Harm reduction is one of the most important movements of the 20th century, and yet a compilation of its critical stories and voices was, until now, seemingly nowhere to be found.
Saving Our Own Lives, an anthology of essays from long-time organizer Shira Hassan, fills this gap by telling the stories of how sex workers, people of color, queer folks, and trans, gender non-conforming, and two-spirit people are building systems of change and support outside the societal frameworks of oppression and exploitation.
This is a collective story of Bad Date sheets passed between sex workers in Portland, leading to the identification of a serial killer. It is the story of clean syringes, “liberated” from empathetic doctors offices and passed between punks in squats in the East Village by women of color, and the early AIDS activists who made sure that everyone knew how to use them. It is the story of transwomen of color, street-based sex workers, who created shared housing to ensure that young people had safe places to sleep. It is the story of Black Panthers creating a free breakfast program to feed a revolution and the Young Lords taking over Lincoln Park Hospital in the Bronx to demand and ultimately create community-accessible drug treatment programs.
At a political moment when Liberatory Harm Reduction and mutual aid are more important than ever, this book serves as an inspiration and a catalyst for radical transformation of our world.
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“Saving Our Own Lives is rooted in Shira Hassan's extensive experience and commitment to harm reduction as a liberatory practice. This is a book grounded in deep love for those who are most marginalized in our society and respectfully documents their stories and emancipatory analyses. This open-hearted book is illuminating, informative and inspiring. It will have a forever place on my bookshelf.”
—Mariame Kaba, author of We Do This 'Til We Free Us
“This vital book is a spark, a balm, an agitation, a blessing, a celebration. Through narrative and research and conversation and reflection, Saving Our Own Lives tears down the myths perpetuated by the medical-industrial complex and prison-industrial complex, and shows us how communities have been building ways to survive and heal in spite of--and against--these systems. Shira Hassan's book is at once expansive and personal, far-reaching and like coming home. I'm going to return to it again and again, and you will too.”
—Maya Schenwar, co-author of Prison by Any Other Name and editor-in-chief, Truthout
“Grounded, brilliant, and generous - Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction offers key tools, histories, testimony and analysis to deepen our everyday work to support ourselves and our beloved communities. As always, deep gratitude to the visionary Shira Hassan for this luminescent collection, resplendent with the power to shift hearts and minds. A must read for organizers, educators and all of us working to do more than struggle and survive.”
—Erica R. Meiners, co-author of Abolition. Feminism. Now.
“This brilliantly moving book - at once a generous love letter to our freedom movements and an urgent demand for radical transformative work - will inspire readers not only to think about harm reduction differently, but to actually live in ways that reflect a commitment to its liberatory potential. Shira Hassan has brought together an amazing chorus of voices that includes freedom fighters, political educators, cultural workers, BIPOC leaders and disability justice activists whose analyses and reflections offer exactly the kind of collective wisdom and encouragement that we need right now. Indeed, the possibility of a radical queer abolitionist future is closer because of Shira Hassan has so beautifully helped us understand the potential for freedom when we engage in a process of saving our own lives.”
—Beth Richie, co-author of Abolition. Feminism. Now.
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Help us donate copies of Saving Our Own Lives
Donate copies of Shira Hassan's Saving Our Own Lives to organizations that support sex workers.
Other books of interest
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The Long Term
Edited by Alice Kim, Erica Meiners, et al. -
Abolition. Feminism. Now.
by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, et al. -
Assata Taught Me
by Donna Murch -
We Do This 'Til We Free Us
by Mariame Kaba -
Abolition Feminisms Vol. 1
Edited by Alisa Bierria, Jakeya Caruthers, et al.