Madness Belongs to the People - Paperback

by Jody Chan (Author)

"madness resists mastery yet, to attenuate the violence / of a colonial system"

With gentle fervour and precise language that speaks to the nonverbal, the gestural, the sonic, Jody Chan's third collection of poetry mobilizes the intimate, the historical, the revolutionary, and the mundane to confront the instrumentalization of disability as a surplus class. Chan's multidisciplinary poems are a lyrical account of anti-colonial, anti-capitalist psychiatric survivor- and patient-led movements, from Germany to Japan.

Inspired by poets, artists, and activists like Frantz Fanon, Etel Adnan, and Solmaz Sharif, Chan's prose and lyric poems delve into activist movements during World War II, the late 20th century, and the present day. This is an investigation of madness as resistance and political strategy. We experience "listening as a form of touch," and the future as a change of form.

Author Biography

Jody Chan is a poet, multidisciplinary artist, care worker, and community organizer. They are the author of two previous books of poetry: sick (Black Lawrence Press 2020), finalist for the Lambda Literary and Pat Lowther Memorial Awards, and winner of the 2018 St. Lawrence Book Award and 2021 Trillium Award for Poetry; and impact statement (Brick Books 2024), longlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Jody was the 2023-2024 Artist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto's Queer and Trans Research Lab, and the 2023 recipient of the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Literature from the Canada Council for the Arts. They live in Toronto.