The Fire to Create the World Anew

By Kali Handelman, Laura McTighe & Deon Haywood

4/2/24

The Revealer

In a way, I grew up with WWAV, distributing condoms and sterile needles through street-based outreach with my family and holding house parties where we’d talk about safer sex practices and harm reduction around substance use. After Hurricane Katrina, I stepped into the role of Executive Director. Our people were hurting. The forces of white supremacy used the storm as an opportunity to permanently banish Black New Orleanians from what is the most African city in this country, a place that is sacred and is the cultural capital of Black America. And it was the folks that we work with—Black women, poor folks, sex workers, substance users, and queer folks—who were most at risk for displacement, criminalization, and death following the storm.

Our work post-Katrina grew in response to our community’s needs. When our clients came into our offices bearing licenses branded with “SEX OFFENDER” after being charged under the state’s Crime Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS) statute, we organized alongside them to put an end to the policy that turned survival sex work into a scarlett letter that barred women from taking their children to school, limited their housing options, and further prevented their entry into the formal economy. As our elected officials took aim at our community’s right to determine when or if to have children, we built out our reproductive justice program. And just as our foremothers nurtured me and instilled Black feminist learnings, we knew that we needed to nurture the next generation of Black feminists, and so we started our Young Women With A Vision program. Today Women With A Vision’s work includes integrated voter engagement, harm reduction and drug policy, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, reproductive justice, sex work decriminalization, and youth education and advocacy.

Read more at The Revealer