National Harm Reduction Coalition

06.19.1865

Juneteenth
a celebration and collective scream with the movement we work for.

Friend,

This year, we're a little wiser, a little more weary, and getting braver and more honest every day. We won't pretend that harm stopped on June 19, 1865 – Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. We feel it in our bones as we work toward a world that is more free, where we are empowered to face the harm we cause and heal from the harm we experience. 

Here at NHRC, we're thinking hard about what it means for 2021 to mark 50 years of the drug war, and how intersecting oppressions continue to harm our people. We're reflecting and strategizing for the movement marathons ahead. Our office is closed the week of June 14th-19th in observance of Juneteenth, and when we get back, we'll be digging in to a summer-long series of events, panels, discussions unpacking 50 years of oppressive drug policy and where we go from here. 

We have so much to celebrate, however. The lessons we've learned about how to hold each other better and how to support out loud will be with us as we march forward. The knowledge that our anger is righteous as we let our screams come when we feel them. The knowledge that when the time is right, we will hold each other again.

With hope,
Monique Tula

P.S. We know you'll be missing our usual Our Movement in Motion Newsletter during our office closure. Don't worry, we included some whispers from the internet below for you to scroll through until we're back!

Links to Click!

+ This Tweet thread detailing Black creators to check out and celebrate during Juneteenth and beyond! [link removed]

+ Scan through this list of books to celebrate Juneteenth with New York Public Library and add one to your summer reading list!
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+Check out the Stigma of Addiction Summit on June 10th featuring several NHRC team members, if you miss it, save the link; the recording should be available in about a week!
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+Revisit this Op-ed on pleasure, freedom, drugs, and Juneteenth
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+Watch these documentaries about race in America while you reflect leading up to Juneteenth.
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+Take a FREE course by psychedelic.support on Riding the Wave: Principles of Psychedelic Harm Reduction
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+Register or submit an abstract for the Southern Harm Reduction Conference 2021!
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Check out this Juneteenth educators tool from Learning for Justice and add Juneteenth to your next learning plan. 
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A picture of Dr Orisha Bowers in a square patterned shirt. She is smiling and her photo has a yellow gradient filter on it.

As I was thinking about Juneteenth and why specifically it is an imperative moment to commemorate I thought about a quote my dad sent to me (from this article) that I saved in an old cell phone and later printed out to share with my children about Juneteenth. It reads as follows:


"Ironically, while Juneteenth has become the most prominent Emancipation Day holiday in the US, it commemorates a smaller moment that remains relatively obscure. It doesn’t mark the signing of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, which technically freed slaves in the rebelling Confederate states, nor does it commemorate the December 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment, which enshrined the end of slavery into the Constitution. Instead, it marks the moment when emancipation finally reached those in the deepest parts of the former Confederacy. In many ways, Juneteenth represents how freedom and justice in the US has always been delayed for black people."


For me, we the people have to bear in mind that the wheels of change often do turn at a snail's pace and we are quite often the last on the list to feel the freedom we so desperately desire in our own life.

-Dr. Orisha Bowers
Regional Director of HepConnect



National Harm Reduction Coalition
243 Fifth Avenue
Box 529
New York, NY 10016
United States
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