Past Events
A dark purple banner on bright yellow background reads “Do No Harm: Criminalization through Medical Care.”
Criminalization of reproductive autonomy (purple cloud): Due to colonization, racism, eugenics, ableism, heterosexual-patriarchy and capitalism.
Participation in criminalization (dark purple rectangle): (1) Criminalizing non-compliance (2) Collaborating with the state: punishment under guise of care or research (3) Increasing risk of criminalization.
Criminalization through accessing medical care (purple cloud): pregnant people, disabled folks, drug users, parents, migrants, people in sex trades, LGBTQ people.
Principles (light purple rectangle): (1) Learn from most impacted (2) End medically unnecessary drug testing (3) End mandatory reporting (4) End practice of supporting prosecution in HIV criminalization cases (5) End practice of calling police for fraudulent IDs (6) End police and ICE presences (7) Stop calling law enforcement on folks with unmet mental health needs (8) Stop providing substandard and or violative care in jails, prisons, detention facilities (9 and 10) Stop supporting prosecution (11) Stop punishing other providers (12) Form relationships, defend self-care, protect, welcome, advocate.
Light purple flag reads “APHA Resolultion Passed” with [SITE] endingpolice.com written over it. Underneath it reads “Policing and incarceration are public health issues. Abolition is evidence-based.”
Beyond do no harm (large dark purple square): Medical providers and public health professionals recommit to caring for people by refusing to participate in criminalization.
June Rad Healers & Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering: 13 Ways to Resist the MIC
Thursday June 8th from 5:00-7:00 pm PT / 8:00-10:00 pm ET
ACCESS INFO: Online via Zoom, participate from anywhere! Live closed captioning, ASL interpretation, and English-to-Spanish interpretation will be provided. REGISTER HERE - Free!
A dark purple banner on bright yellow background reads “Do No Harm: Criminalization through Medical Care.”
Panelists (Dr. Jamila Perritt, Christine Mitchell, Indra Lusero, Erin Miles Cloud, Yveka Pierre, Gabriel Arkles, and Dara Baldwin) are listed on the banner.
A small pink banner reads “Building on the Resolution and Document” over three purple clouds. An arrow leading away from the banner reads “Clearly outlining connection” and more arrows lead to the words “Get into good trouble.”
Cloud 1: How our work (criminalization and medical care) intersects: Trans existence criminalization, specifically trans of color; Self-community managed gender-affirming care; Drug tests to pregnant people and new parents; Criminalization in hospital and exam rooms; Criminalization for intended and unintended pregnancy outcomes; Public health model is ableist (sterilization, coercion, violence, and harm in state institutions); Folks seeks care and get handcuffs; Criminalization for lack of care; Criminalization of HIV.
Cloud 2: Practical Guidance: Do not support prosecution of cases of self-managed care; End mandatory reporting; Listen to people most directly impacted; End police presence in hospitals; Support self-managed care; End interrogations in hospital rooms (think critically: this impacts care).
Cloud 3: Laws, Guidance, and Statements that Support: Informed consent laws; Participate in care, rerooting in what help really is; ADA is about civil rights; Professional practices and statements: privacy containment, HIV criminalization, affirming care; Human rights law; Mandatory reporting does not require you to turn over an entire chart; Get to know your community!
ABOUT EVENT: Please join Rise, Mordecai and the HJC community to welcome Maria and Fabián from Interrupting Criminalization’s Beyond Do No Harm Project. Maria and Fabián will share information on Beyond Do No Harm’s 13 Principles for supporting peoples’ agency and disrupting the criminalization of our communities and our healthcare workers accomplices. With the MIC being increasingly used by the far right to target trans youth, and criminalize our communities and healthcare workers for providing gender-affirming and reproductive justice centered care, there’s no better time than now to come together to strategize our resistance and dreamstorm our next actions.
This is a gathering for and by rad healers and healthcare workers, Disability Justice activists, organizers, and community members who are engaged in the work of transforming healthcare systems and creating alternatives. We include the daily work of survival as a form of rebellion for us as chronically ill, neurodivergent, Mad, and disabled people. Our survival is a source of deep wisdom! Register here: tinyurl.com/JuneRadHealers
ABOUT PRESENTERS:
Maria Thomas (she/they) is a queer South Asian artist, poet, and abolitionist organizer whose current work focuses on interrupting criminalization in medical care and public health spaces. Over the years she has held a variety of jobs including teaching theatre and dance to middle schoolers, painting murals, and working at a shelter for women with unmet mental health needs, all in South India; and has worked for over fifteen years in the healthcare sector in the US midwest. As a multiply displaced immigrant who was uprooted by war as a child, an internationalist and anti-imperialist commitment lies at the heart of her work and politics. Maria is the current Beyond Do No Harm fellow at Interrupting Criminalization.
Fabián Fernández (he/him) is an organizer with DPH Must Divest working to get #CopsOutofCare. He is a student in the joint UCSF-UCB M.D./Ph.D. program in Medical Anthropology. He researches issues of safety, workplace violence, and policing in U.S. Emergency Departments. In his time in the Bay Area, he has organized with healthcare workers from Do No Harm Coalition fighting against wage theft, evictions, and police sweeps. He has also worked to support individuals and families affected by police violence. He models his healing work from years of practice with Clínica Martín Baró, a student-run free clinic grounded in latin-american liberation psychology. He grounds himself in music, spoken word, somatic practices, and ancestral healing.
More About Beyond Do No Harm & Gathering: The Beyond Do No Harm network is a network of healthcare providers, public health workers, impacted community members, and abolitionist organizers working across racial, gender, reproductive, migrant and disability justice, drug policy, sex worker, and anti-HIV criminalization movements. Maria and Fabi will present on the origins of the BDNH Principles, which seek to interrupt the profound harms of criminalization of pregnancy outcomes, substance use, overdose, self-managed care, mental health, poverty, trans healthcare and existence, abortion, HIV, immigration status and more, in public health and medical care settings, and share resources developed to support organizing against MIC criminalization. The facilitators will also share resources and opportunities to engage in campaigns and efforts to get #CopsOutOfCare and to support health care providers and seekers in resisting criminalization.
Participants will be invited to share:
how they are working to interrupt criminalization at the point of seeking/accessing health care
where they see opportunities to do so
where they are running into roadblocks and how they are trying to get around them.
Register here: tinyurl.com/JuneRadHealers
Past Events
Image Description: graphic with a light pink background. Black text at top reads, “HJC’s Spring Pol Ed Series Starts March 2nd!” In the center of the graphic is a piece of art by Micah Bazant - it is a black and white drawing of two disabled people of color, sitting closely together, surrounded by large flowers, a butterfly and a hummingbird. One person uses a wheelchair and a ventilator, and has a drink with a plastic straw on her tray. One person is fat and uses a cane. They are smiling and radiating love. The drawing has been colored in by Brunem using pencils; bright yellow and orange flowers, blue sky, an amber monarch butterfly, the people are wearing green and pink lip colors respectively. Black text below the art reads, “Understanding & Transforming the Medical Industrial Complex, Part 2: Climate Justice Edition. More info and to enroll: tinyurl.com/HJCSpring23Enroll. The Health Justice Commons logo in red and black is in the bottom right corner of the graphic.
Join us for the Health Justice Commons' Spring Course: Understanding and Transforming the Medical Industrial Complex, Part 2: Climate Justice Edition. Starting March 2, 2023!
La descripción del evento en español se encuentra abajo.
HJC’s Spring online political education series, Understanding and Transforming the Medical Industrial Complex, Part 2 - Climate Justice Edition, begins March 2nd, 2023!
It is a 6-session series on consecutive Thursdays at 5 pm - 7 pm PST/ 8 pm - 10 pm EST. This series will be co-facilitated by an amazing team (more info below!). Our special guest presenters will be Layel Camargo and Deseree Fontenot of Shelterwood Collective!
