Using the Lived Experienced to Address Asthma

In 2020, Jazzmen Lee-Johnson worked at the Rhode Island Department of Health as the first Rhode Island Arts and Health Artist in Residence. During her residence, she produced this silkscreen that explores the historic links between asthma, structural racism, legacy pollutants, and the Port of Providence spanning nearly 400 years. According to the artist, “it cites historical factors that have impacted our health through a combination of legacy pollution and trauma—from redlining, mill waste, urban settler colonialism, psychological warfare of racism, school to prison pipeline, etc. to how Rhode Island was implicated in slavery.”

By mining history, artists can interpret historic data in ways that the written word cannot.