Courtesy of Princess McDowell
Audio By Carbonatix
Adam Tench, known as Rage Almighty, was an activist and award-winning slam poet who worked and performed in Dallas, Texas. He passed away in 2019, but a new initiative spearheaded by Arete Health, Inc. and the Dallas Music Office aims to continue his legacy by bringing affordable, accessible healthcare to artists in Dallas County.
The program, Creatives Care Dallas (CCD), will launch on Oct. 24. Artists who sign up on the 24th or 25th will have coverage kick in on Nov. 1, 2025. A press release announcing the launch of CCD describes it as having been designed “to support gig-based artists, musicians, filmmakers, freelancers and others whose careers often fall outside traditional employer insurance models.”
Anyone participating in CCD will have access to “comprehensive virtual primary care, 24/7 urgent telemedicine, behavioral health services and $0 co-pay prescriptions” for the top 2,000 prescribed medications in the United States. Additionally, the program allows up to five people to receive coverage under a single membership fee—$65 per month.
It isn’t exactly insurance, but it provides a lot of the same benefits, bypassing some of the red tape in the process. The only real requirements are that participants reside in Dallas County and be a working creative in some form.
Byron Sanders, CEO of Arete Health, and Kristina Kirkenaer-Hart, Director of Cultural Tourism and the Dallas Music Office, both recognized the need for a solution like CCD and partnered to make it a reality. Sanders has a background in healthcare, while Kirkenaer-Hart’s office is closely tied to the local music scene. They have both seen artists, some of whom were personal friends, suffer from a lack of access to basic healthcare, often because their jobs were gig- or contract-based and did not supply insurance. Some have passed away from illnesses or conditions that may have been treatable with access to a primary care physician.
Dallas Needs Arts
“We are not an interesting city to visit if we don’t have the arts and creatives surviving and thriving,” says Kirkenaer-Hart, who sees creatives as key to Dallas’ identity.
Reflecting on their first meeting, arranged by Arts and Culture Commissioner Damany Daniel, Sanders says he and Kirkenaer-Hart immediately recognized one another as kindred spirits. At that point, Sanders had the program that would become CCD built out, but did not have the expertise or ability to market it. Kirkenaer-Hart had the right people to spread the word about a program like CCD, but needed a mechanism to deliver radical healthcare access to artists. It was a perfect, instantaneous matchup.
At its heart, CCD is a telehealth service. Sanders is quick to point out that there is nothing inherently revolutionary about that idea alone; telehealth has been around for some time now.
“I guess the sad thing is the innovation is we said we’re just going to take maybe a little less profit than some other folks would,” says Sanders. That is the core of how they were able to pack a variety of services into the program for the $65 monthly fee. He hopes they can lead by example and get other healthcare providers to follow suit and make their solutions more affordable as well.
Remembering Rage Almighty
For Sanders, the journey that led to the creation of CCD began with Rage Almighty. Sanders and Rage worked together, and the latter’s passing raised Sanders’ awareness of the challenges artists face when seeking healthcare. The path he found himself set on led to the formation of Arete Health, Inc. and the development of Arete Health Shield, which is the platform that powers CCD’s offerings.
While he knew and admired Rage Almighty, Sanders is clear that their relationship never reached its full potential before his passing. So, while Rage became his “why” for CCD, he wanted to make sure they were honestly and authentically honoring the poet’s memory through their solutions and messaging. Sanders and Kirkenaer-Hart turned to Princess McDowell, a friend, colleague and frequent collaborator of Rage’s. McDowell says they immediately felt the program Arete and the Dallas Music Office had put together was strong, but advocated for including mental health services in CCD, something they felt Rage Almighty would have wanted.
McDowell initially met Rage Almighty over a decade ago. They were both active in the Dallas poetry scene of the late 2000s and early 2010s, and McDowell was drawn to Rage’s performance style and writing structure. They became friends, and then their bond continued to strengthen until they were more like siblings than anything else.
“He himself was funny and charismatic and complicated and odd, as most artists are,” says McDowell. “And so we just…bonded over the love of…poetry and writing and being able to be our best selves on stages when you know it can be hard to be your best self off of it.”
Something both Sanders and McDowell say was core to Rage Almighty’s work as a poet and member of the Dallas community was working with the youth. “He used poetry like therapy,” says McDowell, who says Rage promoted writing as a form of healing for youths dealing with intense personal struggles. He would adapt his work to make it more child-friendly, McDowell says, so he could share it with a younger audience and hopefully inspire them to express themselves as well. Rage Almighty received a number of awards for his poetry, but one of the most meaningful may have been when he was named Teaching Artist of the Year by Louder Than a Bomb Dallas in 2016.
In McDowell’s estimation, Rage Almighty would have seen CCD as a program that not only supported artists in need but also expanded the idea of family to mean something inclusive and intentional. In that sense, it is a fitting continuation of his life and a tribute to his memory.
“I think he would have been very proud to have his legacy and his name…tied to something so transformative for a community that’s left out,” says McDowell. “You know, there’s a lot of resources that are available for people with families, people with kids, people with family ties. But a lot of us poets don’t have family like that.”
“We are each other’s family, and I think that being able to have a healthcare structure that allows you to take care of your chosen family is revolutionary, and he would have been hella proud.”
Then, after a pause, McDowell corrects themself: “He is proud.”
Creatives Care Dallas will host a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. at the Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St. Kristina Kirkenaer-Hart and Byron Sanders will discuss the program in depth, with guest speakers and a special performance by Cameron McCloud of Cure for Paranoia. Additional information on CCD can be found here.
