Who We Are

We are friends, comrades, and loved ones of Kerbie Joseph. She has been a political leader and personal supporter for each of us, and now she urgently needs our help our help to maintain financial stability during surgical recovery through December 2026.

What’s happening

For over a decade, Kerbie has been battling severe health complications due to fibroids, endometriosis, cysts, and other related conditions. These conditions commonly impact people with uterusis, especially Black folks, and they are severely under-researched and difficult to treat (more info about these conditions below).

Despite several surgeries and a variety of invasive medical interventions, Kerbie’s condition has only worsened. Her pain severely limits her ability to navigate daily life, including traveling to work or even preparing food for herself. To make matters worse, the medications she uses to manage her symptoms are now causing her liver damage.

She is currently working with her medical team to seek new treatment options, but there will be no “quick fixes,” and it’s likely she will need another surgery before the end of this year.

In May 2025, Kerbie lost her full-time job, one that allowed her to work remotely as she battled chronic pain and, at times, immobility due to her medical conditions. Despite applying to several positions and taking on as much freelance work as she can, she hasn’t been able to find consistent employment that accommodates her disability.

With extensive treatment ahead of her and limited resources, Kerbie is running out of options.

We are fundraising for 6 months of living expenses & medical care so Kerbie can stabilize.

Funding needs include

More about Kerbie

She is a first-generation Haitian, queer, community organizer and self-trained designer from Brooklyn, NY. For over 19 years, Kerbie has worked tirelessly, organizing and fighting for collective liberation. As a trained facilitator, Kerbie has offered countless de-escalation and know your rights workshops. Her work around police brutality has led to the renaming of several streets in New York City on behalf of the families of Saeed Vessell, Akai Gurley, Nicolas Heywood Sr, and John Collado , all people who have been murdered by the state. She also helped lead a coalition that got a guilty verdict and jailtime sentencing for the NYPD officer who killed Akai Gurly, the first and last time an NYPD officer was charged in the killing of a civilian. She is currently a co-cordinator for the organization, Caribbean Defense, and has trained hundreds of organizers in grassroots movement building. Alongside her movement work, since 2020, she has been designing clothes that lie at the intersection of queerness, Blackness, disability justice, and solidarity with all oppressed people. You can see some of her designs here . What unites her organizing and her designs is the belief in the power, rich cultural history, and the communities of people that have always been considered “other.”

Your support for Kerbie will ensure that she can continue to do this work that impacts so many and is so greatly needed.

More about Endometriosis and Fibroids

Research has shown that 1 in 10 women * live with endometriosis, and 80 percent of women * will have been affected by fibroids by age 50. Black women * are disproportionately affected by both. The root causes remain unknown, and there are no definitive medical interventions that lead to lasting solutions or a cure.

*Most of this research is dominated by a cisnormative perspective, so while the articles use the term “women,” we recognize that people of all genders have uteruses and deserve health support that meets their full humanity.