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Tacticool: at the same time, I understand why people want to ban guns. My own dad is anti-gun and I don't blame him one bit for feeling this way.  My family is from Afghanistan, and he has personally seen what guns do, and what war has done to his homeland, and that informs his stigma and view around guns. At the same time he respects my choice and right to arm myself and use guns.Demanding Defense
This is Tacticool GF. She is best known for creating self-defense educational content on YouTube.Tacticool: I'm outwardly queer, I'm vocal about it. I'm a lesbian, I'm a transwoman. I’m not shy about that stuff, I don’t make my channel very much about who I am, per se, but that said... I sneak it here and there- I have a [...] patch on my guns, I talk about issues regarding queer people in general, especially armed queer people./Since the election, Tacticool has seen a surge in engagement with her content.Tacticool: I've also seen a huge-huge increase in interest in my channel and its outlets, social media outlets. There's been a huge resurgence there. There’s been a lot of new people who’ve turned on me. A lot of new hires and prospective gun owners.And it’s not only her. Across the nation, there are a variety of self-defense organizations that center marginalized identities. Many of them have seen an increase in demand for education as well.Blake: the demand has grown about 1800%, every class that I've scheduled post-election has immediately filled up within the hour...Today, Tacticool GF will examine how firearms are an important- and limited -aspect of defense for marginalized communities. She will be joined by two collectives that also focus on communal defense, The Forward Initiative and Yellow Peril Tactical. As the world is again becoming more volatile, what does it take to keep us safe?Popular Pick
Blake: when it comes to teaching de-escalation vs. guns, well... Guns are easier. They’re a tool people know, they’re a trump card, they’re an option that, at the end of the day, if people had to use deadly force, a firearm gives them that option. De-escalation does not work against an angry mob, when someone has firmly decided to do you harm.This is Blake Alvarenga, founder of The Forward Initiative, a nonprofit in Madison, WI that offers free and inclusive firearm education.Blake: people really need this education, if we don’t provide it to them, they won’t get it somewhere else. And, they can and will be gun owners, if not today, then soon.The post-election surge has challenged The Forward Initiative, but for Blake, meeting the demand for education is a matter of communal safety.Blake: I got an email from a young woman.  She said, "there’s no class availability, i’ll just go ahead and buy a gun and wait until there’s a class available". And that breaks my heart.As more people turn to a lethal self-defense tool in the US, it is important to ensure that they are provided appropriate education. In the context of historically oppressed communities, what does that education look like?Missing the Mainstream
Yoshiko: firearms definitely pose an imminent risk of turning into a talisman that wards off evil and harm. That’s the thing that starts to seep in and kind of lull people into a false sense of security. This isn’t often talked about, but it needs to be, because the way that people relate to their firearms once they get minimally comfortable around them, there’s a potential for it to get very cavalier and unsafe…This is Yoshiko from Yellow Peril Tactical, a collective of “E/SE Asians doing firearm education, celebrating history, & uplifting struggles across Asia & the diaspora”.Yoshiko: Firearms are an undoable, final, last resort component of community defense.To Yoshiko, guns are a tool requiring utmost responsibility- but that’s not the case for everyone.Yoshiko: I’m not going to defend the gun/firearm community at large, because they haven’t earned it. There’s a lot of irresponsible touting, carrying, and content making out there.Tacticool: I think that most firearm owners don't do themselves justice as being good firearm owners, so I want to add a more sobering voice to the firearm conversation.Mainstream gun culture in the US tends to center the average gun owner- a conservative-leaning white man -ignoring the lived realities of marginalized individuals.Yoshiko: I had been coming across many asian, asian-american, pretty narrowly defined as mainly east-asian gun groups, but they were pretty conservative-libertarian or apolitical, which winds up being pretty conservative. None of it was intended for me, very obviously.  It was mostly for asian men who are considered bread-winners in their nuclear family.For multiply-marginalized individuals like Yoshiko, finding a community that provides firearm education relevant to their full self is even more challenging. But tonight’s guests all share the principle of tailoring education to their community.Connecting to Community