This series focuses on the intersections of ableism, medical and environmental racism and their entanglements with the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC). You do not have to have taken Part 1 to enroll in and benefit from Part 2, we’ll provide resources and review to catch you up!
WHEN: Starts Thursday March 2nd and runs through April 6th (Six Consecutive Thursdays). The time is the same on each Thursday session: 5p - 7p PST/ 7p - 9p CST/ 8p - 10p EST
WHERE: Online via Zoom. Attend from anywhere!
COST: $185 - $285, work exchanges and scholarships available. No one turned away for lack of funds. If you are able, please consider using the 'cover fees option' for your enrollment contribution, as FlipCause detracts credit card fees (like all online payment platforms). We are a small, disabled/crip, and member-run organization, so whatever you can give supports the participation of others with less access to funds. Thank you!!!
Submit your enrollment contribution here.
Info on Facilitators: This course will be co-facilitated by a team of amazing co-facilitators including Rise, Jimena Lucero, and Mordecai Cohen Ettinger of the Health Justice Commons, Movement Generation’s Angela Aguilar, and Crushing Colonialism’s Jen Deerinwater.
ACCESS INFO: All sessions will provide ASL, English to Spanish interpretation, and live closed captioning. All sessions will be recorded (with participant permission) for the use of participants.
Work Exchanges / Scholarships: Work exchanges and partial to full scholarships are available based on participant needs. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. To request a work exchange or scholarship, please email us at: HJCommonsContactUs@gmail.com. Please put: ‘Course Work Exchange or Scholarship’ in the subject line.
More information:
You do not have to have taken Part 1 to enroll in and benefit from Part 2, we’ll provide resources and review to catch you up! The course is online via ZOOM with live closed captions and all sessions are recorded for participant use.
This series focuses on the intersections of ableism, medical racism, environmental racism and classism and their entanglements with the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC). It also explores the historic and ongoing connections of big pharma with corporate polluters and legacies of eugenics.
All of Health Justice Commons work uses 3 primary critical lenses: people’s science, intersectional social justice, and an abolitionist mindset to examine and understand the MIC historically and currently. The Spring Pol Ed series explores how the MIC – as a primary source of racialized and gendered medical ableism and violence – has been complicit with, profited from, and has played a significant role in causing climate crisis. It will also explore the many ways these patterns have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic and 4 years of Trump’s fascism, costing millions of lives. We’ll look at the latest research revealing climate crisis and pollution’s causative roles in the rise of multiple diseases, and learn in-depth how many institutions and industries within the MIC profit from the very diseases they cause.
Topics covered:
— The role of medical ableism, racialized ableism, environmental racism and classism in intensifying the lethal impacts and lengthening the duration of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
— Overview of the settler-colonalist roots of the MIC and the ongoing dynamics of intersectional oppression and racialized/ gendered medical ableism.
— The toxicity, medical ableism and violence of prisons and other institutions of confinement connected to the MIC.
— Environmental Racism: From Louisiana’s Cancer Ally, to Bhopal, to Flint, and Gaza. Exploring environmental toxicology and the neurobiology of intergenerational harm.
— Contested Bodies/ Contested Illnesses: What they reveal about the MIC’s complicity with corporate polluters, climate crisis and disease causation.
— Contested toxins: the hidden history of big pharma and its entanglement with big agro, the global war machine, eugenics and imperialism.
— Ways forward to decolonize healthcare. Tools for disrupting and transforming the MIC, and incubating alternatives that you can practice in your own life, work, and communities.
Have questions? Email us at: HJCommonsContactUs@gmail.com. Please put ‘Spring Pol Ed Series Questions’ in the subject line!
Únase a nosotres para el curso de primavera de Health Justice Commons: Entendiendo y transformando el Complejo Médico Industrial (CIM), Parte 2: Edición de la Justicia Climática. ¡Comenzando el 2 de marzo de 2023! ¡INSCRÍBASE AQUÍ!
¡La serie virtual de educación política, Entendiendo y transformando el Complejo Médico Industrial, Parte 2 - Edición de Justicia Climática comienza el 2 de marzo de 2023! Es una serie de 6 sesiones consecutivas, los jueves de 5 pm - 7 pm hora del Pacífico / 8 pm - 10 pm hora del Este. Esta serie será co-facilitada por un asombroso equipo (¡más información abajo!). ¡Nuestre invitade especial será anunciade pronto!
Esta serie se enfoca en las intersecciones entre el capacitismo, el racismo ambiental y sus conexiones con el Complejo Médico Industrial (CIM). ¡No tiene que haber tomado la Parte 1 para inscribirse y beneficiarse de la Parte 2, le proveeremos recursos y repasos para ponerle al día!
CUANDO: Comienza el jueves 2 de marzo y continúa hasta el 6 de abril (seis jueves consecutivos). La hora de la sesión es la misma cada jueves: 5p - 7p hora del Pacífico / 7p - 9p hora Central / 8p - 10p hora del Este
DÓNDE: Virtual a través de Zoom. ¡Participa desde cualquier lugar!
COSTO: $185 - $285, hay intercambios de trabajo y becas disponibles. Nadie será rechazade por falta de fondos. Si puede, por favor considere utilizar la opción de “cubrir tarifa” para su contribución de inscripción, ya que Flip Cause cobra tarifas por tarjetas de crédito (como todas las plataformas de pagos en línea). Somos una organización pequeña de personas discapacitadas/disca y liderada por sus miembres, así que lo que quiera que puedas dar apoya la participación de otres con menos acceso a fondos. ¡¡¡Gracias!!!
Envíe su contribución de inscripción aquí.
Info sobre les Facilitadores: Este curso será co-facilitado por un equipo asombroso de co-facilitadores incluyendo Rise, Jimena Lucero, and Mordecai Cohen Ettinger de Health Justice Commons, Angela Aguilar de Movement Generation y Jen Deerinwater de Crushing Colonialism.
INFO DE ACCESO: Todas las sesiones tendrán interpretación en lenguaje de señas norteamericana, en español y en inglés y tendrán subtítulos en inglés en vivo. Todas las sesiones serán grabadas (con el permiso de les participantes) para el uso de les participantes.
Intercambios de trabajo / becas: Hay intercambios de trabajo y becas parciales/completas disponibles basadas en las necesidades de les participantes. Nadie será rechazade por falta de fondos. Para solicitar intercambio de trabajo o beca, favor de enviarnos un correo electrónico a: HJCommonsContactUs@gmail.com. Por favor escriba: “Intercambio de trabajo o beca para el curso” en el título.
Mas información:
¡Usted no tiene que haber tomado la parte 1 para inscribirse y beneficiarse de la parte 2, le proveeremos recursos y repasos para ponerle al día! El curso es en línea a través de ZOOM con subtítulos en vivo y todas las sesiones serán grabadas para el uso de les participantes.
Esta serie se enfoca en las intersecciones entre el capacitismo, el racismo médico, el racismo ambiental y el clasismo, y sus conexiones con el Complejo Médico Industrial (CMI). También explora las conexiones históricas y continuas de Gran Farma con contaminadores corporativos y con legados de eugenesia.
Todo el trabajo de Health Justice Commons se enfoca en 3 lentes críticos primarios: la ciencia de la gente, justicia social interseccional y una mentalidad abolicionista para examinar y entender el CMI históricamente y actualmente. La serie de educación política de primavera explora cómo el CMI - como fuente primaria de capacitismo médico racializado/de género binario y de violencia - ha sido cómplice con, generado ganancias de, y jugado un papel importante en causar la crisis climática. También explora las muchas maneras en que estos patrones se han intensificado durante la pandemia de COVID-19 y durante los 4 años del facismo de Trump, costando millones de vidas. Examinaremos las investigaciones recientes que revelan los roles causales de la crisis climática y la contaminación en el aumento de múltiples enfermedades, y aprenderemos a profundidad cuántas instituciones e industrias dentro del CMI generan ganancias de las enfermedades que causan.
