Radical harm reduction: An exhibition will showcase Philly’s Black and brown communities

This weekend, Philly organizers are asking you to dream.

What does it look like to be really free? What does safety look like, particularly for street economy communities such as sex workers or the unhoused? How can we reduce harm? How can communities work together?

Organizers will be asking all this and more at Rosine 2.0, an exhibition of installations and workshops that will be exploring topics such as environmental justice, radical harm reduction, and Black and brown histories. At the end of Saturday’s event, to be hosted at Icebox Project Space, the goal is for participants to walk away filled with a sense of community care.

“The project was really meant to highlight Philly organizers organizing around mutual aid,” said Zissel Aronow, project manager of Rosine 2.0. “Each of the projects … approach collective healing and harm reduction in different ways.”

One of the workshops will be a healing circle led by a Black herbalist who will teach participants about herbalism as a form of care. Another installation will consist of audio portraits of community organizers discussing their work, what heals them, and what Philadelphia has taught them.

“Many of the interviews were done outside, so you also hear Philadelphia come through — jackhammers from gentrification happening, children yelling in the street, horns honking,” said Yema Rosado, community liaison for Rosine 2.0.

Telling the stories of Philly’s different communities is what many installations are rooted in. For example, a youth-focused installation will be playlists and visual art curated by children, intended to be an archive of Black and brown Philadelphians.

The exhibition will also offer plenty of resources for community members. Black professional photographers will be there to take free pictures for folks, whether it be family portraits, headshots, or business product pictures.

“They are ultimately compiling an archive of Black people in joyful moments with their families, feeling good, and giving them access to something that is seen as a luxury that really shouldn’t be,” said Aronow.

There will also be informational resources, such as a printed zine highlighting stories of women and nonbinary people who are sex workers and who meet weekly in Kensington as a support group.

“So much of what comes out of Kensington specifically is centered around … trauma porn,” Aronow said of media depictions of the neighborhood. “This was very much by that group, for that group. It’s just a moment to read the stories of these people from their own perspective, and it not be reading a news article that’s just telling you how depraved everyone is.”

Activism is another pillar of the exhibition, with groups such as Homies Helping Homies, Circle Keepers, Iglesias Gardens, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-PA) participating. Decolonize Philly will be leading workshops about housing and environmental justice, and Indigenous land in Philly.

The ultimate purpose of bringing all these groups together is to show how interconnected the various issues are — economic justice, environmental justice, protecting sex workers, and more — and how important intersectional support is to achieve the dream future.

“It’s so reassuring to be put in a room with folks who are doing the work, but in different ways. It’s a reminder that we’re all backing each other up,” said Rosado. “Just having fun and being joyful together, [we’re] reminding each other that this work is really hard … but we’re all supporting each other.”

This event, at 1400 N. American St, Philadelphia, is free. RSVP here.