There are some places where people are warned never to go, known for violence, drug traffic, and poverty.  For those who have not grown up in these environments we are taught to fear and/or condemn people who live there.  This is not true of everyone.  There are some s/heroes who “see the faces at the bottom of the well,” and offer a rope AND a bucket of food and water.  Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC) is the rescue organization where prevention is key and care is unconditional.  This week the CFC will spotlight AHRC because they need our support to keep their doors open.

Atlanta Harm Reduction offers the only consistent syringe exchange program in the southeast region.  According to Mona Phillips, a founding member, their early advocacy work began with people living with HIV/AIDS.  During direct action campaigns to raise awareness about Atlantans needing access to affordable pharmaceutical drugs in 1996 they started seeing syringes on the ground.  Recognizing this marker to mean resurgence in heroin use they literally followed the syringes and the word on the street to English Avenue and set up shop there.

AHR has been in English Avenue since 1998 providing: FREE HIV testing, counseling, and connection with additional resources; FREE meals and hot showers a few days a week; FREE access computers and internet; FREE clothes closet access; FREE counseling for people with addictions; FREE Hepatitis A and B vaccines; FREE drug paraphernalia to stop the spread of AIDS, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C; FREE condoms and counseling for sex workers everyday. The syringe exchange program, assumed to target people who use recreational drugs only, is also important for people with diabetes to inject insulin as well as transgender people for hormone injections.

Where others choose to avoid the basic needs of so many people in this area because they don’t approve of their choices…Atlanta Harm Reduction rushed in.

While there have been articles, essays, videos, book chapters published about Atlanta Harm Reduction, state and county budget cuts make “FREE” hard to maintain and they are on the verge of having to close their doors.

AHRC sees 40-60 people each of the four days they are open, most come on Tuesday and Thursday because it will likely be their first shower or their last shower of the week.  While they receive support from the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Panera Bread, they still had to lay off staff and cut their days of service to four days.  They rely on volunteers and the good will of people, but many are uncomfortable with the fact that AHRC encourages people with addictions to get rehabilitation but refuses to criminalize them.  Marshall Rancifer says he has been effective getting more than 350 people successfully into rehab because AHRC is there when people are ready—no judgment.

I have had the privilege of spending time with Marshall Rancifer, Mona Bennett, and Verna Gaines, and a long-time student volunteer, Danielle Sharpe, and what I know is by supporting their work I am supporting communities in great need.  I admire the work Atlanta Harm Reduction is doing to stop the spread of HIV and I deeply respect that they do not turn anyone away.

So we are asking our CFC community to consider a one-time or monthly tax deductible donation of $5, $25, $100 or to volunteer your time.  This Friday come out to their Open House Fundraiser from 10am-4pm at AHRC where they will be providing tours of the facility.  Atlanta needs Harm Reduction and AHRC needs your support.  Donate, volunteer, spread the word!!! Do what you do best.

Thank You,

Crunk Feminist Collective

A few years ago I watched Pariah with CFC members, but now that I think about it Pariah is not the first film to discuss youth “escaping to college.”  Boyz in the Hood is probably the first one I remember seeing back in the day.  But I’m not sure if the academy has been moved by the messages in these films to prepare faculty and staff to provide appropriate support.  I teach in college classrooms for many reasons, but the most important reason is because it allows me to be in the right place when students may need support beyond what the academy provides.   However, after more than a decade of teaching it seems that our colleges and universities are simply not prepared to handle many of the major concerns students are holding when they finally get to college.

Every semester there is a story that gives me pause and sometimes I lose an entire evening processing, crying, and trying to figure out appropriate guidance.  Oftentimes, what I consider appropriate is not readily available or accessible for students on campus.  While there is often counseling and student health centers many of the students I’ve advised reject it either due to prior or recent experiences with counselors because they do not feel a connection.  Having had counseling at three major points in my life: to deal with high school trauma, miscarriage, and being a new parent with a partner, I can truly say that only one counselor, Kesi Miller, helped me to heal and move forward.

Awesome, just not what I am trained to do. I prescribe readings and reiki.

I remember studying psychology at Spelman College in the 1990’s and asserting that I wanted to do art therapy, dance therapy, and music therapy and getting laughed out of my professors’ offices.  Now after having taught at The Ohio State University, Emory University, Clark Atlanta University, and Spelman College, I can truly say that some of the work students, particularly women, may need is not necessarily “head work,” i.e. working through their stories which can re-traumatize, but I believe they need “body work” to help release some of the built up tension, pain, anger, fear and to work on reconnecting with their bodies.

