Hey everyone,

I tried to hold off on doing this as long as I could, because I know that times are hard for everyone right now and there’s no shortage of need on all sides and of all sizes, but i’m in a very tight spot and the only real solution I have right now is to reach out to my communities. Please share if you can but, truly, only donate if you are able. Thank you <3

TL;DR I am being sued for $8,250 in medical debt for a sleep study I got done last November to check for sleep apnea, that was done during an, unbeknownst to me, lapse in my insurance coverage. I’m asking for help to pay the debt off entirely in the event that I’m denied settlement at my court date in December. Should I be able to settle for a lower fee, I’ll use any remaining funds to pay my rent, as I've been out of consistent work since April and unable to find a job. As a result I’ve been running up my credit card debt plugging up holes caused by a summer of late payments from art related things.

To say it plainly, this money would also be used to give myself some much needed breathing room as even before I was served these papers in July, the walls felt like they were closing in, so to speak. Read on though if you want more details on where I'm at.

The study was scheduled to occur during the final week of my employee health care with the Queens Museum. To cover my bases, I had already been approved for medicaid at the time, set to kick in within days of employee health care ending.

The appointment was rescheduled twice, leading to the procedure occurring a week and a half after my employee insurance ended, but when, as I understood, my medicaid would be active. The worker took my insurance card and info and when I explained the situation everything seemed to go through fine. I took the procedure and after a few weeks received the call that my insurance was no good. When I explained the same thing I told the worker at the appointment the receptionist told me that the study center did not take medicaid, so I would be held responsible for the bill which was $8,250.

I explained that I couldn’t afford to pay that and asked for an itemized bill, which never arrived, and didn’t make contact with them after that. As I never even got the results either, I figured that was the last of them. Until earlier this March when a lawyer from a debt collector reached out to me. A few months later I was served court papers from the debt collector.

I quit my previous job in April for reasons I don’t really want to get into here but if you’d like to know you can dm me. I had some savings from my Queens Museum residency, and some projects and other things on the horizon that would float me for a while as I found something more consistent. As some of you know, in the beginning of July I was awarded a fellowship visiting artist position with Cornell Tech. It was a semester-long fellowship that would have provided me with $20,000. You can read in depth about the reason I turned down the offer here if you’d like.

Long story short though, I turned down position because Cornell Tech, Cornell University’s New York tech focused campus, was founded in partnership with the Technion (the campus' full name is Cornell-Technion), Israel's science institute that partners with and develops arms for weapons manufactures like Elbit Systems.

While I don’t regret my decision for a second the reality is that it left me still in need of work. In the recent months burned through my savings, and regarding the projects I was hoping would float me, I’ve also been very vocal on socials about what the deal is in that department regarding late payments and inconsistent work. I am working hard to find a consistent job, and apply to a new handful of service, teaching, and arts administration jobs every day but as many are experiencing right now, it’s impossible to land anything right now, doubly so when you’re dealing with someone whose primary line of work has been making videos for galleries for the past 10 years.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it. If you want more information about any of this i’m happy to talk about it in the dms. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and again, if you can’t donate, even a share means a lot. Thank you thank you thank you.