Temas a cubrir:
— El rol del capacitismo médico, el capacitismo racializado, el racismo ambiental y el clasismo en la intensificación de los impactos letales, y alargando la duración, de la pandemia de COVID-19 que aún continúa.
— Repaso general de las raíces del CMI en el colonialismo de asentamiento y las dinámicas continuas de la opresión interseccional y el capacitismo médico racializado/de género binario.
— La toxicidad, el capacitismo médico y la violencia de las prisiones y otras instituciones de confinamiento conectadas al CMI.
— Racismo ambiental: Desde el callejón de cáncer de Luisiana, hasta Bhopal, Flint y Gaza. Explorando la toxicología ambiental y la neurobiología del daño intergeneracional.
— Cuerpos disputados/ Enfermedades disputadas: Que revelan sobre la complicidad del CMI con contaminadores corporativos, la crisis climática y la causa de las enfermedades.
— Toxinas disputadas: la historia escondida de Gran Farma y su conexión con Gran Agro, la máquina de guerra global, la eugenesia y el imperialismo.
— Maneras de seguir adelante para descolonizar el cuidado de la salud. Herramientas para transformar el CMI, e incubar alternativas que puedas practicar en tu propia vida, trabajo y comunidades.
¿Tiene preguntas? Envíanos un correo electrónico a: HJCommonsContactUs@gmail.com. ¡Por favor escriba “Preguntas sobre la serie de educación política” en el título!
Image Description: graphic with a sky blue background and black text reading, “Rad Healers & Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering with guest presenters Cara Page & Erica Woodland of Healing Justice Lineages. Thurs Feb 16th, 5-7p PST. tinyurl.com/HealingJusticeLineages.” On the left is a photo of Cara Page, a light brown skinned Black woman with peppered hair, in a white shirt and gold earrings, ring, and bracelet, looking directly at the camera with an open-mouthed smile wearing a deep purple-red lip color. On the right is a photo of Erica Woodland, a Black transmasculine person with long dark brown locs wearing a navy blue button-up collared shirt, arms folded in front of his chest, looking directly at the camera with the warm glow of sunlight across his face.
February 2023 Rad Healers & Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering: Healing Justice Lineages with Guest Presenters Cara Page and Erica Woodland
and co-facilitators Rise & Mordecai!
Thursday, February 16th from 5:00-7:00 pm PT / 8:00-10:00 pm ET
La descripción del evento en español se encuentra abajo.
ACCESS INFO: Online via Zoom, participate from anywhere! Live closed captioning, ASL interpretation, and English-to-Spanish interpretation will be provided. REGISTER HERE - Free!
ABOUT EVENT:
We’re honored and excited to feature Cara Page and Erica Woodland, co-authors of Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety. This year has had a challenging start amid climate crises and extreme police and white supremacist violence. We invite you to join us to celebrate this powerful book and the abundant offering of wisdom it is to our communities.
In Cara and Erica’s words, “We reclaim the power, resilience, and innovation of our ancestors through this book. To embody their wisdom across centuries and generations is to continue their legacy of liberation and healing.”
Anti-capitalist, Black feminist, and abolitionist, Healing Justice Lineages is a profound and urgent call to embrace community and survivor-led care strategies as models that push beyond commodified self-care, the policing of the medical industrial complex, and the surveillance of the public health system. Is is also a calling forth of the ancestral medicines and healing practices that have sustained communities who have survived genocide and oppression, while radically imagining what comes next!*
Please join Cara, Erica, and the radical healers, healthcare workers, brilliant crip activists, and survivors of the HJC community as we dream our futures and reclaim our precious past.
This is a gathering of rad healers and healthcare workers, Disability Justice activists, organizers, and community members who are engaged in the work of transforming healthcare systems and creating alternatives. We include the daily work of survival as a form of rebellion for us as chronically ill, neurodivergent, Mad, and disabled people. Our survival is a source of deep wisdom, given all we are up against!
Register here: Tinyurl.com/HealingJusticeLineages
*Please note, all information about Healing Justice Lineages has been taken from the book’s website. You can learn more here.
Reunión solidaria de Sanadores y trabajadores de la Salud radicales de febrero 2023: Linajes de Justicia de Sanación, con les presentadores invitades Cara Page y Erica Woodland
¡Y con les co-facilitadores Rise & Mordecai!
Jueves 16 de febrero de 5:00-7:00 pm hora del Pacífico / 8:00-10:00 pm hora del Este
INFO DE ACCESO: En línea a través de Zoom, ¡participa desde cualquier lugar! Con subtítulos en inglés en vivo e interpretación en lenguaje de señas norteamericana, inglés y español disponibles. REGISTRESE AQUÍ - ¡Gratis!
SOBRE EL EVENTO:
Nos honra y emociona tener a Cara Page y a Erica Woodland, les co-autores de Linajes de Justicia de Sanación: Soñando en el cruce entre la liberación, el cuidado colectivo y la seguridad.
Este año ha tenido un comienzo retante en medio de las crisis climáticas y de la violencia policiaca y racial. Les invitamos a que se una a nosotres para celebrar este poderoso libro y la fuente abundante de sabiduría que es para nuestras comunidades.
En las palabras de Cara y Erica, “Reclamamos el poder, la resiliencia y la innovación de nuestres ancestres a través de este libro. El encarnar su sabiduría a través de siglos y generaciones es continuar su legado de liberación y sanación”.
Anticapitalista, feminista negro y abolicionista, Linajes de Justicia de Sanación es un llamado profundo y urgente a abrazar estrategias comunitarias y lideradas por sobrevivientes como modelos que van más allá del autocuidado mercantilizado, la vigilancia del Complejo Médico Industrial y la vigilancia del sistema de salud pública. ¡También es una invocación a las medicinas ancestrales y prácticas de sanación que han sustentado a comunidades que han sobrevivido el genocidio y la opresión, mientras radicalmente imaginando lo que viene despues!*
Por favor únase a Cara, Erica y a les sanadores, trabajadores de la salud, activistas disca brillantes, y sobrevivientes radicales de la comunidad de HJC a soñar nuestros futuros y a reclamar nuestro preciado pasado.
Este es un encuentro de miembres de la comunidad que están involucrades en el trabajo de transformar los sistemas de cuidado de la salud y crear alternativas. Incluimos el trabajo diario de supervivencia como una forma de rebelión para nosotres como personas con enfermedades crónicas, neurodivergentes, Locxs, y discapacitades. ¡Nuestra supervivencia es una fuente de sabiduría profunda, dado a todo lo que nos enfrentamos!
Registrese aquí: Tinyurl.com/HealingJusticeLineages
*Por favor note que toda la información sobre Linajes de Justicia de Sanación ha sido tomada de la página de internet del libro. Puede aprender más aquí.
Image Description: graphic with a light pink background. Health Justice Commons logo at the top, followed by black text reading, “Rad Healers & Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering. Taking A Collective Breath. tinyurl.com/DecemberSolidarityGathering” Below the text is a photo of a black cat lying on their back balancing a cup of tea on their belly.
December Rad Healers & Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering:
Taking A Collective Breath
with co-facilitators Rise & Mordecai
Tuesday December 13th from 5:00-7:00 pm PT / 8:00-10:00 pm ET
La descripción del evento en español se encuentra abajo.
Join us for nourishing conversation and connection. More info below.
ACCESS INFO: Online via Zoom, participate from anywhere! Live closed captioning, ASL interpretation, and English-to-Spanish interpretation will be provided. REGISTER HERE - Free!
ABOUT EVENT:
We’ve had a really hard fucking year. We’ve continued to extend ourselves in ways that no human should have to; we’ve had to beg to be held in a world that insists on “moving on” from a pandemic that is very much still here and impacting our people the most.
As the Gregorian year comes to a close, we want to use this gathering to hold each other. Hold each other in grace, in tenderness, and in gratitude. And to take a collective breath.
What magic can we immerse ourselves in when we engage in the softness we’ve had to hide to survive?
