Hi, my name is Rose Dalimore, and my health story was just shared here earlier this year. I also wanted to share a bit about how disability, chronic pain, and gender and health justice are critical foci of my creative work. I am a poet, playwright, artist, and activist living with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Tethered Cord Syndrome, Atlanto-Axial Instability, as well as endometriosis and damaged nerves in my pelvis. I use my artistic and professional opportunities to build solidarity and spread awareness for healthcare inequity, particularly as it applies to gender.
In October of 2024, I had the opportunity to perform an original short play as a part of the Open Doors Festival, a celebration of disability arts and culture in Washington, D.C. The work was showcased at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and it was one of the greatest honors of my life to take part. The Nest, a one-person show, is a tale of a young woman inside whom a swarm of wasps begin to build a nest. While the insects infest her, the healthcare system watches her deteriorate, unable or unwilling to intervene, and she must take matters into her own hands. This piece was inspired by my own experiences with adenomyosis and endometriosis, and how the American healthcare system repeatedly failed me as I was thrust into chronic pain and disability. This sentiment is compounded for me now that I have also been diagnosed with hEDS, Tethered Cord Syndrome, and Atlanto-Axial instability.
Later that year, Intake, my debut poetry chapbook, was published by Bottlecap Press, an independent publisher. The collection outlines my experience with chronic illness, exploring the ways in which pain and disability intersect with love, agency, and ancestry. Over the past few years, I have also had poetry and essays about my experience with chronic illness published in Cripple Media, Josephine Quarterly, Patients Rising Stories, Rough Cut Press, Anodyne Magazine, and Genrepunk, among others.
Since being diagnosed with hEDS and comorbidities and experiencing a major decline in my mobility, energy, and capacity, I have had the opportunity to engage in an extremely accessible and supportive Early Career Playwriting Fellowship with New Relic Theater and produced my first full-length professional theater piece, The Goo, which had a successful 10-show run in New York City. I continue to use writing as a means of diving deep into my feelings and experiences, rather than running away from them. I also been working on a new manuscript which elaborates upon the themes in Intake.
In addition to writing, I make lots of visual art, from pastel drawings to clothing upcycles, mostly just for fun and to process and decompress. Art has been a critical tool for both processing and protesting– two things that are critical for being a disabled person amongst oppressive systems. It has been a blessing to have the opportunity to connect with that part of myself while going through so much physical hardship. I can’t recommend writing, and finding avenues to share your story, enough.
Photo credit: The Goo, by Jon Tylor.