Blake: when it comes to educating the community about firearms, concealed carry, or use of force, you have to go beyond the minimum standards set aside by certified organizations. You need to give the practical context and what it means to have a firearm as a part of your daily lifestyle in your household, and on your person if you decide to conceal carry.The legal baseline of firearm education is rarely sufficient for those who are discriminated against by the same legal system.Blake: while the law should be applied fairly, it is rarely done so, right? When we talk about firearm ownership and how that changes depending on who you are... It’s a real thing and people should be considerate of it and understand how their lived experience and who they are impacts them as a gun owner.Focusing on how tools of defense function within the frameworks of different identities and lived contexts is what guides the educational content of The Forward Initiative, Tacticool Girlfriend, and Yellow Peril Tactical.Tacticool: for queer people being more at risk of suicide and mental health struggles in general, mixing with firearms can be very violatile, and that is just real... That’s a reality we need to take into account, especially as queer firearm owners. I definitely try to put out information about that, I have a video on firearm suicide prevention. I feel like that's a topic that a lot of people on YouTube, in the gun world, do not talk about. And that should be a thing for everyone to talk about, because suicide is the leading cause of gun deaths.While any experience of oppression increases the complexity of firearm education, certain intersections of marginalization may be incompatible with gun ownership.Tacticool: how the legal system interprets the law and how it applies to individuals, people of all sorts of marginal backgrounds tend to be stigmatized by the legal system. They tend to be targeted and judged and held to a different standard, than a lot of other people considered more mainstream. Especially when you are an immigrant, when you are at risk for deportation, that is stacking your own profile against yourself.But, firearms are not the only means of defending yourself.Alternatives to Arms
Tacticool: I absolutely hound on people to carry non-lethal means of self-defense no matter what, because that's always going to be more practical in your everyday activities than resorting to lethal means of self-defense, which are extremely niche in terms of legal justification in most situations of self-defense. And pepper spray is cheap, it's accessible, it's easier to train on and get effective with than anything else. Is it the answer for every self-defense scenario? No. But I think that anyone actually serious about self-defense needs to start with that.Blake: There are a lot of alternatives to using a firearm. We talk about it in depth at the Concealed Carry Licensing class which the Forward Initiative puts on for free. There are a lot of situations where you are de-escalating, or in the sense of, "someone is running off with your dog": well, you cannot shoot them. But you can use kung-fu! There are a lot of things that you can do outside of arming yourself with firearms, because that’s one of the most rare uses of force in self-defense. It gets a lot of attention, that's for sure! But a shove, a strong word, there’s a lot of things that happen a lot more often and are very effective.Whether guns or kung fu, application of any self-defense tool requires training.Blake: a lot of people have the assumption that if they have a pepper spray they can use it. I would really encourage people to pick up a trainer and see how well they can get out of their backpack/purse/keys and use it effectively.Regardless of whether or not someone chooses to become a gun owner, providing gun education in a country with more guns than people is essential. It is important to know how to safely approach a firearm, even if you do not plan to use it for self-defense- simply because they are so prevalent in the US.Blake: I'm asking them to give out guns or endorse gun ownership, but we need the opportunity to teach people… People can and do buy guns every day without any education, without anyone giving them the opportunity to be as safe and responsible as they can be.For those who are able and willing to become owners, education continues beyond the classroom- and needs to be tailored to their lived circumstances, too.Responsible Ownership
Yoshiko: having a mentality that is cultivated and not one that's based on fantasies that you brought in, or feelings that you're chasing, around “I want to be a protector because of the way that makes me feel and that’s how I want to derive worth from the world”. That’s a fine reason to start but there needs to be a broader sense of, "no, I’m just a regular person. Yes I'm willing to sacrifice a lot", and there is a lot to think about what you’re willing to risk/sacrifice.Owning firearms responsibly requires separation from the mainstream gun culture. Much of popular online content frames guns as fun rather than lethal- in part because platforms like YouTube profit more from entertainment than education.Tacticool: I do agree, I think that guns can be fun. I like to go to competitions, and while it is a… serious application of a serious tool and a serious skillset, that isolated event can be fun. Firearms are tools. They are definitely