More than 200 People Attended Sneak Peek of Jones’ New Solo Show Followed by Panel With Leading Care Advocates
ATLANTA — Tony Award®–winning visionary and comedian Sarah Jones performed her newest in-development show yesterday, for more than 200 people at The Loft at Center Stage. Presented in partnership with Caring Across Generations. “The Cost of Not Caring” showcased an ensemble of relatable and hilarious characters, often inspired by Jones’ real-life multiracial family. Yesterday’s iteration of the show took place in the distant future as Jones’ characters contended with a corporation’s project to replace home care workers and family caregivers with AI and robots, while also reflecting on the country’s progress in making care across the lifespan more accessible.
In a panel discussion following the 45-minute performance, Jones and community leaders from around the city urged event attendees to vote with care in mind, and to advocate for higher direct care worker wages among other care infrastructure investments.
“I don’t care where you are on the political spectrum — you’re going to need or give care,” said Jones, who grew up seeing many relatives providing unpaid care to others, and who herself received care at home and in facilities after a bad accident. “Call everybody you know and let’s show elected leaders that we want care.”
Alicia Garza, political strategist and co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter who cared for both her parents before they died of cancer, emphasized what’s at stake for Georgia’s voters: “Our care system is almost like an apartheid system; there is great care for people that can afford it, but not for people who can’t. We are in a state that continues to refuse dollars from the federal government for care infrastructure.”
Over 7,000 people in Georgia are on waitlists for critical disability care services through Medicaid, and 60% of those individuals have been waiting for at least four years. The state has a severe shortage of workers who provide childcare, aging and disability care. The industry’s high turnover rate is due in large part to poverty wages; direct care workers are paid on average only $20,768 a year.
“The long wait list means that some people have had no choice but to live in nursing homes instead in their own homes and communities,” said Sean Kelly, director of communications at New Disabled South. “On the other side of that, there are people who have the desire in their hearts to do care work as a profession, but so many of them opt not to take that path because it’s not financially viable.”
Jacqueline Lamar, a home care worker and member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance Georgia Chapter of We Dream in Black, agreed: “The solution is to raise wages for care workers and caregivers and domestic workers across the board.”
Jerri McElroy, a sandwich generation caregiver from Covington who started her care journey when her dad was delivered to her home on a stretcher connected to a feeding machine, ended: “Care affects every household differently, so there’s no way to make decisions on care infrastructure if you don’t have representation from all these different aspects.”
Jones will also perform the show on Thursday in Detroit as part of “Care on Tour,” a storytelling and advocacy initiative started in August by Caring Across Generations and partners that included a bus tour across Georgia, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This unified effort aims to amplify the urgent need for affordable, accessible care across the nation by taking care stories, education and action on the road ahead of the election, and inspiring collective action.
Reflecting on the themes in both Sarah Jones’ performance and raised by panelists, Caring Across Executive Director Ai-jen Poo said: “This performance, this conversation is connected to a conversation that’s happening in every home across Georgia and across the country about how we’re going to care for the people we love. It’s about how we’re going to have access to affordable, quality childcare; how everyone who needs paid family and medical leave can have it; and where every single older person, disabled person or ill person can live with dignity in their come, connected to the communities that they know and love.”