A NOTE ON AILMENT

We live in a society where the cultural perception of worthiness, strength and lovability is dependent on the expectation of healthiness, wellness, and physical and mental competency. This feels disproportionately disconnected from the lived experiences of its inhabitants. Ailment hopes to act as a connecting element by giving voice to the alienated, criticized and shunned persons who live in this world, too.  Contributors will not receive monetary compensation at this time. We wish for contributors to recognize the enormous value that expression serves in our lives. In elevating the discourse around illness narratives, you are creating those furrows that are so desperately needed in letting the currents of connection, empathy and understanding flow more freely. We need your voices, your images, your stories to be felt, seen and heard. To advance the dialogue and acknowledgment that those of us with chronic mental and physical illness are here. We are worthy. We are strong. We love and are loved. Our words create worlds. We and our words belong to and in this world.