Health Communism: A Reading Group

JOAN presents Health Communism: A Reading Group, organized in conjunction with Alexis Kyle Mitchell’s exhibition The Goal of Our Health, on view through January 31, 2026.

Join Alexis Kyle Mitchell and JOAN for a reading and discussion of Health Communism (2022) by Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant. The reading group will take place online on Zoom across three Sundays — January 11, 18, and February 1, from 1–3pm PST.

Written by longtime disability justice and healthcare activists Adler-Bolton and Vierkant, and co-hosts of the “Death Panel” podcast, Health Communism examines how capital has instrumentalized health, disability, madness, and illness to create a class deemed “surplus.” Tracing how the separation of the “healthy” from the “unfit” undermines solidarity and enables extractive industries, the book turns to global movements that have challenged these systems and the ongoing threats capital poses to public health.

We’d love to have you join us. If you’re interested in participating in the January reading group, sign up here, and we’ll be in touch with more information soon.

Suggested purchase options: Workshops4Gaza Bookstore or Verso Press or secondhand through Abe Books.

The Goal of Our Health marks the Los Angeles premiere of Mitchell’s 2024 feature-length film The Treasury of Human Inheritance and presents newly commissioned films, sculptural and archival elements, and public programming. Spanning experimental film, installation, and performance, her practice draws bodies, histories, and social systems into tactile explorations that weave together themes of disability, memory, and kinship.