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From erotic labor, to the rights of people who use psychoactive substances, to reproductive health and carcerality-we are living through a political moment when debates about bodily autonomy are at a fever pitch.
Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use is a bold and timely collection that confronts these charged issues at the intersection of social justice and public health. It reveals the histories behind the United State's ideological wars and illustrates their costs to all of us. It is a primer on healing-centered harm reduction, which presents a visionary framework and set of practical strategies to advance unity and care while working to transform conditions for communities that bear the brunt of interpersonal and systemic violence, overdose deaths, and health inequities. In the words of leading advocates, service providers, and the scholars whose lives and communities have been harmed by American neo-colonial policies, Body Autonomy offers promising, healing-centered interventions that represent a critical culture shift.
This collection features trusted voices on health and social policy reform, including Kate D'Adamo, Justice Rivera, Ismail Ali, Paula Kahn, and Sasanka Jinadasa, as well as respected healers like Richael Faithful, Amira Barakat Al-Baladi, and Mona Knotte. The articles, interviews, worksheets, and poems within are an offering to expand our collective understanding of survival, healing, and embodied freedom. Body Autonomy is a must read for anyone with a compassionate worldview, people seeking to know more about underground economies, and those who know that punishment doesn't lead to security. It is a liberatory design and a prayer for what's possible.
About the author
Justice Rivera’s professional and artistic work is grounded in principles of harm reduction, anti-oppression, and healing justice. Her expressions seek to deconstruct carceral and punishment driven paradigms to race, gender, and bodily autonomy. She currently works to uplift compassionate community-led solutions to social injustices through her role as Partner with Reframe Health and Justice and through her creative offerings including Candy Coated: A Memoir and Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work & Drug Use. When she isn’t working or writing, Justice loves to travel, dance to EDM, cook, shop, volunteer, cuddle with her cat, and laugh with friends and family.
Summary
From erotic labor, to the rights of people who use psychoactive substances, to reproductive health and carcerality—we are living through a political moment when debates about bodily autonomy are at a fever pitch.
Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use is a bold and timely collection that confronts these charged issues at the intersection of social justice and public health. It reveals the histories behind the United State's ideological wars and illustrates their costs to all of us. It is a primer on healing-centered harm reduction, which presents a visionary framework and set of practical strategies to advance unity and care while working to transform conditions for communities that bear the brunt of interpersonal and systemic violence, overdose deaths, and health inequities. In the words of leading advocates, service providers, and the scholars whose lives and communities have been harmed by American neo-colonial policies, Body Autonomy offers promising, healing-centered interventions that represent a critical culture shift.
This collection features trusted voices on health and social policy reform, including Kate D'Adamo, Justice Rivera, Ismail Ali, Paula Kahn, and Sasanka Jinadasa, as well as respected healers like Richael Faithful, Amira Barakat Al-Baladi, and Mona Knotte. The articles, interviews, worksheets, and poems within are an offering to expand our collective understanding of survival, healing, and embodied freedom. Body Autonomy is a must read for anyone with a compassionate worldview, people seeking to know more about underground economies, and those who know that punishment doesn't lead to security. It is a liberatory design and a prayer for what's possible.
Foreword
- Scheduled readings at Bluestockings Collective in NYC, Skylight Books and Reparations Club in LA, Hugo House in Seattle, and Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, with plans to schedule readings at PO Box Collective, Little District Books in DC, Psychedelic Assembly in NY, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Philly AIDS Thrift Store, Dog Eared Books in San Francisco and more.
- Scheduled interviews on Why Are People Into That? and The Oldest Profession Podcast, with plans to reach out to Sluts & Scholars, Sex out Loud with Tristan Taormino, Sensual Self, Harm Reduction International, Inner Hoe Uprising, and They Talk Sex.
- Coverage in Urban Justice Center, Decrim Sex Work, Afrosexology, Camille Barton’s newsletter, Anticapitalist Books, Hoes are Healers, Sex Workers Outreach Project, and more.
- Submitting for reviews in Dame Magazine, Filter Mag, DoubleBlind, Them Magazine, Huck Mag, Xtra Mag, Lucid News, Truth Out, and in the MAPS Bulletin.
- Planned presence at the Stimulus Conference in Canada, a drug policy and harm reduction conference, and the Psychedelics track at SXSW in March 2024.
- Planned outreach through the MAPS Bulletin newsletter (35-40k), Lucid News (15k social), DoubleBlind (151k Instagram, 50k newsletter), and Them Magazine (1 million Instagram followers).
