Speaker Series: We Deserve Healing Not Harm
Building a Community Response to the Criminalization of Gender-Based Violence Survivors
We Deserve Healing Not Harm is a speaker series focused on the ongoing widespread criminalization and punishment of survivors of gender-based violence.
This series is an opportunity to unpack, explore paths for change and generate collective action. Through speakers, panels, resource sharing, and calls to action we will explore ways to recognize and challenge the intersecting systems that target and harm survivors.
Join Consent Comes First (Toronto Metropolitan University), Consent is Golden (Laurier), and Sexual Assault Support Centre (Carleton University) as we work towards systems that heal rather than harm.
Upcoming Events
We Can Get Better At This: A Conversation on Community Accountability and Building Our Collective Response to Sexual Harm
November 28th, 1:00PM-2:30PM EST | Virtual, Zoom | Register Here
Join Abolition X Podcast Hosts Richie Reseda and Indigo Mateo in Conversation with Community Justice Initiatives Julian as they explore conversations about sexual harm, accountability, toxic masculinity, and our collective ability to grow more skills and pathways to respond to the needs of survivors.
This event is organized by Consent Comes First (Toronto Metropolitan University), Consent is Golden, Wilfrid Laurier University, Carleton University Sexual Assault Support Centre, and Community Justice Initiatives as we work towards systems that heal rather than harm.
About the panelists:
Richie Reseda
Freed from prison in 2018, richie reseda (he/him) is an abolitionist entrepreneur, creative director, and music, film, and content producer. He founded Question Culture during his seven years in prison and currently works as a Co-CEO. He is the creative director of the For Everyone Collective, a worker-owned fashion collective of formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones that partners with Question Culture. He co-created and co-hosted the Spotify Original podcast Abolition X with Indigo Mateo and Vic Mensa. He co-executive produced, and produced songs on Defund The Sheriff (The Album) to uplift transformative ballot initiatives in Los Angeles during the 2020 election. In prison he also launched Success Stories Program, the feminist program for incarcerated men chronicled in the CNN documentary, "The Feminist on Cell Block Y," and Initiate Justice, which organizes people directly impacted by incarceration to change criminal justice laws. One of the laws he worked on, Prop 57., freed him from prison two years early.
Indigo Mateo
Jersey native, Indigo Mateo (she/her) is a singer, songwriter, survivor, and culture worker who creates art to heal and transform. She is a co-owner of the social impact record label, Question Culture and founder of Soul Showers, a space for those who've experienced sexual violence to cleanse shame and 'heal in the sun.' Indigo released her sophomore album, ‘Singleplayer’ on September 30th 2021. She is a cohost of Question Culture’s Spotify original podcast, Abolition X, with Vic Mensa and richie reseda.
Julian McCants-Turner
Julian McCants-Turner(he\him): is dedicated to fostering equity using revolutionary and holistic approaches that amplify the voices of marginalized people. As a Revive Services Coordinator at Community Justice Initiatives (CJI), he works to end sexual violence in ways that support long-term transformation and address the root causes of sexual harm, unlike incarceration. Julian also enjoys supporting CJI’s Stride Program, which offers re-entry and programming support with women who are incarcerated. Julian earned his MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Eastern Mennonite University with a primary focus in counseling, and secondary specializations in social justice leadership and theology. He finds peace and amazement in jazz, reading, and discussions about changing the world.
Topics
Topics for 2022/23 include:
- Who Gets Protected and Who Gets Dismissed
- Criminalization of Sexual Assault Survivors
- Discrimination, Violence and Healing Within Marginalized Communities.
- Stories Spark Change Keynote - TBA
Past Events
Check back for more speaker series events.
Jan. 23, 2023 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. | Virtual
Join internationally renowned writer, activist, musician, and facilitator adrienne maree brown for an in-depth conversation on joy, pleasure, and healing. This virtual event will feature student poetry and artwork, and the conversation will be moderated by Keneisha Charles.
adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author/editor of seven published texts and the founder of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, where she is now the writer-in-residence.
We are also looking for Black, Indigenous and racialized undergraduate and graduate students to submit artwork and/or poetry for this event. Selected artists will be paid an honorarium. We are looking for art submissions to focus on healing, care, and joy or specifically inspired by adrienne maree brown’s work. The deadline for all submissions is Monday January 16th, learn more and apply via the link in the bio.
Stories Spark Change is part of Consent Action Week, an educational initiative held during the last week of January at universities across Ontario. The week is an opportunity for campus communities to create a dialogue about consent, pleasure, relationships and increase understanding of sexual violence. It's also an opportunity to raise awareness of both on and off-campus services. The Ontario University Sexual Violence Network created Consent Action Week.
Stories Spark Change is being organized by: Toronto Metropolitain University, Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, Carleton University, University of Guelph, Western University, York University, and Queen's University.
Oct. 25, 2022 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. | Virtual, Zoom | Register for the event.
Survivors of sexual assault incarcerated, sued, harassed and vilified when they should be supported. This expert panel will explore how sexual assault survivors are often subjected to criminalization. Join expert Dr. Mandi Gray, Tracy Booth and Kharoll-Ann Souffrant to explore the impacts of these unjust laws, strategies for change, and areas for action.
From left to right: Tracy Booth, Kharoll-Ann Souffrant and Mandi Gray.