Harm Reduction Today: Needle Exchange, Abolition, and Sex Parties, Oh MY!!

In tandem with Love Rules: The Harm Reduction Archives of Heather Edney and Richard Berkowitz, our current exhibition at MoMA PS1, Visual AIDS presents a conversation highlighting different realms of harm reduction work happening across NYC. 

Click here to RSVP. Tickets are not required to attend. MoMA PS1 is free for all New Yorkers.

Following the tradition of safe sex and safer drug use practices championed by harm reduction activists such as Heathey Edney and Richard Berkowitz, this program will bring together three individuals applying harm reduction strategies in their work. Harm reductionist Tamara Oyola-Santiago, co-founder of Bronx Móvil, will discuss her work as a public health educator implementing syringe exchange programs. Organizer Jawanza James Williams, of VOCAL-NY, will discuss harm reduction as it intersects with housing justice and abolition. Filmmaker/curator Adam Baran, co-producer of HOW TO HAVE SEX IN A PANDEMIC and an organizer of monthly sex parties in Brooklyn, will share practices to support collective sexual health care.

Following the discussion, visitors are welcome to explore the exhibition and converse with the panelists. 

Love Rules: The Harm Reduction Archives of Heather Edney and Richard Berkowitz is on view at MoMA PS1 from April 24 to October 6.

Biographies:

Tamara Oyola-Santiago (she/her), MA, MPH, MCHES, is a harm reductionist and public health educator. Areas of life work include harm reduction services grounded in social justice in Puerto Rico and New York City, HIV/AIDS decriminalization, self-determination, and restorative practices. She is co-founder of Bronx Móvil, a fully bilingual (Spanish/English) anti-racist mutual aid collective and mobile harm reduction and syringe services organization. She is a member of the What Would an HIV Doula Do collective, a community of people joined in response to the ongoing AIDS Crisis, and part of the Board of OnPoint NYC and Faith in Harm Reduction.

Jawanza James Williams (he/they) is a Black, radical Queer, Prison Abolitionist, Socialist, Feminist, Christian engaged in social critique, local, and state politics in New York. He is a PhD Political Science student at the CUNY Graduate Center. Williams is originally from Beaumont, Texas. He received a BA in English from Schreiner University in 2012 before moving to New York City, where he works with VOCAL-NY as the Director of Organizing. Williams is an alumni of Public Allies of New York, and Center for Neighborhood Leadership, organizations dedicated to training professional Organizers, and increasing the capacity of nonprofit community-based organizations.

Adam Baran (he/him) is a writer, director, producer, and curator whose work focuses on hidden histories of queer life, history, sexuality, and identity. Baran’s short documentary TRADE CENTER screened as a selection at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, AFI Docs, Frameline, Maryland, Outfest and the Oak Cliff Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention from the Best Documentary Short jury. Baran produced the 2020 Netflix documentary CIRCUS OF BOOKS which was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Writing for a Non-Fiction Program. He is a co-producer of doc-series HOW TO HAVE SEX IN A PANDEMIC, which examines the impact of COVID on LGBT New Yorkers. His work also includes the narrative short JACKPOT (winner of Best Short at the 2013 Miami LGBT Film Festival), writing the first season of the hit webseries HUNTING SEASON and the experimental short film DIRTY BOOTS.