FiercePassions

11/21/2025

Your Annual Holiday Reminder: Your Butt Has Suction.

11/18/2025

by Jane Shi and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

11/18/2025

Join us to honor Alice Wong — a fierce luminary in disability justice and recipient of the 2024 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant”, who served the National Council on Disability from 2013 to 2015. Our beloved community leader died of an infection at 51 on Nov 14, 2025.

The late disability rights activist and author was born with spinal muscular atrophy to immigrant parents from Hong Kong. Despite being told that she wouldn’t live to become an adult, she did and left an incredible legacy behind. The world listened to Wong’s powerful voice–first from behind a BiPap mask– and eventually from a communication device that generated her words when placement of a tracheostomy and ventilator left her unable to speak in 2022. “Being disabled in a nondisabled world is precarious, one of constant adaptation. I remade myself into a new cyborg form that still has a voice, a breath, and a will to live.”

https://bit.ly/AliceW_TIME

A self-described “Medicaid welfare queen”, Wong never stopped fighting for Americans who need medical coverage and resources to lead a fulfilled life. Her rage and struggles from combatting discrimination since her childhood growing up in Indiana were channeled to defend the rights of disabled people to be seen as valuable members of society, whose lives are inherently worthy whether they can take part in the traditional labor force or not. Her determination to demand equity, access, and opportunity improved society for disabled people and their allies worldwide.

Unable to wear an N95 mask, the San Francisco resident was dependent on the masking of others. But despite being high risk and disabled, Wong struggled with safe access to care and barriers to accommodation in our eroding healthcare system. Her horrific hospital stays in January 2024 served as a call to action shared through her campaign (https://bit.ly/AliceWong_N95s4UCSF), and her blogs for , galvanized community support for implementation of airborne precautions and safer healthcare environments.

R.I.P. Alice. We will carry on as your light shines above us. We won’t give up.

Photo Credits: Photojournalist Dan Ryan

10/24/2025

10/16/2025

World Food Day's theme is "Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future"—and I'm thinking about all the hands that feed us.

The hands that grow, harvest, prepare, and serve our food deserve dignity, fair wages, and safety. Food justice means honoring the labor that nourishes us. It means supporting workers' rights, sustainable farming, and equitable food systems.

And it also means honoring 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 relationship with food. You deserve to eat without shame, without earning it, without moralizing every bite. Food is pleasure. Food is fuel. Food is connection. Food is culture. Food is survival. Food is memory. Food is ancestor work.

When you eat without guilt, you're refusing systems that profit from self-loathing. When you honor your hunger—all your hungers—you practice bodily autonomy. When you let yourself taste, savor, and enjoy, you're reclaiming pleasure as your birthright.

A better food future means both: justice for the people who feed us AND freedom from diet culture's violence against our bodies.

How are you nourishing yourself today—body, heart, and spirit?

Photo by BeKonstructive Marketing.

10/08/2025

Under fascism, we need eros, resilience, resistance, and rest more than ever. I'm building 2026 programming to support exactly that—but I need to hear what would actually serve you.

What formats fit your life? What themes resonate? What pricing makes participation possible? What accessibility accommodations do you need? What specific practices would help you stay grounded and powerful through what's coming?

This anonymous 5-minute survey directly shapes the rituals, workshops, and resources I create. Your input determines what exists.

I'm deeply responsive to community needs. Tell me what you need and I'll build it. bit.ly/NameYourNeeds


Photo by cottonbro studio.