Poem for the Patients/Patience of Chronic Pain

In this spoken-word, disability-dance video, I will speak on my experiences with chronic pain as a person who is queer, racialized, and nonbinary. It will detail the judgemental critiques and biases I have experienced with doctors, paramedical professionals, psychiatrists and psychologists, nurses, and social workers in my seven years living with chronic pain. The video will specifically confront the idea that people with chronic pain are lazy, overexaggerating, or unwilling to help themselves and looking to be rescued. The video will depict me using various pain-management strategies such as self-massage, adaptive devices, heating pads, and others in a disability dance. This dance video will be paired with my original spoken-word poetry. Healthcare providers will be confronted face to face with a slice-of-life experience of a person's constant battle to manage and cope with living with chronic pain, a struggle that is nothing less than valiant and exhaustive. It will specifically tackle issues of isolation, loss, and grief that many people with chronic pain experience under the loss of the welfare state and an increase in neoliberal individualism. The end of the poem will contain a text with themes of disability justice, offering real-life strategies that healthcare providers can incorporate into their practice to support better relationships with patients living at the intersection of disability, racialization, queerness, and transness.

Learning Objectives

Gain deeper understanding of the reality of living with chronic pain
Consider and engage with intersectionality in disability justice
Challenge oppressive biases
Foster and hold deep empathy
Appreciate performance arts as a vehicle for self-expression and learning

Lessons

RECOMMENDED FORMAT: Self-directed, Small Group, Classroom Course
Go to Facilitation Guides

CURRICULUM DETAILS:
Lessons: 1
Est. Lesson Length: 30-45 minutes

INSTRUCTIONS:

Download/print and review the Reflection Questions document before watching and/or reading the poem, found under the Lesson tab.
Watch the video and respond to the questions.
There is a Supports document as well for added reflection and suggestions for improving practice.

Hover over each resource button for estimated length.

Poem Reflections

Patient and Physician Supports

Patient-Patience Poem - Written

Patient-Patience Poem - Spoken Word Video

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Poem for the Patients/Patience of Chronic Pain Curriculum

Contributors

Cassandra Myers
My’z

Cassandra Myers (My’z) (they/she/he) is an award winning poet, performer, dancer, illustrator, and counselor from Tkaronto, Ontario. As a queer, non-binary, South-Asian-Italian, crip, mad, survivor of sexual violence, Cassandra's work is cinematic and juicy with its critical anti-oppressive eye. Cassandra’s work has won national literary and spoken word titles including the National Magazine GOLD Award in Poetry and Champion of the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Their work is the kind that tugs concepts into frays, tieing new solar systems in their wake. A fellow of the Doris McCarthy and the Joy Kogawa Artist in Residence programs, Cassandra is currently working on their first poetry debut. Find their poetry in ARC Poetry Magazine, Canthius, the Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere.

Simultaneously, Cassandra has a Master’s in Social Work and a Bachelors in Child and Youth Care which they apply to trauma informed arts education. With seven years of experience working on crisis lines and peer-support chat lines with Stella’s Place and elsewhere, they also facilitate workshops at community organizations such as Lakeshore Arts, Storyplanet, and VIBEArts. Cassandra’s masters work on trauma-informed approaches to non-carceral justice for disabled, QTBIPOC surivors has been awarded numerously for their work with honors such as the Nathanson Fellowship with Osegoode Law School, and the Hillary M. Weston Award in mental health research.

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