A Picture of Health: Jo Spence, a Politics of Disability and Illness

Andrea Gibson is the author of several books of poetry, including You Better Be Lightning (Button Poetry, 2021). But they are perhaps most celebrated for their live performances, often in collaboration with musicians, touring extensively and releasing seven spoken word albums. As a nonbinary and queer activist, Gibson has empowered a large community through their work. Since receiving a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, Gibson has performed numerous pieces about their experiences in treatment, focusing not just on the effects on their body but, more significantly, on the transformation of their spiritual and emotional life in a profound reckoning with mortality, describing a sense of increased peacefulness and acceptance since diagnosis. Their poem “Maga Hat in the Chemo Room” addresses these issues, as does the poem “In the chemo room, I wear mittens made of ice so I don’t lose my fingernails. But I took a risk today to write this down.”

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