Jen White-Johnson is a Afro-Latina, disabled artist, designer, educator, and activist, whose visual work explores the intersection of content and caregiving with an emphasis on redesigning ableist visual culture.As an artist-educator with Graves disease and ADHD, her heart-centered and electric approach to disability advocacy bolsters these movements with invaluable currencies: …
Jen White-Johnson is a Afro-Latina, disabled artist, designer, educator, and activist, whose visual work explores the intersection of content and caregiving with an emphasis on redesigning ableist visual culture.
As an artist-educator with Graves disease and ADHD, her heart-centered and electric approach to disability advocacy bolsters these movements with invaluable currencies: powerful, dynamic art and media that all at once educates, bridges divergent worlds, and builds a future that mirrors her Autistic son’s experience.
When her son was diagnosed as Autistic at age 2 she began to examine the absence of black disabled children in digital and literary media, this motivated the release of an advocacy photo zine entitled "KnoxRoxs." Dedicated to her Autistic son.
The zine is a way to give visibility to children of color in the black Autistic community. The photozine helped to contribute to the rare framework centering autism acceptance in families of color, amplify conversations with the Disability community, igniting the continued need to develop anti-racist, and anti-ableist media. Jen’s creative practice shines best when she can infuse design, disability justice, photography, zine making, and art activism to center Neurodivergent mothering, caregiving, and joy as important acts of resistance in a society that so often devalues disabled communities.
Since its release, the zine has received national and international recognition and is permanently archived in Libraries and Special Collections at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Firestone Library at Princeton University and the Smithsonian National African American Museum of History and Culture.
Her activist and advocacy work has been featured in The Washington Post, AfroPunk, New York Times, CNN, Teen Vogue, Latina.com, Crip Camp: The Official Virtual Experience. Milano Art Book Fair, Miram Gallery, Baltimore Museum of Art, The Hart Club Gallery (London, England) New York Tech Zine Fair, School For Poetic Computation, The Fiebre Photobook Festival (Madrid, Spain), The 2019 Women’s March, DC Book Art Fair, DC Zine Festival, Brooklyn Art Book Fair, and Printed Matter Virtual Book Fair,
In 2020 she was selected as an honoree on the Diversability’s D-30 Disability Impact List and was listed on today.com as one of 20 Latina artists to watch in 2021.
Jen has presented, consulted and collaborated with a number of brand initiatives, art spaces, and universities across print and digital, in addition to facilitating events centering disability art and design advocacy. These artist talks and presentations and collaborations include Nike, Converse, Twitter, Target, Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and Google Stories.
She’s also guest lectured and facilitated design workshops at the following academic institutions: Harvard College, Stanford University, Chapman University, Howard University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Bowie State University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Bard Graduate Center, Temple University, Stevenson University, McDaniel College, Moore College of Art & Design, Morgan State University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Maryland College Park, Wonsook Kim School of Art, Illinois State University, Columbia College, Texas State University, Tisch School of the Arts/ NYU Center for Disability Studies and The Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability.
For 10 years Jen taught as an Assistant Professor of Design and Visual Culture at Bowie State University, and Guest Lectured at the University of Minnesota College of Design. She currently serves as Adjunct Faculty, at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design in the Art & Design College Accelerator Program (ADCAP) Workshop. Jen holds an MFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Visual Arts from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Jen currently lives Baltimore, MD with her husband and 10 year old son.