Death Panel Teaser - Liberatory Harm Reduction w/ Shira Hassan
Oct 27, 2025
Shira Hassan, organizer blending transformative justice, harm reduction, and collective liberation, and editor of Saving Our Own Lives. She talks about reclaiming harm reduction from public health. She explores centering marginalized care architects and defining liberatory practices. She connects harm reduction to abolition and describes community strategies that keep people safe outside carceral systems.
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Harm Reduction As A Community Liberation Practice
- Harm reduction is a liberatory, community-designed practice distinct from public health models.
- Shira Hassan explains it was led by sex workers, trans people, drug users, and disabled folks as a survival strategy, not a service model.
Keeping The Book Hidden During Anxiety
- Shira describes her anxiety while writing and how she avoided rereading the book for months.
- She kept the book on a hidden shelf and only recently revisited parts when preparing for events and podcasts.
Recenter Creators In Harm Reduction Narratives
- Recenter authorship and leadership in harm reduction to the communities who created it.
- Shira asked contributors to write and reclaimed voice for BIPOC, trans, sex worker, and drug-using organizers as architects of the practice.