What crip brilliance is simmering in you that you want to share?
Bring your favorite hot beverage, your furry friends, and the softest blanket you can find.
This is a gathering of rad healers and healthcare workers, Disability Justice activists, organizers, and community members who are engaged in the work of transforming healthcare systems and creating alternatives. We include the daily work of survival as a form of rebellion for us as chronically ill, neurodivergent, Mad, and disabled people. Our survival is a source of deep wisdom given all we are up against!
Register here: tinyurl.com/DecemberSolidarityGathering
Reunión de solidaridad de sanaderes y trabajadores de la salud radicales de diciembre - Tomando una respiración colectiva
con les co-facilitaderes Rise & Mordecai
Martes 13 de diciembre de 5:00 - 7:00 pm hora del pacífico / 8:00 - 10 pm hora del este
Únase a nosotres para tener una conversación y una conexión revitalizante. Más información abajo.
INFORMACIÓN DE ACCESO: En línea a través de Zoom, ¡participa desde cualquier lugar! Habrá subtítulos en inglés en vivo, interpretación en lenguaje de señas norteamericana e interpretación en inglés y español. REGISTRESE AQUÍ - ¡Es gratis!
SOBRE EL EVENTO: Hemos tenido un año cabronamente difícil. Continuamos extendiendonos en maneras que ningún humano debería de hacerlo: hemos implorado ser sostenides en un mundo que insiste en “salir” de una pandemia que aún está aquí y que impacta más a nuestra gente.
Mientras el año gregoriano culmina, queremos usar esta reunión para sostenernos une y otre. Sostenernos en gracia, en ternura y en gratitud. Y para tomar una respiración colectiva.
¿En qué magia nos podemos sumergir cuando nos involucramos desde la suavidad que tuvimos que esconder para sobrevivir? ¿Qué brillantez crip se está cociendo en ti que quieres compartir? Trae tu bebida caliente favorita, tus amigues peludos, y la cobija más suave que puedas encontrar.
Esta reunión es de sanaderes y trabajaderes de la salud radicales, activistas de la Justicia de discapacidad, organizaderes y personas de la comunidad que están involucrades en el trabajo de transformar los sistemas de cuidado de la salud y crear alternativas. Incluimos el trabajo diario de sobrevivir como una forma de rebelión para nosotres como personas con enfermedades crónicas, nuerodivergentes, personas locas y personas discapacitadas. ¡Nuestra supervivencia es una fuente de profunda sabiduría dado a todo lo que enfrentamos!
Registresé aquí: tinyurl.com/DecemberSolidarityGathering
Image Description: A mural by Cece Carpio. The mural depicts a healthcare worker wearing a mask and gloves in the foreground, and a lush bouquet of peace lilies in the background.
Join us for the Health Justice Commons' Fall 2022 Course: Understanding and Transforming the Medical Industrial Complex, Part 1. Starting September 29th!
La descripción del evento en español se encuentra abajo.
The CDC’s recent ‘relaxed’ pandemic guidelines show mounting ableist denial surrounding COVID-19. However, this denial cannot erase the continual strain and hardship the pandemic – now amplified by the growing MPX epidemic (formerly Monkey Pox) – is inflicting on our communities here and across the globe. In the US alone, the death toll is 500 people per day.
This ableist denial and the eugenicist thinking that lurks beneath it is nothing new. Along with historic and enduring white supremacy, it is a defining feature of the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC). The recent overturn of Roe v Wade and criminalization of trans-healthcare are more tactics to increase white supremacist, ableist, patriarchal, far-right control over our bodies and communities, and to intensify the use of the MIC as means to deploy and legitimize this fascist violence.
Now more than ever, we need just healthcare systems that truly care for our bodies, communities, and the planet. This can only come to be by disrupting the Medical Industrial Complex and building our communities’ capacity to create alternatives.
Are you ready to learn, be in community, and take action together?
This course features special guest presenters, Talila “TL” Lewis and Esperanza Dillard of HEARD!!
WHEN: Starts THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th at 5 - 7 pm PST/ 8 - 10 pm EST! The course runs for SIX consecutive weeks on THURSDAYS at the same time each week: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th - THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3rd!
WHERE: ONLINE via ZOOM! Attend from anywhere!
COST: $185 - $285. Work Exchanges and scholarships are available! No one turned away for lack of funds.
If you are able, please consider using the 'cover fees option' for your enrollment contribution, as FlipCause detracts credit card fees (like all online payment platforms). We are a small, disabled/crip, and member-run organization, so whatever you can give supports the participation of others with less access to funds. Thank you!!!
Submit your enrollment contribution here. Envíe su pago de inscripción al hacer clic aquí.
WORK EXCHANGE/SCHOLARSHIP: Full and partial scholarships are available! To request a full scholarship or a partial scholarship with a work exchange, please email us at HJCommonsContactUs@gmail.com. Please put: ‘Course Work Exchange or Scholarship’ in the subject line. Our work exchanges are flexible and tailored to your access needs. No one will be turned away for lack of funds!
ACCESS INFO: All sessions will provide ASL and English <> Spanish interpretation as well as live closed captioning. All sessions will be recorded (with participant permission) for the use of participants.
Featured Guest Presenter Bios:
Talila “TL” Lewis (no gender pronouns; use name in place of pronouns) is an abolitionist organizer, strategist, and community lawyer whose current work primarily focuses on helping people understand the inextricable links between ableism, racism, classism, and all forms of systemic oppression and structural inequity. TL's work primarily focuses on abolishing the medical-carceral industrial complex; correcting wrongful convictions of deaf/disabled people; and supporting multiply-marginalized disabled people affected all forms of incarceration. TL, who taught at Northeastern University School of Law and Rochester Institute of Technology, co-founded the cross-disability abolitionist nonprofit HEARD (@behearddc) and co-created The Harriet Tubman Collective and #DisabilitySolidarity. TL has served as a trainer/consultant for dozens of organizations, companies, universities as the founding director of Freedom Mapping Consulting. As of the time of editing this bio, TL loves to try new cooking and baking ideas, create and weave words and languages, and dance skate (on quads).
Esperanza Dillard (she/her) is deaf Latinx social worker and abolitionist who lives in the Bay Area, California on the original homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. She specializes in supporting currently and formerly incarcerated deaf/disabled people and their loved ones. She is dedicated to confronting issues of legal and prison systems that impact deaf/disabled folks and helping them to navigate those systems. Esperanza’s approach is guided by transformative justice, healing, abolition, harm reduction principles with the goal of supporting people to live their lives free from policing and incarceration. She is also doing several projects including researching and developing tools and resources for the HEARD’s reentry program.
Info on Facilitators: This course will be facilitated by Mordecai Cohen Ettinger and Rise. Learn more about our team.
This 6 session course covers:
An in-depth look at why we refer to the US and global healthcare system as the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC).
How we got here – a deep dive into the MIC’s hidden history in times of pandemic & climate chaos.
Medical Apartheid, the white supremacist roots and the formation of the MIC.
How the MIC is entangled with corporate polluters, big pharma, the military industrial complex and big agro like your worst bad hair day!
How the MIC overlaps and is complicit with the Prison Industrial Complex, and the criminalization of asylum seeking communities and immigrants, people seeking and providing reproductive healthcare, and youth and adults seeking and/or providing gender-affirming transgender healthcare.
The 10 principles of Disability Justice as defined by our partner, Sins Invalid.
Intersex + Trans/Gender Justice issues within the MIC.
Experiential exercises to 'unlearn' and heal from the deceptive & ableist ways the MIC defines health & worth.
Ways forward to decolonize healthcare. Tools for disrupting and transforming the MIC that you can practice in your own life, work, and communities.
New & updated content for those who participated in prior sessions!
All Health Justice Commons’ work centers 3 main approaches:
1) an intersectional social justice lens with a deep grounding in and commitment to Disability and Climate Justice
2) an abolitionist mindset to healthcare and healing
3) a peoples’ science lens.
