Better What-we-need-to-be-well

In this panel discussion, local contributors will discuss the impacts of the toxic drug supply, criminalization, and stigma across varied contexts in the GTHA: Brianna Olson-Pitawanakwat of Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction describes her experience working in parks and shelters; Rhiannon Carruthers shares their expertise working on safer drug use and partying with students and youth; and Carlyn Zwarenstein discusses the personal and political stakes of the overdose crisis and its connections to the proliferation of prescription opioids. Moderated by writer and educator Erica Cardwell.

Snacks and refreshments will be provided at 5pm.

Accessibility: Jackman Humanities Building is a physically accessible venue. Accessible single-gender washrooms are available on the first floor.

Contributors

Erica N. Cardwell is a writer, art critic, and educator based in Toronto. She is the recipient of a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for her book, Wrong is Not My Name; Notes on Black Art (Feminist Press, 2024). Her writing has appeared in ARTS.BLACK, Art in America, Frieze, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, C Magazine, The Kenyon Review, and other publications. Erica is currently Manuscript co-editor of Radical Teacher Journal and is a member of the International Art Critics Association. She has written exhibition and catalogue essays for artists such as Crystal Z. Campbell, Rico Gatson, Samantha Box, Chitra Ganesh, and Sandra Brewster. Erica is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

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Rhiannon Carruthers is a graduate of Interactive Digital Media at University of Toronto. They began volunteering with the Toronto Raver Information Project (TRIP) in 2015 and worked as a youth harm reduction worker in Toronto's nightlife community, attending events and giving out free harm reduction supplies and information. They served as an elected board member for Canadian Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) for two years, advocating for drug policy reform. Their interests include youth advocacy, drug education, harm reduction, and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, MDMA, and ketamine. They currently work in the field of conservation and outdoor education, as well as part-time as a Sherbourne Health Ambassador.

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Brianna Olson-Pitawanakwat is an Anishinaabek Birthworker, jingle dress dancer, artisan, activist and member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded First Nation. She specializes in Indigenous led trauma formed approaches and arts based practice after nineteen years in the field. She is co-founder of Native Arts Society, an Indiqueer/Two-spirit-led gallery and studio in Toronto. She also co-leads Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction, a grassroots initiative that began during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to provide ongoing critical support to date.

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Carlyn Zwarenstein is a Toronto-based writer. On Opium: Pain, Pleasure, and Other Matters of Substance was published in print in Canada by Goose Lane Editions (2021) and as an audiobook worldwide by ECW Press (2022). On Opium looks at the toxic drug crisis; chronic pain; opioids; capitalism & solidarity; loneliness & loss; dependence; drug user activism; and what we all need to be well. Opium Eater: The New Confessions (2016) is a shorter memoir about pain and opioid painkillers. It was a Globe & Mail Best Book of 2016 and has been taught on various undergraduate and graduate courses since 2017. Carlyn currently writes Live More Lives, a newsletter about fiction and experience; freelances features, essays and opinion articles about drug policy, environment, literature, and social issues; and is working on her first books without “opium” in the title. She studied biology and political science at the University of Toronto, graduating in 2001.

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Contributors

Better: What We Need to Be Well