hardware that has no morality or value in of itself, it's the context that gives it all those properties. But that said, we live in a very volatile world where firearms do hold a place of violence in general, it is the contemporary means of violence for a lot of the violence you can account for on this planet. You can call it a tool, just like a hammer is a tool, but a hammer is not designed to kill people. A gun is designed for that purpose, anything else is secondary to that.Responsibility begins with an accurate understanding of the tool, and the recognition that a firearm impacts not just you, but the surrounding community.Yoshiko: being open to being checked and being called in by people around you is an important disposition to have around this type of thing. Yes, people have problems about how you relate to firearms, I would like to know about that.When guns are framed as fun and easy, responsibility becomes warped into something you can acquire.Yoshiko: you have to disabuse yourself of the idea that you get to a destination w/ firearm ownership. Responsibility gets touted as the big reason for carrying, but it’s more this ever-evolving thing that something different on a day-to-day basis. It really is just your ability to read situations and trust in your own judgement, that this decision is all about, to carry  on any given day. It is important to assess constantly, and even throughout the day, like "how is my keen-ness, my perception doing? Am I really tired, do I need a nap? Or am I feeling super heightened, am I finding myself feeling in danger and scanning for threats when I don't necessarily need to be?" That is a highly exhausting activity,  it is definitely a part of situational awareness and changing your situational awareness around firearms. It definitely affects your psyche, and there's a lot of neurological things, like you need to be able to regulate your emotions in all sorts of ways as well.Basing decisions on the ever-changing lived context is what establishes responsible ownership.Tacticool: it is this conundrum where you are simultaneously more at risk of having violence enacted upon you, whether that's immediate violence by a random person on the streets, or violence that is structural, like by the legal system. And at the same time you have to see if taking up arms for whatever reason will help address that without disproportionately putting you more at risk for persecution. And I cannot give you a blank answer and say, "If you're XYZ then do ABC", but you have to take inventory of all of these risks, you have to take inventory of your threat profile. You have to have it based in reality and not some fear in your head of what you imagine your scariest worst nightmare might be. And it really just needs to be weighed against those factors. And no one can do that for you but yourself because you know yourself better than anybody.Whether or not firearms are appropriate for a community’s defense strategy, it takes many other tools to keep us safe.Holistic Approach
Blake: if not your household, who is going to help you when a situation arises? A gun is not going to help you with the latter. Your neighbors are, and I really encourage people to go outside of their household and talk to the people they share a wall with, or a yard with.Focusing on guns as the solution to violence in our communities- whether by bringing them in or out -takes away from the many other systems and tools that impact our safety.Tacticool: at the same time, in context, you absolutely have to accept that gun violence is a problem, it is definitely a problem. So how do we not attack the symptoms but the actual root causes of violence that causes of violence that causes people to be violent in the first place. That is a way more interesting conversation than regulating the means that people are currently using, because if not guns it's going to be knives. Especially in the UK, that is a problem. And if it’s not knives then it's rocks and sticks- violence has always been a problem. I’m interested in conversations about how we mitigate violence, whether physical violence or structural violence, it all is tied together.Yoshiko: The more constituent parts, they are feeding your community, housing, class vulnerability. If you are poor and living anywhere in the context of the US, you are way, way more likely to experience violence. And it is not a sure thing if criminal justice is even going to get involved, but if it does, it's almost uniformly negative and messes your life up considerably. The things that mitigate against that and protect communities are, number one, housing, and being fed, having access to healthcare, education, free resources and mutually supportive resources. All of those things are way-way more important parts of self-defense.In order to resolve hunger, homelessness, and other symptoms of poverty on a level beyond personal, communities need to foster a dedication to responsibility.Yoshiko: "what are your commitments", it raises that question for me, like what is your commitment to your community? Because, there is no one person single-handedly saving their community from falling into poverty. This isn't with the idea that there are people saving their community single-handedly, because that's not how mutual aid and community defense work. Everyone has a responsibility to each other and does their best to uphold that.Like with firearm ownership, upholding communal responsibility requires strong communication networks that help us accommodate each other’s living conditions.Blake: if you had to talk with people in your neighborhood or community, could you do it without social media? Could you do it without having NextDoor or a Facebook group or Reddit? Having those social connections is the key point that people need to t