Have questions?
Email us at HJCommonscontactus@gmail.com. Please put ‘Course Questions’ in the subject line!
Únase al curso de otoño de Health Justice Commons: Entendiendo y transformando el Complejo Médico Industrial (MIC, por sus siglas en inglés), Parte 1. ¡Comenzando el 29 de septiembre!
Las recientes normas ‘relajadas’ del Centro para el control de enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés) demuestran una creciente negación capacitista alrededor del COVID-19. Sin embargo, esta negación no puede borrar como la continua tensión y las dificultades que la pandemia - ahora amplificada por la creciente epidemia de MPX (anteriormente llamada viruela del mono) - está afectando a nuestras comunidades, aquí y alrededor del globo. En los EEUU solamente el número de muertes es de 500 personas por día.
La negación capacitista y el pensamiento eugenista que se esconde debajo no es nada nuevo. Junto con la histórica y duradera supremacía blanca, es un rasgo que define al Complejo Médico Industrial (MIC, por sus siglas en inglés). La reciente anulación de Roe -vs- Wade y la criminalización del cuidado de la salud trans son más tácticas para aumentar el control capacitista, patriarcal, supremacista y de extrema derecha sobre nuestros cuerpos y comunidades, y para intensificar el uso del MIC como método para implementar y legitimar esta violencia fascista.
Ahora más que nunca necesitamos sistemas para el cuidado de la salud justos, que realmente cuiden a nuestros cuerpos, comunidades y el planeta. Esto sólo puede suceder interrumpiendo el Complejo Médico Industrial y desarrollando la capacidad de nuestras comunidades para crear alternativas.
¿Está preparade para aprender, estar en comunidad y tomar acción juntes?
¡¡Este curso cuenta con les invitades especiales Talila “TL” Lewis y Esperanza Dillard de HEARD!!
CUANDO: ¡Comienza el JUEVES, 29 DE SEPTIEMBRE a las 5 - 7pm hora del Pacífico / 8-10pm hora del Este! El curso tiene una duración de SEIS semanas consecutivas los jueves a la misma hora cada semana: JUEVES 29 DE SEPTIEMBRE - JUEVES 3 DE NOVIEMBRE!
DÓNDE: ¡EN LÍNEA a través de ZOOM! ¡Puede asistir desde cualquier lugar!
COSTO: $185 - $285. ¡Hay intercambios de trabajo y becas disponibles! ¡No se rechaza a nadie por falta de fondos!
Si puede, por favor considere utilizar la ‘opción de cubrir costo’ para su contribución de inscripción , ya que FlipCause resta los costos por uso de tarjetas de crédito (como todas las plataformas de pago en línea). Somos una organización pequeña, discapacitada/crip y dirigida por sus miembres, así que lo que sea que pueda dar apoya en la participación de otres con menos acceso a fondos. ¡¡¡Gracias!!!
Intercambio de trabajo/becas: ¡Hay intercambios de trabajo y becas disponibles! ¡No se va a rechazar a nadie por falta de fondos! Para solicitar para intercambio de trabajo o para una beca parcial, por favor envíenos un correo electrónico a HJCommonsContactUs@gmail.com. Por favor escriba: ‘Intercambio de trabajo o beca para el curso” en la línea de título.
INFORMACIÓN DE ACCESO: Se proveerá subtítulos en vivo (en inglés), interpretación en lenguaje de señas estadounidense e interpretación del inglés al español.
Biografías de les presentadores invitades:
Talila “TL” Lewis (sin pronombres; usar nombre en vez de pronombres) organiza dentro del movimiento abolicionista, es estratega y abogade de la comunidad cuyo trabajo actual se enfoca primariamente en ayudar a las personas a entender los enlaces inextricables entre el capacitismo, el racismo, el clasismo y todas las formas de opresión sistémica e inequidad estructural. El trabajo se TL se concentra primariamente en abolir el complejo industrial médico-penitenciario ; corrigiendo condenas erróneas de personas sordas/discapacitadas; y apoyando a personas discapacitadas y multi marginadas afectadas por cualquier forma de encarcelamiento. TL, quien enseño en la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Noreste y en el Instituto de tecnología Rochester, cofundó la organización sin fines de lucro abolicionista y que representa múltiples discapacidades (@behearddc), cocreó el Colectivo Harriet Tubman y #DisabilitySolidarity (#SolidaridadconlasDiscapacidades). TL ha servido como entrenadore/consultore para docenas de organizaciones, compañías y universidades como le Directore fundadore de Freedom Mapping Consulting. Al momento de editar esta biografía, TL ama probar nuevas ideas para cocinar y hornear, crear y tejer palabras y lenguajes, y danzar en patines (en quads).
Esperanza Dillard (ella) es una trabajadora social latinx sorda y abolicionista que vive en el Área de la Bahía, California en los territorios originales de la Tribu Muwekma Ohlone. Ella se especializa en apoyar a personas sordas/discapacitadas que están encarceladas o lo fueron anteriormente y sus seres queridos. Ella está dedicada a confrontar problemas del sistema legal y penitenciario que impactan a las personas sordas/discapacitadas y a ayudarles a navegar esos sistemas. El enfoque de Esperanza está guiado por principios de la justicia transformativa, la sanación, la abolición y reducción de daños con el objetivo de apoyar a las personas a vivir libres de vigilancia y encarcelamiento. Ella también está llevando a cabo varios proyectos, incluyendo investigar y desarrollar herramientas y recursos para el programa de reinserción de HEARD.
Información sobre les facilitadores: Este curso será facilitado por Mordecai Cohen Ettinger y Rise. Aprenda más sobre nuestro equipo.
Este curso de seis sesiones cubre:
Una mirada en profundidad de por qué nos referimos a los sistemas de cuidado de la salud de los EEUU y mundial como el Complejo Médico Industrial (MIC, por sus siglas en inglés)
Cómo llegamos aquí - profundizar en la historia del MIC en tiempos de pandemia y caos climático.
La segregación médica, sus raíces en la supremacía blanca y en la formación del MIC.
¡Como el MIC está enredado con las corporaciones contaminantes, Gran Farma, el complejo industrial militar y Gran Agro como si fuera un día malo para tu pelo!
Como el MIC se sobrepone y es cómplice de el Complejo Industrial Penitenciario y la criminalización de comunidades que buscan asilo e immigrantes, personas buscando y proveyendo cuidado de salud reproductivo y jóvenes y adultos buscando/proveyendo cuidado de salud que afirma el género para las personas transgénero.
Los 10 principios de la Justicia de discapacidad, definidos por nuestres socies, Sins Invalid.
Problemas de Justicia de Género/Intersex + trans dentro del MIC
Ejercicios experimentales para ‘desaprender’ y sanar de las maneras engañosas y capacitistas en las que el MIC define la salud y el valor
Maneras de avanzar para descolonizar el cuidado de la salud. Herramientas para interrumpir y transformar el MIC que puede practicar en su propia vida, trabajo y comunidades.
¡Contenido nuevo y actualizado para aquelles que han participado en sesiones previas!
Todo el trabajo de Health Justice Commons centra 3 acercamientos:
1) un lente de justicia social interseccional con un enraizamiento y compromiso profundo con la Justicia de discapacidad y la Justicia climática.
2) una mentalidad abolicionista en relación al cuidado de la salud y la sanación
3) un lente de la ciencia de la gente.
¿Tiene alguna pregunta?
Envíenos un correo electrónico a HJCommonsContactUs@gmail.com. ¡Por favor ponga ‘Preguntas sobre el curso’ en la línea de título!
“Autonomy: in my body / person / health” by Fernando Martí.
August Radical Healers & Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering - Keeping Our Wheels Oiled: Lessons on Reproductive Justice from Black and Brown Birth Workers
Featuring Guest Presenter ShiShi Rose, Birth and Postpartum Advocate for Black People!
with co-facilitators Rise & Ziggy
Thursday August 25th from 5:00-7:00 pm PT / 8:00-10:00 pm ET
La descripción del evento en español se encuentra abajo.
