Chronic Tonic Club Context

Chronic Tonic Club: a slow, punk, creative-access-led community to be mad, sad and rad(ical) - unlearn, share knowledge and resources, and build resilience through community. 

Supporting freelance disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill and mentally ill (shortened to ‘sick’) creatives (formally or self-diagnosed) to develop our accessibility and disability justice literacy and comprehension, build self-advocacy skills and develop our creative access-led practices.

The idea for this came to me in January 2023, after I had to leave my full-time arts role due to my health and go freelance.

Then, in April 2023, on the same day I got the news I'd been commissioned by the Collaborative Touring Network, Unlimited and The Old Courts, in association with wonderful Touretteshero. I also got the news that my PIP application had been rejected. You can read more about the reality of disability benefits from my lived experience here.

For that whole chapter of my life, all I could think, feel, talk, and post about was this:

“Instead of me being fearful of losing my career because I'm ill, you (the collective you, the industry) should be fearful of losing me because you're ill-equipped.”

But I had no resources, time or capacity to do anything about it.

Then, in 2024, I was awarded a Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant from Arts Council England (ACE) to develop my Integrated Creative Access practice, and it changed my life (blog on that coming soon!).

In June 2025, I was buzzin’ to be able to pay a bunch of trusted, brilliant humans (pictured) to come together in a meeting room at Contact, to help shape what Chronic Tonic Club might become. It fuelled me.

Mike Cooper, Danny Hassan, Lekhani Chirwa, Kate Fox, Ben Hodge, Rosie Sergent, Toni-Dee Paul, Sasha Georgette, Fi McGregor - thank you.

Quite a lot of people have messaged me to say they’re interested in getting involved, which I’m proper chuffed about! But I’m nowhere near ready to launch yet. Not only because we don’t have funding, but also because it’s vital that I do more research, development and consultation with other sick creatives in Greater Manchester to find out what we need and where the gaps are.

I’m going to let the Chronic Tonic Club Visual Notes and Image Description do the talking now.

Created by Rosie Sergent, friend, colleague and creator of Drawn Poorly Zine. We developed these visual notes over months, collaboratively - rather than as an immediate output, and it was joyful.

A pale bluey-green background.

In the centre, bold and purple, it reads, Chronic Tonic Club in a hand-drawn font.

Beautiful illustrations of people are dotted about, alongside illustrations of a ‘crip time’ clock with 3 wiggly hands, a bin (because that’s where ableism belongs), a progress pride flag and a disability pride flag interlocked, a megaphone, an orange planet, a purple crystal ball, and lots of stars.

Starting on the left and travelling across the page, down and around are questions, statements and ideas.

A big yellow bubble asks, WHERE ARE WE NOW?

An arrow points to another bubble, which states, Freelance sick creatives (especially those who are racialised, of minoritised gender and working-class) have to hustle twice as hard for half as much as our non-disabled peers.

The next bubble tells you that we feel pressured to educate non-disabled people (unpaid), and operate in a constant tug-of-war with inaccessible structures and our own bodies and brains.

A third bubble says, There’s never enough stuff for us. There’s never enough spaces that are soft and warm to multi-difference.

The fourth bubble in this bit admits, Our lives are f**king rough. How can we not catastrophize? We’re disabled. Of course, we catastrophize!

In a green bubble, WHAT DO WE NEED?

A speech bubble, A safer space where we can come together to be mad, sad and rad(ical)

The words CRIP TIME are held inside a pink heart.

An Ash-inspired illustration says, The work I do to support non-disabled people in becoming meaningful allies is vital, but there’s a gap: we also need to support freelance sick creatives to self-advocate and creatively challenge oppressive systems and structures!

To the left, our mission - slow, punk, creative access-led.

More bubbles.

‘Disability and Accessibility Confident EMPLOYEES’ - who know our rights and are empowered to set non-negotiables

We need to put capitalist-ableist practices in the bin!

A purple bubble asks, WHAT’S NEXT?

Take space

Find funding, resources and support

More consultation with freelance sick creatives in Salford and Manchester

Develop a strategy and a methodology

Invite local freelance sick creatives to join the club

Peer-to-peer support

Manchester needs something like this, but it doesn’t need to just be you, Ash, you could be pushed into looking after everyone, when really everyone should be looking after each other

In bold font, at the end -

Mobilise, share our lived and learned experience and take collective action

Follow me on social media (links below) for project updates!

Thank you for reading and supporting. It means a lot.

Ash 🌚