Text and words can only do so much when I barely have words for some of the pain and suffering students share with me.   I’m talking about students here, but there are grown women who experienced trauma in their childhood that was never  addressed, merely suppressed and continues to haunt.  I don’t want this for my students.  So for now I am collecting resources for wellness and affirming doing “bodywork.”

Crunktastic, rboylorn, moyazb, and other CF’s have talked about the importance of self-care and sharing “care” resources.  For my dissertation I studied Sapphire’s Push, particularly the character Clareece “Precious” Jones.  I found four core themes for starting the healing process while still young: a social safety net (a safe place to live and get healthy and be a mom), literacy (ability to read and write with agency ), literature (hearing stories like your own and learning about survival in private), and having a crew (Each One Teach One classmates who know and celebrate you as you are).  As I journey through this process of wanting young adults to start healing while they are still young I think another important part to consider is bodywork such as guided meditation, reiki, massages, and outdoor physical activities.  Here is my list of care resources:

My good friend Lorraine McCall is a certified reiki master in Atlanta, and she offers affordable reiki and readings at the Reiki House.

The extraordinary dancer/instructor Dr. Veta Goler leads guided meditations and retreats at Spelman College.

Giwayen Mata offers African dance and drum classes at Dance 411 every Sunday.

The HEALing Community Center offers affordable health CARE giving patients what they need in the moment and for the long-term.

The Outdoor Activity Center offers regular hikes and service-learning activities in nature preserves and urban forests situated in Black communities in Southwest Atlanta less than 5 miles from the Atlanta University Center.

This is simply a start, but I’m writing this for my colleagues who are wondering what their role is and determining how to best move forward.   Please add resources because it is time we start doing more.

I have spent this Valentine’s Day season wrapped in the loving embrace of feminist friends and family who have expressed their care and affection through thoughtful cards, shared meals, and copious amounts of cocktails. I have been reminded numerous times how bootleg a holiday is that celebrates heterosexual coupledom at the expense of all other kinds of love, and I have felt blessed to be reminded of all the other kinds of love and care I experience routinely.

But can I talk about how sometimes a sister just wants to get laid?

I mention this not because it goes against all that I laid out at the start of this post, but because, for me, the love I get from friendship and family has not coincided with anything approaching a vibrant sex life and, if I can keep it 100, that’s not something I feel great about. Real talk, this year I have felt my lack of sexual intimacy more keenly than I have for a while. For a long time, I felt like I could go on forever being celibate, but now I’m not so sure.

Was that a tumbleweed going past my vagina?

It’s been almost five years since I’ve dated, or kissed, or touched another person in a non- platonic way. After a bad breakup and a series of hilariously tragic dating mishaps and misadventures, I took a little hiatus.  One year became two years, two years became three years and, before I knew it, I had spent almost half a decade sleeping alone. Some of my friends wondered why I haven’t just exploded or looked for a rifle and watchtower. There are lots of reasons.

Reason #1. Oops, oh my!

I’ve also been busy getting my career together and living my life. And it’s not like my life has been sad and pitiful. Quite the contrary. Plus, loving and loving on myself is a delicious pleasure. I definitely know what I like and am more than happy to lavish myself with orgasms. But I do miss touching, kissing, and hugging another person—especially since there is so little space for such activities outside of romantic relationships.

Owning this desire has been a journey. Putting yourself out there can be scary. And with so much foolishness in the world, it can be perversely easier to pour yourself into activism or scholarship rather than working up the nerve to holler at a cutie—or maybe it’s just me?

Don’t front. I’m not the only one

The fact is, however unfeminist it may sound, after this epic dry spell, I definitely have trouble thinking of myself as someone that other people might find sexy. But, then again, I had trouble with that ish before. And, as I’ve been told time and time again, the energy you put out there is what attracts people. So, I have to feel to sexy to attract others? But feeling attractive to others makes me feel sexy. Color me confused.

Then again, I have noticed that folks who I might find busted and disgusted and that ooze negative energy, but who fit particular aspects of the beauty spectrum—thin, able-bodied, cisgender, for example—don’t necessarily have trouble getting their mack on. I’m not saying all thin, able-bodied cis folks are just fucking with reckless abandon, but I am saying that some shit matters more than others—even in so-called progressive queer spaces. Take it from someone who puts the “B” in LGBTQIA.

Still, I’m trying to make an earnest effort in pursuit of some good loving. What I do know that you have to do more than talk about it, you gotta be about it. So, excuse me while I clear out the tumbleweeds.

Have you experienced an epic (or not so epic) dry spell? What’s been your post-dry spell experience? How have you gotten back in the saddle?