Join us in learning from Black and Brown Birthworkers and support reproductive justice in times of climate crisis, attacks on our bodily autonomy, and pandemic. More info below.
ACCESS INFO: Online via Zoom, participate from anywhere! Live closed captioning, ASL interpretation, and English-to-Spanish interpretation will be provided. REGISTER HERE - Free!
If you want to support our world-changing work, DONATE HERE.
ABOUT EVENT: This gathering will center Black and Brown birthworkers and the lessons we can learn from their leadership, labor, and care work. We will also explore the best ways to engage in solidarity and mutual aid with Black and Brown birthworkers and for reproductive justice in these times.
It will be co-facilitated by Rise and Ziggy.
This is a gathering of rad healers and healthcare workers, Disability Justice activists, organizers, and community members who are engaged in the work of transforming healthcare systems and creating alternatives. We include the daily work of survival as a form of rebellion for us as chronically ill, neurodivergent, Mad, and disabled people. Our survival is a source of deep wisdom given all we are up against.
PRESENTER BIO: ShiShi Rose is a writer, Doula, and birth/postpartum educator/advocate. Her work centers on providing resources, information, and support to Black birthing folks as they prep for birthing in a racist medical institution and navigate the unknown of healing their bodies, minds, spirits after birth. She also works with families to educate their loved ones on how to properly show up for them because parenting and postpartum is a community affair.
Register here: tinyurl.com/AugustRadHealers
Encuentro solidario de agosto para personas sanadoras y trabajadoras de la salud radicales
Encuentro solidario: Manteniendo nuestras ruedas engrasadas: lecciones sobre justicia reproductiva de parteres Negres y racializades. ¡Con la presentadora invitada ShiShi Rose, defensora del parto y postparto para la gente Negra!
Junto a les facilitadores Rise y Ziggy
jueves, 25 de agosto de 5:00-7:00 pm PT / 8:00-10:00 pm ET
The event description in English is above.
Únete a nosotres para aprender de les parteres negres y racializades y apoyar la justicia reproductiva durante tiempos de crisis climática, ataques a nuestra autonomía corporal y pandemia. Más información a continuación.
INFORMACIÓN DE ACCESO: En línea a través de Zoom, ¡participa desde cualquier lugar! Se proveerá subtítulos en vivo (en inglés), interpretación en lenguaje de señas estadounidense e interpretación del inglés al español. REGÍSTRATE AQUÍ - ¡Es gratis!
Si quieres apoyar nuestro trabajo para cambiar el mundo, HAZ UNA DONACIÓN AQUÍ.
SOBRE EL EVENTO: Este encuentro se centrará en las personas Negras y racializadas trabajadoras del parto y las lecciones que podemos aprender de su liderazgo, labor y trabajo de cuidado. También vamos a explorar las mejores maneras de comprometerse a la solidaridad y el apoyo mutuo con les trabajadores del parto Negres y racializades y a la justicia reproductiva en estos tiempos.
Será co-facilitado por Rise y Ziggy.
Este es un encuentro de personas radicales que son sanadoras, trabajadoras de la salud, activistas de la justicia de discapacidad, organizadoras e integrantes de la comunidad que están comprometidas con el trabajo de transformar los sistemas de salud y crear alternativas. Para nosotres –personas con enfermedades crónicas, neurodivergentes, locas y discapacitadas– el trabajo diario de supervivencia es una forma de rebelión. Teniendo en cuenta todo lo que nos enfrentamos, nuestra supervivencia es una fuente de profunda sabiduría.
ShiShi Rose es escritora, doula y educadora/defensora de parto y postparto. Su trabajo se centra en proporcionar recursos, información y apoyo a las personas negras que paren mientras se preparan para hacerlo en una institución médica racista y navegan lo desconocido de la sanación de sus cuerpos, mentes y espíritus después del parto. También trabaja con las familias para educar a sus seres queridos sobre cómo estar verdaderamente presentes para elles, porque la crianza y el postparto es un asunto comunitario.
Regístrate aquí: tinyurl.com/AugustRadHealers
Graphic featuring a painting used with permission called “we are seeds” by Micah Bazant, which depicts seeds in red, yellow, orange, and green. Black text over an orange background beneath this painting reads, “April Rad Healers & Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering. 4/28/22. Register: tinyurl.com/April22RadHealers,” followed by the Health Justice Commons graphic logo in red and black.
April Radical Healers & Healthcare Workers
Solidarity Gathering: Reclaiming Our Right to Grieve
with co-facilitators Rise & Mordecai
Thursday April 28th from 5:00-7:00 pm PT / 8:00-10:00 pm ET
La descripción del evento en español se encuentra abajo.
Join us in Reclaiming Our Right to Grieve in times of climate crisis, war, and pandemic. More info below.
ACCESS INFO: Online via Zoom, participate from anywhere! Live closed captioning, ASL interpretation, and English-to-Spanish interpretation will be provided. REGISTER HERE. Free!
If you want to support our world-changing work, DONATE HERE.
ABOUT EVENT: Millions have died in the ongoing pandemic. No one has gone untouched by these tremendous losses. At the same time, the pandemic has amplified ableist denial and we are being told to return to “normal life.”
In its latest update, the DSM has pathologized our immense and rightful grief with the addition of a new diagnosis – “prolonged grief disorder.” Whoever still feels the deep sadness and rage of being in year 3 of this pandemic must need psychological intervention.
We call bullshit. What we really need is justice and an end to these mass disabling conditions. We need the resources to be able to move slowly, at our authentic pace, at the pace of a collective who is processing, while also living in the midst of global events that have changed our own and our comrades’ bodyminds forever.
We cannot wait for permission. We will not wait for permission to grieve.
The theme for this month’s gathering is Reclaiming Our Right To Grieve. It will be co-facilitated by Rise and Mordecai with powerful meditations led by Rise.
This is a gathering of rad healers and healthcare workers, Disability Justice activists, organizers, and community members who are engaged in the work of transforming healthcare systems and creating alternatives. We include the daily work of survival as a form of rebellion for us as chronically ill, neurodivergent, Mad, and disabled people. Our survival is a source of deep wisdom given all we are up against.
We hope you will join us in reclaiming our right to grieve together.
Register here: tinyurl.com/April22RadHealers
Reunión de solidaridad de sanaderes y trabajaderes del cuidado de la salud radicales de abril: reclamemos nuestro derecho a estar en duelo
Con co-facilitadores Rise y Mordecai
Jueves, 28 de abril de 5:00pm a 7:00pm PT / 8:00pm a 10:00pm ET
Únase a nosotres para reclamar nuestro derecho a estar de luto en tiempos de crisis climática, guerra y pandemia. Más información abajo.
INFORMACIÓN DE ACCESO: En línea a través de Zoom, ¡participe desde cualquier lugar! Se proveerá subtítulos en vivo en inglés, interpretación en lenguaje de señas norteamericana e interpretación del inglés al español. REGÍSTRESE AQUÍ. ¡Es gratis!
Si quiere apoyar nuestro trabajo cambia-mundos, HAGA UNA DONACIÓN AQUÍ.
SOBRE EL EVENTO: Millones de personas han muerto en la pandemia que aún continúa. Estas tremendas pérdidas nos han tocado a todes. Al mismo tiempo, la pandemia ha amplificado la negación capacitista y se nos está diciendo que volvamos a la “vida normal.”
En su última actualización, el Manual diagnóstico y estadístico de trastornos mentales (DSM por sus siglas en inglés) ha patologizado nuestro inmenso y legítimo duelo al añadir un nuevo diagnóstico – “desorden de duelo prolongado”. Cualquier persona que aún siente profunda tristeza e ira de estar en el año 3 de esta pandemia debe de necesitar intervención psicológica.
