Episode 06: The "harm reduction as resistance" edition (with Joyce A. Rivera)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
Release Date: 12/13/2017
Episode 10: The "Body(.com) and Soul" edition, with Kenyon Farrow, senior editor of TheBody.com and TheBodyPro.com
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
In the "Body(.com) and Soul" edition of , Samuel Kelton Roberts sits down and talks with , the senior editor at TheBody.com and . A writer, editor, and strategist, Farrow has worked on campaigns of all sizes on the local, national, and global level and in issues related to criminalization/mass imprisonment, homelessness, LGBT rights, and HIV education and empowerment. With expertise in public health, social policy, and health care, he is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, and strategist. Prior to joining TheBody.com, Farrow served as U.S. & Global Health Policy director with...
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Episode 09: The "Whole Neighborhood Stopped in its Tracks" edition, with Tracie Gardner of the Legal Action Center
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
In the superheroes' pantheon of African-American HIV and harm reduction activists and workers, you can think of Tracie Gardner was one of the Golden Age figures. In this episode of PDIS, we learn about Tracie's origin story, what it was like to watch the HIV/AIDS crisis unfold in Black America in the 1980s and 1990s, why she got involved in the work, and how she came to harm reduction.
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Episode 08: The Women With a Vision edition (with Deon Haywood)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
The Women With a Vision episode. In this episode of PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff, I talk to Deon Haywood, the Executive Director of Women With A Vision, Inc. (WWAV). Founded in 1989 by a grassroots collective of Black women in response to the spread of HIV/AIDS in New Orleans, Louisiana, Women With A Vision is a social justice non-profit which focuses on the most urgent issues faced by women, especially women of color vulnerable to criminal justice involvement. Originally focusing on health promotio
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Episode 07: The "We have ARRIVEd" edition (with Howard Josepher and Joe Turner, of Exponents, Inc.)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
The "We have ARRIVEd" edition (with Howard Josepher and Joe Turner, of Exponents, Inc.). In the late 1980s, Howard Josepher and Joe Turner met in New York City and began the program now known as Exponents. Their goal was deceptively simple, to establish an outreach and recovery program for people returning home from prison with a substance use problem. But it was actually more complicated than that. Although they had some federal funding to run a limited three-year program, when that money dried up they wer
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Episode 06: The "harm reduction as resistance" edition (with Joyce A. Rivera)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
The "harm reduction as resistance" edition (with Joyce A. Rivera). Welcome to PDIS. A week after the Trump election of November 2016, Joyce Rivera, the founder and Executive Director of the St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, joined me and my students at the PDIS studios. This was a few days after the federal election of 2016, which put Donald Trump in office, and Joyce explained to me why she's optimistic about the future. A lot of her optimism for the future stems from her work in the past. Rivera was an
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Episode 05: The "culturally competent harm reduction" edition (live from #reform17)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
The "culturally competent harm reduction" edition. At the Drug Policy Alliance's October 2017 conference in Atlanta, I got the chance to speak with four harm reduction and public health activists and researchers, including Lyn Ayala (Condom Program Coordinator at Washington Heights Corner Project), Zina Age (Founder & CEO, Aniz, Inc., in Atlanta, GA), Carrie Ann Lawrence (Director of the Indiana School of Public Health's Project Cultivate), and Sasanka Jinadasa (of Reframe Health and Justice, in Washington,
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Episode 04: The HRC North Star edition (with Monique Tula)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
The HRC North Star edition (with Monique Tula). Formerly the Vice President of Programs at AIDS United in Washington DC, and a twenty-plus-year veteran of the AIDS and harm reduction movements, Monique Tula in the summer of 2016 became the Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, one of the nation's foremost organizations in the field. On August 1, 2017, Tula dropped by the PDIS studios for a cup of coffee and to talk about the Harm Reduction Coalition's new North Star statement (https://www.yout
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Episode 03: The Invisible Men edition (with Flores Forbes)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
The Invisible Men edition (with Flores Forbes). Happy Fall, everyone! My guest in this episode of PDIS is Flores Forbes. Born and raised in San Diego, California, at age sixteen Forbes joined the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The Panthers had been formed in 1966, and Flores rose through the ranks to become a high-level operative in the Party's military wing, called the Buddha Samauri. As one of the Party's principal armorers, Flores was responsible for maintaining the Party's gun supply -- at any g
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Episode 02: New York Harm Reduction Educators (with Terrell Jones)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
In late October, 2016, we sat down at the PDIS studios with Terrell Jones of the New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE). Terrell is NYHRE's Outreach and Advocacy Manager.
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Episode 01: The "collateral damages" edition (with Dinah Ortiz-Adames)
PDIS: People Doing Interesting Stuff
The "collateral damages" edition (with Dinah Ortiz-Adames). A week after being honored by Citizens Against Recidivism, Parent Advocate and harm reduction practitioner Dinah Ortiz-Adames stopped by to give me a hard time about the state of my office and my lack of technical expertise with the recording equipment. We also talked about her work and a little-known aspect of drug policy and criminal justice: their effects on families of color. In this interview, we discuss stigma and the word "addict," and what
info_outlineThe "harm reduction as resistance" edition (with Joyce A. Rivera). Welcome to PDIS. A week after the Trump election of November 2016, Joyce Rivera, the founder and Executive Director of the St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, joined me and my students at the PDIS studios. This was a few days after the federal election of 2016, which put Donald Trump in office, and Joyce explained to me why she's optimistic about the future. A lot of her optimism for the future stems from her work in the past. Rivera was an early researcher and activist in harm reduction and drug use policy, working in the 1980s and 1990s, a time when we knew little about the lives of people who used drugs, and when most people didn't care to know. In comparison to thirty years ago, Rivera believes, doing harm reduction in Trump's America won't be nearly as difficult. She also talked with me about what it was to do that work in the first decade of HIV, how she got into the work, and her perspective on why so-called "tough love" so often fails as a therapeutic and recovery strategy.
Joyce A. Rivera is the founder and Executive Director of Saint Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction (SACHR), and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, teaching a course on drug use and abuse. She has over thirty years of experience in program development and social services delivery, and has worked in harm reduction since 1990. As a consultant and grant writer, her expertise in HIV prevention and harm reduction has made her a local and national leader in the field of AIDS and drugs. She is a founding member of the National Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC), the North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN), and the Harm Reduction Care Network of New York (HRCNNY). Joyce frequently presents and conducts training on drug policy, harm reduction, women, communities of color, and social justice. She has chaired the boards of HRCNNY and the Latino Commission on AIDS. Joyce holds a bachelor of science degree in health administration with a specialization in healthcare planning and a master’s in comparative political science.