A citrine book cover with words in large black block print font — S P K, Turn Illness into a Weapon, agitation prefaced by J.P. Sartre hovers behind a drawing of a towering building complex foregrounded by a handwritten protest sign which cautions: "To cast a stone into the commanding center of capitalism is one thing. But to transform a kidney stone into activity is the same. We ought to protect ourselves against kidney stones!"
Forthcoming
Turn Illness into a Weapon: An Audio-English Translation by Josephine Sales is a forthcoming collective reading and unauthorized edition of Turn Illness into a Weapon by the Socialist Patients’ Collective (SPK).
SPK was a patients’ collective founded in Heidelberg, West Germany, in February 1970. Prefaced by Jean-Paul Sartre, this anthology features multiple entries that resist the production of illness under capitalism and radically reimagine doctor-patient relationships and society’s obligations to disabled citizens.
This edition features each of the text’s forty-four chapters read aloud by artists, organizers, poets, staff, and community members of Wendy’s Subway. Most readers are disabled, chronically ill, MAD, and/or neurodivergent, providing a shared space for reflection and engagement with the text.
This audio zine is the first in a series of Talking Books, which features disability-related titles. The series, initiated by the artist, which will serve Wendy’s Subway b/Blind and low-vision, disabled, chronically ill, MAD and/or community members, staff, and the general public.
About Josephine Sales
Josephine Sales' practice attends to disabled social life and its intersectional proliferations. Sales is engaged in emergent theoretical discourses and material practices relating to care, consent, and communication. Recent engagements include a residency at Beall Center for Art + Technology through Leonardo/ISAST "CripTech Incubator" and an artist collaboration with disability arts dance company Kinetic Light for the stage performance Wired. Sales lives and works in New York City, is a San Francisco State University alum, and received an MFA in Photography from Milton Avery School of the Arts, Bard College.
Contributors
Emily Gossiaux
Lateef McLeod
Josephine Sales
JJJJJerome Ellis
Jordan Lord
Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu
Akemi Nishida
Park McArthur
Constantina Zavitsanos
manuel arturo abreau
Adelita Husni Bey
Noam Kaim
Chinazo Rena Anakwe
Katz Tepper
Valentina Desdieri
Em Hedditch
Camilla Wasserman
Zoya Ghazi
Matilda Subal
Charlotte Strange
Noah Benis
Deanna Yadollahi
Hayden Right
Danielle St Amour
Sarah Sohn
Joselia Hughes
Lu Barnes Lee
Meesh Fradkin
Ivana Dragsiç
Georgian Badal
Adjua Greaves
Fia Backström
Annick Kleizen
Isaiah Madison
Francisco Echo Eraso
Marian Chudnovsky
Bill Dietz
Teline Tran
Griff Epstein
Patricia L. Boyd
Kabir Carter
Hannah Black
Amalle Dublon
Shannon Finnegan
Daniella Valz Gen
Bryan Castro
Kiyaan Abadani
Sujani Reddy
Eileen Ramos
Ezra Benus
Thai Lu
Lois Cheaye
Nino Ricca Lucci
Beatrice Adler-Bolton
Aristilde Kirby
Johanna Hedva
Kay Gabriel
Aainan Amin
Jesse Rice-Evans
chloe crawford
Avery Camp
Jelena Loncar
Cheon Lee
Mel Hudson
Julie Lee
Mae Eskanazi
Sunny Iyer
Wolfgang Müller
Paula Stuttman
Dedicated to Myat Moondog Haggart, Monique Harris, Carolyn Lazard, Stacey Park Milbern, and the Criptiques Reading Group.