¡Esto es mierda! Lo que realmente necesitamos es justicia y erradicar estas condiciones que discapacitan en masa. Necesitamos recursos para poder movernos lentamente, a nuestro ritmo auténtico, al ritmo de un colectivo que está procesando, mientras también vive en medio de eventos globales que han cambiado nuestro cuerpo-mente y el de nuestres compañeres para siempre.
No podemos esperar a que nos den permiso. No esperaremos a que nos den permiso para estar en duelo. El tema de la reunión de este mes es Reclamemos nuestro derecho de estar en duelo. Será co-facilitada por Rise y Mordecai, con poderosas meditaciones lideradas por Rise.
Esta es una reunión de sanaderes y trabajaderes del cuidado de la salud radicales, activistas de la justicia de discapacidad, organizaderes y miembres de la comunidad que participan en el trabajo de transformar los sistemas de cuidado de la salud y en crear alternativas. Incluimos el trabajo diario de sobrevivir como actos de rebeldía que realizamos como personas con enfermedades crónicas, neurodivergentes, y personas con discapacidades. Nuestra supervivencia es fuente de profunda sabiduría en el contexto de todo lo que enfrentamos.
Esperamos que se una a nosotres al reclamar nuestro derecho de estar en duelo juntes.
Regístrese aquí: tinyurl.com/April22RadHealers
Jen Deerinwater over a brown square that reads “Intersections of Disability and Climate Justice HJC’s Spring online political education course, Understanding and Transforming the Medical Industrial Complex, Part 2 - Climate Justice Edition, begins March 3rd, 2022! Dates: March 3rd - April 7th (Six Consecutive Thursdays) Time: 5p - 7p PST/ 7p - 9p CST/ 8p - 10p EST Access: ASL, English to Spanish Interpretation, Live Closed Captioning with Guest Presenter Jen Deerinwater.”
Join us for the Health Justice Commons' Spring Course: Understanding and Transforming the MIC, Part 2. Starting March 3, 2022!
HJC’s Spring online political education course, Understanding and Transforming the Medical Industrial Complex, Part 2 - Climate Justice Edition, begins March 3rd, 2022! It is a 6-session series on consecutive Thursdays at 5 pm - 7 pm PST/ 8 pm - 10 pm EST. Featuring special guest presenter Jen Deerinwater.
This course focuses on the intersections of ableism, medical and environmental racism and their entanglements with the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC). You do not have to have taken Part 1 to enroll in and benefit from Part 2, we’ll provide resources and review to catch you up!
WHEN: Starts Thursday March 3rd and runs through April 7th (Six Consecutive Thursdays). The time is the same on each Thursday session: 5p - 7p PST/ 7p - 9p CST/ 8p - 10p EST
WHERE: Online via Zoom. Attend from anywhere!
COST: $185 - $285, work exchanges and scholarships available. No one turned away for lack of funds. If you are able, please consider using the 'cover fees option' for your enrollment contribution, as FlipCause detracts credit card fees (like all online payment platforms). We are a small, disabled/crip, and member-run organization, so whatever you can give supports the participation of others with less access to funds. Thank you!!!
Submit your enrollment contribution here.
ACCESS INFO: All sessions will provide ASL, English to Spanish interpretation, and live closed captioning. All sessions will be recorded (with participant permission) for the use of participants.
Work Exchanges/ Scholarships: Work exchanges and partial to full scholarships are available based on participant needs. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. To request a work exchange or partial scholarship, please email us at: HJCommonscontactus@gmail.com. Please put: ‘Course Work Exchange or Scholarship’ in the subject line.
Info on Facilitators: This course will be co-facilitated by Mordecai Cohen Ettinger and Rise. Learn more about our team!
More course information:
You do not have to have taken Part 1 to enroll in and benefit from Part 2, we’ll provide resources and review to catch you up! The course is online via ZOOM with live closed captions and all sessions are recorded for participant use.
This course focuses on the intersections of ableism, medical racism, environmental racism and classism and their entanglements with the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC).
All Health Justice Commons courses employ 3 primary critical lenses: people’s science, intersectional social justice, and an abolitionist mindset to examine and understand the MIC historically and currently. This course explores how the MIC, as a primary source of racialized and gendered medical ableism and violence, has been complicit with, profited from, and has played a significant role in causing climate crisis. It will also explore the many ways these patterns have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic and 4 years of Trump’s fascism, costing millions of lives. We’ll look at the latest research revealing climate crisis and pollution’s causative roles in the rise of multiple diseases, and learn in-depth how many institutions and industries within the MIC profit from the very diseases they cause.
Topics covered:
— The role of medical ableism, racialized ableism, environmental racism and classism in intensifying the lethal impacts and lengthening the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
— Overview of the settler-colonalist roots of the MIC and the ongoing dynamics of intersectional oppression and racialized/ gendered medical ableism.
— The toxicity, medical ableism and violence of prisons and other institutions of confinement connected to the MIC.
— Environmental Racism: From Louisiana’s Cancer Ally, to Bhopal, to Flint, and Gaza. Exploring environmental toxicology and the neurobiology of intergenerational harm.
— Contested Bodies/ Contested Illnesses: What they reveal about the MIC’s complicity with corporate polluters, climate crisis and disease causation.
— Contested toxins: the hidden history of big pharma and its entanglement with big agro, the global war machine, eugenics and imperialism.
— Ways forward to decolonize healthcare. Tools for disrupting and transforming the MIC, and incubating alternatives that you can practice in your own life, work, and communities.
Have questions? Email us at: HJCommonscontactus@gmail.com. Please put ‘Course Questions’ in the subject line!
Join us for the Health Justice Commons' Fall Course: Understanding and Transforming the MIC, Part 1. Starting September 23rd!
Art by Jesus Barraza.
Infographic for HJC’s Fall course.
Art features an illustration of two people looking outward. They both have brown skin and long brown hair tied back. One is wearing a white bandanna as a mask with red sunglasses and a red shirt. The other person has a red mask with a round beaded cowrie shell necklace and a teal shirt.
There is graphic text above them that reads:
“Covid and capitalism are deadly, together we can take them down.“ The background is light blue with a darker blue geometric pattern with cowrie shells. Text reads: “Six Thursdays at 5-7pm PT/ 8-10pm ET. Thursday, 9/23 – Thursday, 10/28. Enroll: tinyurl.com/HJCFall21. Online via Zoom with live closed captioning and ASL. All sessions recorded for participants.“
As wildfires, floods, and war rage across the globe, and the delta variant surge is showing us the pandemic is far from over, we need to come together as never before. Now more than ever, we need just healthcare systems that truly care for our bodies, communities, and the planet. This can only come to be by disrupting the Medical Industrial Complex and building our communities’ capacity to create alternatives. It’s time to out racialized medical ableism and the eugenicist thinking that lurks beneath it, that continues to wreak havoc on our bodies, communities, and the planet itself. Are you ready to learn, be in community, and take action together? This course features special guest presenters, Rupa Marya and Raj Patel, co-authors of the acclaimed book, Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice.
WHEN: Starts THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23rd at 5 - 7 pm PST/ 8 - 10 pm EST! The course runs for SIX consecutive weeks on THURSDAYS at the same time each week: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23rd - THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28th!
WHERE: ONLINE via ZOOM! Attend from anywhere!
COST: $150-$285. Work Exchanges and scholarships are available! No one turned away for lack of funds.
If you are able, please consider using the 'cover fees option' for your enrollment contribution, as FlipCause detracts credit card fees (like all online payment platforms). We are a small, disabled/crip, and member-run organization, so whatever you can give supports the participation of others with less access to funds. Thank you!!!
ACCESS INFO: All sessions will provide ASL and live closed captioning. All sessions will be recorded (with participant permission) for the use of participants. Multi-language interpretation available upon request.
Featured Guest Presenter Bios:
Coming soon! Past presenters have included the amazing Harriet Washington, Ruha Benjamin, Sean Saifa Wall, and Kori Brown-King.
