Staying connected while we change

Staying connected while we change

Cara Page, Anjali Taneja and Susan Raffo

Deepest Gratitude to Our Community As HHP Shifts, Expands and Grows

Eleven years ago, the three of us came together to study, learn, research and dream across spheres and practices of medicine, healing and justice to vision new formations of collective care and safety.  We have worked together and independent of each other in our commitment to social justice, change and abolition. 

As you know, all of our lives have shifted in response to COVID-19 and the Uprisings. Anjali’s work as the Executive Director of Casa de Salud, an innovative integrative primary care clinic and advocacy center – integrating traditional healing, healthcare, workforce development, harm reduction, and community organizing – has grown significantly during the pandemic. Casa de Salud continues to gain more national attention as it continues to serve as an anti-racist, creative model of community-based healing and healthcare that works to build power with community.

The pandemic has also prompted a need to revive CureThis, an online network that existed from 2007-2013 to connect health workers and healers and community members around surviving, thriving, and transforming the medical industrial complex in their settings. Because of these pulls towards Casa de Salud’s growth and towards the redevelopment of CureThis, Anjali has decided she needs to shift off of the growing Healing Histories Project, while incredibly excited about its growth and success and next steps.

We want to lift up the work and legacy of Anjali as part of our trio as she charts her path to build new models of care – and build networks to connect folks around the country doing the same. She has brought so much innovation, wit, digital savvy and a medicinal/healer mind and deep political practice to our partnership and this work with us. We will truly miss her even as we are thrilled about where she is heading and the path that is unfolding her work and vision.

We know our work will always intertwine and Anjali’s work will continue to inform and shape the Healing Histories Project. If you don’t already follow the work of Casa de Salud, please do so (web/fb/twitter/instagram). If you want to hear more from Anjali on her work, check out her website, connect with her on twitter or instagram, check out her interview on the How to Survive the End of the World podcast, and her book chapter about transforming opioid addictions care in New Mexico through autonomy, civic engagement, and integrative healing. If you’re interested in learning more about the CureThis network in development, please also check out CureThis’s twitter account and sign up for updates at the email there.

We will forever be the trio that built the Healing Histories Project. With this change, Cara and Susan are expanding the team as the three of us have always hoped to do. We are excited to welcome two new people to the team to help us deepen and widen the breadth of this critical work. 

We welcome Luce Capco Lincoln as our Communications Strategist to help us share stories of the Medical Industrial Complex and to help us build (and release) our full 500+ years of timeline history.

Photo credit: Marin Watts

Currently located on lenapehoking, Luce is excited to bring his many years of experience as a cultural worker, filmmaker, political educator and media nerd to Healing Histories Project. Most recently, Luce spent 8 years at Global Action Project working to create social justice films and popular education curriculum to uplift and organize trans, non-binary, queer, immigrant youth and young adults. When not thinking about timelines as a movement tool, Luce collaborates with BIPOC artists to create work that highlights intersectional solidarity, community resilience and a liberated future for all.

We also welcome tae min suh to help us clean and categorize the timeline’s data.

tae min suh is excited to be working with the HHP and digging into its data! They are on lenapehoking and organize within queer/trans communities and with various anti-violence projects. They are building out their community safety/self defense practices which increasingly includes their grappling with the medical industrial complex.We have learned so much over the last year about the kinds of technology and stories needed to hold the amount of data we have gathered in a timeline format. With Luce and tae min on board, we’ll be releasing ongoing updates as we grow closer to the completion of the timeline. 

With gratitude, 

Cara and Susan