Dmytro: And... Oh, there's a drone attack outside, I'm sorry! Yes, there's a drone flying somewhere, I just hear it... Okay! So nevertheless, where was I?Intro Music by Oleg Andres.Dmytro: collective west has failed to provide adequate support.The war has stretched for over 1000 days, and there’s still no end in sight.Dmytro: We are given very small amounts of support. We actually need 100%, and we receive 20, 30, maybe 40% sometimes. But it's not enough. All the time, it’s not enough.This is Dmytro Mrachnik, a prolific writer and tattoo artist. He has been involved in the Russo-Ukrainian war since 2022. Today, Dmytro and Oleg, another frontline fighter, will provide unique insights into the war as activists, writers, and artists. They will be joined by Ksenya, who provides them- and hundreds of other fighters, civilians, and animals -with crucial survival resources through a volunteer network called “Solidarity Collectives”. Uniting people across socio-political differences that many in the US would find deal-breaking, Solidarity Collectives is working towards a free and just society amidst war.Popular Front
Ksenya: my priority from the beginning was to save my friends, my comrades in arms, who decided to participate in this struggle, decided to resist, sacrifice their lives, health, in this very horrific war. I wanted to do as much as I could to make them survive, to make them pass through this. I wanted to be with them.This is Ksenya, a long-standing volunteer of Solidarity Collectives. To her, Solidarity Collectives is all about creating community through action- by providing crucial aid to those on the frontlines.Dmytro: our volunteer associations like SC are very helpful while dealing with these problems. Our friends are showing support to tens, or maybe even hundreds of soldiers. This is actually warming your heart and making you feel like you are not forgotten by your friends.Initiated by a group of Ukrainian anarchists, Solidarity Collectives has grown into a community of diverse political convictions, from punk-rockers to trade unionists.Dmytro: I considered myself an anarchist, but the practice of real life war makes all this look like a lifestyle action: it’s not as helpful as political action. Nowadays, I don’t even think that discussions of anarchism or ideology like that. I don’t think it’s [relevant].Despite their differences, all members of the collective face a common enemy, “colonial imperial politics, according to which the world order is determined by whoever has more weapons and fossil deposits”. With a full-scale war ongoing, all members of the collective also share a strategy: resisting Russia’s imperial onslaught of Ukraine.Ksenya: I find this solidarity network very useful, make this sort of leftist, activist, comrades, people to who I feel respect… to make them survive.To Ksenya, the best way to support those most directly involved in resistance is by building a community rooted in solidarity.Ksenya: our work is to give the face to this war, make this people hear human voices, anarchist voices, from the deepest, bloodiest corners of this war.On the broader scale, the efforts of Solidarity Collectives are minuscule- they’ve fundraised over $200,000 during 2023, while just one day of war costs Ukraine around one hundred million dollars. But the grand impact of their work is not material.Ksenya: we were seeing ourselves as collective that after helping soldiers, and after war ends, we start help rebuilding of Ukraine society and building new practices and values. We are already start doing this now, we are putting ourselves and helping people, co-operating with them. We want to invest in horizontal, egalitarian rebuilding of society. To put as much as sites of horizontality, political leftist values as we could.Culture work is at the heart of Solidarity Collectives- and being an international network, much of their efforts are directed to challenging global narratives.People’s War
