Towards Bodily Autonomy: A Healing Justice Anthology Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use

by Justice Rivera (Editor), Amira Barakat Al-Baladi (Contributor), Adiel Suarez-Murias (Contributor)

From erotic labor, to the rights of people who use psychoactive substances, to reproductive health, and carcerality - we are living through a political moment when debates about bodily autonomy are at a fever pitch. Towards Bodily Autonomy: A Healing Justice Anthology Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use is a bold and timely collection that confronts these charged issues at the intersection of social justice and public health. It reveals the histories behind the United State’s ideological wars and illustrates their costs to all of us. It is a primer on healing-centered harm reduction which presents a visionary framework and set of practical strategies to advance unity and care while working to transform conditions for communities that bear the brunt of interpersonal and systemic violence, overdose deaths, and health inequities.
In the words of leading advocates, service providers, and scholars whose lives and communities have been harmed by American neo-colonial policies, Towards Bodily Autonomy offers promising, healing-centered interventions that represent a critical culture shift. This collection features trusted voices on health and social policy reform including Kate D’Adamo, Justice Rivera, Ismail Ali, Paula Kahn, and Sasanka Jinadasa, as well as respected healers like Richael Faithful, Amira Barakat Al-Baladi, and Mona Knotte.

The articles, interviews, worksheets, and poems within are an offering to expand our collective understanding of survival, healing, and embodied freedom. Towards Bodily Autonomy is a must read for anyone with a compassionate worldview, people seeking to know more about underground economies, and those who know that punishment doesn’t lead to security. It is a liberatory design and a prayer for what’s possible.

Genres: Social Justice, Sex Work

338 pages, Paperback

Published January 5, 2023

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, powerful, informative and absolutely necessary. This books is a must read for anyone doing the work of transformative justice, or those who wish to break down stigma around erotic labor and/or traditional medicines. Editor and author Justice Rivera is a powerful voice for our generation. She has collected essays from other leaders and healers in the field, who understand the personal as political and the political as personal. Recommended for anyone in fields outside capitalist and patriarchal norms. I cannot wait to read more from these thought leaders, especially Rivera’s upcoming memoir.

[Ezekiel Oleander · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful part of my healing journey, to say the least. I gave it to some people from case management to keep in their library as a gift to share with others they help. :)