Info on facilitators: This course will be facilitated by Orameh Bagheri and Mordecai Cohen Ettinger. Learn more about our team.
Work Exchanges/ Scholarships: Work exchanges and scholarships are available! No one will be turned away for lack of funds! To request a work exchange or partial scholarship, please email us at: HJCommonscontactus@gmail.com. Please put: ‘Course Work Exchange or Scholarship’ in the subject line.
This 6 session course will cover:
How did we get here? An overview of the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC) & its hidden history in times of pandemic & climate chaos.
What's the MIC? Why refer to US Healthcare as the MIC?
The white supremacist roots and formation of the MIC.
Medical Apartheid
The MIC is entangled with corporate polluters, big pharma, the military industrial complex and big agro like your worst bad hair day! How do all these entities interconnect?
How does the MIC connect with the Prison Industrial Complex, climate chaos, and horrific xenophobia directed at asylum seeking communities, migrants and immigrants?
The 10 principles of Disability Justice as defined by our partner, Sins Invalid.
Intersex + Trans/Gender Justice issues within the MIC.
Experiential exercises to 'unlearn' and heal from the deceptive & ableist ways the MIC defines health & worth.
Ways forward to decolonize healthcare. Tools for disrupting and transforming the MIC that you can practice in your own life, work, and communities.
As always, new & updated content for those who participated in prior sessions!
Our Featured Guest Presenters will be announced soon!
All Health Justice Commons’ work centers 3 main approaches:
1) an intersectional social justice lens with a deep grounding in and commitment to Disability and Climate Justice
2) an abolitionist mindset to healthcare and healing
3) a peoples’ science lens.
Have questions? Email us at:
HJCommonscontactus@gmail.com. Please put ‘Course Questions’ in the subject line!
Art by Jesus Barraza.
Image used with permission of artist. Learn more about the amazing Dignidad Rebelde duo Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes & purchase their beautiful work at dignidadrebelde.com/.
Jesus Barraza, is a socially engaged artist, print maker, a leader in his community and teaches Xicanx Art History & Practice. He is a co-founder of Dignidad Rebelde a graphic arts collaboration that produces screen prints, political posters and multimedia projects and a member of JustSeeds Artists Cooperative a decentralized group of political artists based in Canada, the United States and Mexico. As a socially engaged artist Barraza is best known for his prints & posters and has worked closely with numerous community organizations to create prints that visualize struggles for immigration rights, housing, education, and international solidarity. Printmaking allows Barraza to produce relevant images that can be put back into the hands of his community and spread throughout the world. He believes that through this work he plays a role in keeping the history of graphic art activism alive. Follow Jesus at: https://www.instagram.com/dignidadrebeldeart/ and https://www.instagram.com/jesusvbarraza/
Artwork by Kaelani Loo. An illustration based on a photo by Disabled and Here. Three disabled people of color (a Black non-binary person with a cane, a South Asian person in a wheelchair, and an Indigenous Two-Spirit person with a prosthetic leg) block a neighborhood street while holding up cardboard signs that read “Pandemic not over”.
Photo of Cyreé Jarelle Johnson, a black person with light brown skin and short locs pushed to the side stands facing the camera. He wears a black mask and a button up short sleeve shirt with multicolor snakes on it, and overalls. Behind him are some concrete beam and a city skyline out of a wide window.
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Rad Healers and Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering
An online gathering co-facilitated by Orameh Bagheri & Mordecai Cohen Ettinger
With guest presenter Cyreé Jarelle Johnson
Thursday, 8/26, 5-7pm PT/ 8-10pm ET"
The Health Justice Commons logo is in the bottom, a red quarter circle with white neuron dendrites stretching into it like roots.
August Radical Healers + Healthcare Workers Solidarity Gathering with guest presenter Cyreé Jarelle Johnson of Sins Invalid
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26th
5:00 - 8:00 pm PT/8:00-10:00 pm ET
Learn about the impact of Covid-19 Delta variant breakthroughs and how it is affecting our communities. More info below.
Online via Zoom, participate from anywhere! Live closed captioning and ASL interpretation will be provided. REGISTER HERE. Free!
If you want to support our world-changing work DONATE HERE.
ABOUT EVENT: Despite what capitalist-ableist denial would have us believe, the pandemic is far from over. Even before the current Delta-strain surge, the pandemic hasn't been over for disabled Indigenous folks. It hasn't ended for disabled BIPOC and chronically ill folks. It continues for those of us with immune systems damaged by social oppression, environmental racism, and climate chaos. It continues for the hundreds of millions of us affected by vaccine apartheid here and globally. Prior to mainstream media’s coverage of breakthrough cases, this information was passed among us, through crip community networks. Our collective crip wisdom saw through and continues to challenge the ableist magical thinking that led to the lifting of mask mandates and lack of foresight around breakthrough case transmissibility. Our lived wisdom also challenges the conflation of right wing anti-vaxxers with folks who cannot get vaccinated due to lack of access, complex health needs, and the fuckery of big pharma, who leave us out of research and include PEG (a fucking petroleum product for vertical profits with fossil fuel industry) when other safer ingredients could be used. Please join us, and our guest presenter, Sins Invalid's Cyree Jarelle Johnson to craft rebellion and survival together.
PRESENTER BIO: Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a writer from Piscataway, NJ. SLINGSHOT (Nightboat Books, 2019), his first collection of poetry, won the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry. He is a Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow with Poetry Foundation and the Social Media & Community Engagement Specialist at Sins Invalid. He is a spiritual herbalism apprentice at Sacred Vibes Apothecary in Brooklyn, NY. Find him online at cyreejarellejohnson.com or temperancequeertarot.com
This is a gathering of rad healers and healthcare workers, Disability Justice activists, organizers, and community members who are engaged in the work of transforming healthcare systems and creating alternatives - including those of us who do this through the daily work of our survival (a form of resistance and transformation given all many of us are up against).
FACILITATION: Gathering co-facilitated by Orameh Bagheri & Mordecai Cohen Ettinger.
Know Your Rights, Medical Edition
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH, 7 PM ET - 9:30 PM ET
LOCATION: Bluestockings Bookstore, Cafe’ and Activist Center, 172 Allen Street, New York City, New York, 10002
This interactive workshop will break down the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC) and provide crucial Know Your Rights info for use in hospitals, when dealing with insurance, as someone uninsured or without other papers, and with your doctors.
You'll also learn how you can provide medical solidarity and advocacy for loved ones and community members. Join us as we launch a national Medical Abuse Hotline to document medical injustice and connect with others to hold the MIC accountable, transform it, and reclaim our power to heal!
Access Information: This is a wheelchair accessible event. Please come fragrance free for those with environmental injury or illness and for our community and planet's collective health. More info on being fragrance free HERE.
Please email us at: healthjusticecommons@gmail.com if you have access support needs such as ASL interpretation or childcare. We are currently working on live streaming this event with live closed captioning or recording with closed captions and making it available after.
Honoring Carrie Ann Lucas: Creating A Medical Abuse Hotline
Virtual Town Hall Gathering - AUGUST 11TH AT NOON PACIFIC TIME via Zoom video conference. Live closed captioning will be provided. Free!
VIEW EVENT SLIDE PRESENTATION HERE
We’re launching a national medical abuse hotline, convening a progressive network of health and legal workers, and engaging in national Know Your Medical Rights Grassroots Education to expose medical injustice, defend our communities, and transform US healthcare. Join Us!
Contact us to JOIN the CAMPAIGN! LEARN MORE HERE
Healthcare Access Teach-in/ Skills Share: JULY 14th at NOON PACIFIC TIME - 2:30 pm PT
Learn valuable health justice advocacy skills for yourself, loved ones, family or community members.
Online, participate from anywhere! Live closed captioning will be provided. Free!
Contact us to RSVP or with questions.
Live Stream Memorial for Carrie Ann Lucas, AUGUST 3RD.
More details for this online gathering coming soon.