Ksenya: it’s one of the main narratives of our organizations, that we try to spread: that’s people’s war, war of people for their freedom and their future. It’s very real people, very existential choice for each of people of the soldiers, of volunteers, to participate in the struggle of their lives.Mainstream western media prioritizes information most easily digestible for their audience, such as statements by political officials and data-driven reports. But the true narratives of this war are at the frontlines:Oleg: in the center of war, we understand exactly that this is not NATO fighting against russia. This is Ukrainians devoting their life for their motherland, not NATO or capitalism interests.This is Oleg. You’ve heard a song of his at the beginning of this episode.Oleg: I’m interested in music, creative writing… Ironically, I won a literary contest this war.To Solidarity Collectives, the distortion of their struggle into a fight of empires is not just a passive by-product of mass media storytelling, but an intentional process of western colonial structures.Ksenya: it’s a problem of colonial thought, colonial mind, authoritarian mind deeply rooted in our heads. They’re dehumanizing the local, small country, a bit powerless, with its own perspective of political growth, of future, not in ranks of big mastodons of empires, not seeing this country or society but seeing bigger forces, empires upon it, seeing it as puppet. It’s really colonial logic.Whether or not the efforts of Ukrainians are recognized, it is them who actually prevent Russia from eradicating the Ukrainian land and people.Catalyzing Action
Ksenya: when the full-scale invasion start… social solidarity of uniting people who never keep the arms in their hands… their specific networking and cooperation, Ukraine was able to stand against russia…Since the beginning of full-scale invasion, governments- of Ukraine and beyond -have been unable to fully meet the needs of those on the frontlines.Oleg: i call this process “raise from infantilism”. shortly before the war there was the belief that nothing will start, that everything will be fine… And everything was just destroyed by full-scale invasion.To Oleg, the full-scale war is a catalyst that forced Ukrainians to cease dependence on hierarchical structures. in order to stand against Russian conquest, Ukrainians learned to take on responsibility for each other.Oleg: all this process is devoted to this neglect of infantilism, and gaining a new experience in this age of war. Experience of solidarity and aid, this war teach us to make responsible decisions for our life, and life of our families and so on. All those events are devoted to gaining responsibilityExternal media often describes Ukrainians as puppets of NATO, but according to Solidarity Collectives, the war has only lessened people’s faith in the state:Ksenya: sometimes we have questions, because anarchists cooperating with army and army is state structure, “aren’t you thinking that you like state as it is?” No, obviously during the war you see even bigger hole between people and the state.The war has made explicit the corruption and incompetence of existing political systems: that in times of greatest need, they exploit rather than protect.Oleg: UN is outdated as a structure, all of this big politic is outdated… last few years presented us that some country… can just break international law, and no one will fight against it. nobody, but ukrainians.But not all Ukrainians chose to support each other, as exploitation is far more profitable than mutual aid.Ksenya: here, it’s very visible, the two groups of society, from one side volunteers activists soldiers who, really, on very basical grassroots level… find themselves in struggle, in help, in solidarity actions, but also you feel the division w/ power- state people, ministries, institution of police…After Russia retreated away from Kyiv and the frontline stabilized in the East, many Ukrainians chose to fabricate a sense of peace and normalcy instead of continuing mutual aid efforts.War Normalized
Ksenya: each city is quite different, and city of Kyiv is quite protected, full of life, full of parties, working restaurants, illusion of peace, illusion of working city. Except if you don’t want to open your eyes and look at the horrors on the east.For those distant from the consequences of occupation, it’s easy to look away. To Ksenya, withdrawal from the struggle is reflective of Ukrainian society’s broader tendencies.Ksenya: our society don’t have such big have bond to political solidarity actions, understanding political value of district meetings, assemblies, organizing in big anti-neoliberal actions.Three years into the full-scale war, Solidarity Collectives continues to expand their network and material support. but the broader society in Ukraine and beyond is withdrawing from the fight- and that has consequences on those who can’t or refuse to return to normal.Ksenya: I feel myself really tired, just during all this time in full scale invasion I didn’t really have time for some big holiday, rest. All war is pretty stressful, at some point you think, “this is enough, i can’t handle no more”, and then another things comes, another news. You’re worried about the lives of people, of your family, of comrades, of your city, this is all pretty terrific, terrific reality, and it is a bit exhausting. More people get tired, more war going on, this sort of depression. Hard times come, the more people start… More concentrated on survival.While Russia continues its conquest, Ukrainians grow more exhausted and isolated. as a result, they are forced to return to the state structures.Forced Back
