk, Art in America, Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation and is permanently archived in libraries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC and most recently acquired by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. 

In 2020 she was an honoree on the Diversability’s D-30 Disability Impact List and In 2021 she was listed as 20 Latino Artists to watch on Today.com Jen has an MFA in Graphic Design from The Maryland Institute College of Art. She was born in Washington D.C. and currently lives in Baltimore with her husband Kevin and 10-year-old son Knox.