SisterSong National Membership meeting

SisterSong National Membership meeting occurred over the weekend and I spoke on the panel about HIV as a reproductive justice issue. SisterSong is the longest standing Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective that is building a movement around reproductive justice. Daxon Dixon Diallo of Sister Love Inc. led the session and my co-panelists included Coco Jervis, Policy Director for CHAMP as well as Marsha Jones and LaCisha Crear of the Afiya Center.

The reproductive justice framework is an important integrated lense that makes it impossible to talk about empowerment of communities in isolation from their social networks. This is an important principle when considering women's health as well as the health of urban populations. Too often, discussions of risk are limited to personal responsibility messaging that completes misses the importance of the social context. Reproductive justice is an important frame for avoiding this pitfall.

My contribution on the panel was to report the outcomes of the Women of Color United meeting in Mexico City at the International AIDS Conference on behalf of Jacqui Patterson. The women in the session were energized by the dialogue concerning transnational solidarity and wanted to know how to advance the six step solidarity plan concerning the intersection of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. After the session many came up to me to try and strategize the ways in which they could support.

Washington D.C. Outreach

Dr. Mehret and Chevelle took it to Washington, D.C. to spread the truth about what they learned in the South Bronx regarding HIV prevention, women, and filming All of Us.

University of Orange 2008 Course Announcement

God Speaks: Philadelphia Voices Against Violence

TruthAIDS has teamed up with Philadelphia-based filmmaker Makia Harper to develop a community education training guide for her film God Speaks: Philadelphia Voices Against Violence. Harper is an independent writer and filmmaker that produced/directed a one hour length documentary in less than one year! Her focus on solutions against violence that are up and running in Philadelphia present interesting public health solutions. We are honored to be working with Makia. Her film instructs defeating violence will take a village and we are excited to help build upon her efforts.