Dmytro: I was trying to reach anarchists form western countries since 2014 and no matter how many people could I [reach], it doesn’t really affect almost anything: I can make more friends, and those friends in the future war will show some support. It’s pretty helpful but it does not make a big deal after all. If you’re not backed by the national state, you will not defeat the system.Having spent nearly three years fighting, Dmytro recognizes the limits of interpersonal networks in facing one of the world’s largest empires. He despises the state, but he cannot survive without its assistance.Dmytro: people just loose their previous priorities while understanding the real costs of defeat. We will be erased. that’s not because I like the state institution, its pretty disgusting i’m pretty sure most will agree… But, you have no other way to survive, to prosper and strive after all.While Solidarity Collectives is building towards an egalitarian society, they can’t reject the war- even if everything about it runs contrary to their beliefs.Dmytro: how can you fight one of the biggest military forces in the world while using a pistol or a shotgun? russia is huge, we can’t afford guerrilla warfare all over its territory. It would be even hard to manage guerrilla warfare in Ukraine. 20% of Ukraine’s territory was captured and we have some reports of guerrilla warfare, but they are not independent actors who can provide military operation by their own and achieve some success.Solidarity Collectives is unable to resist Russia by themselves. but they are fighting for their own sake rather than imperial interests.Ksenya: this war, this resistance now, based on human intentions a lot, like simple humans, not institution, not states. For sure, without super rockets, ATACMS, and Bradleys, this war would be lost… But still, on very basical level, because of support of people we’re able to cover a lot of urgent needs.To Dmytro, its not only Ukrainians who are forced to fight in this war.Dmytro: russian people are living in a pretty harsh condition, and so they have no time for the morale, for the philosophy. They are not even considering politics as some popular agenda.According to Nochlezhka, the largest homeless organization in Russia, 1 out of 5 Russians has experienced homelessness. With war contracts offering a way out of poverty and prison, joining the war likely goes beyond the moral principles of many Russians.Dmytro: russia is offering fantastic money for it. If the money flow stops, they would lose all interest in joining this war.Russia’s economy is far from collapse, as western sanctions are neither well enforced nor expansive enough. To Ksenya, lack of aid is not simply a byproduct of war fatigue- but a consequence of the global resurgence of imperial politics.Empires’ Interests
Ksenya: if look at all from global perspective on anti-authoritarian movement, it will be okay to say that it’s in deep crisis, crisis of ideas, practices, theories for nowadays.Imperial narratives are rising on the political right- and the left is failing to stand against them.Ksenya: now far right politics [are] getting higher… People from the deep crisis of this political reality find themselves useless in pacifist/antimilitarist statements, trying to look a bit more… In a situation of global dehumanization, rise of neoliberal politics… It’s obvious that it will affect the mind of the people.While more explicit in conservative politics, imperial narratives- and an unwillingness to support Ukraine -are also seen on the left.Oleg: I have to state that there is widespread opinion amongst western leftists that in Ukraine, NATO imperialism is fighting against russian imperialism…The right wants to cut all funding to Ukraine- but the left is not providing enough either. politicians may be framing their stance on Ukraine differently, but both of them share the end goal: freezing the conflict.Preserving Russia
Kinzer: Russia was going to have to accept to an enemy army w/ nuclear weapons right on its border!This is Stephen Kinzer, a Boston Globe columnist who has been calling the war “a proxy war provoked by NATO expansion”. Kinzer has repeatedly spoken at the “Ukraine: a Time for Peace” campaign in Massachussets, which aims to pressure U.S. politicians to stop supplying aid to Ukraine and instead initiate a ceasefire.Shannon: our hope is that… there are more and more people coming to the opinion that this war has to end and has to end now and that the way to do that is through pushing the idea of ceasefire and negotiations.This is Paul Shannon, the chair of the campaign. The “ceasefire” he calls for is formulated by the empirialist views of analysts like Stephen Kinzer. Paul Shannon’s campaign gives no voice to the people fighting for their survival, but is very concerned about preserving the imperial status quo.Kinzer has been featured by right-wing platforms, too, such as The Tulsi Gabbard Show. You may remember a bill titled the “Protect Women’s Sports Act”- it was introduced by Tulsi Gabbard.Gabbard: let’s exercise restraint, let’s pursue diplomacy, let’s not go and launch these wars that take many different forms, but ultimately undermine our national and economic interests.Two narratives on the war resonate with both left and right politicians: that the war in Ukraine is a war between empires- and therefore, the opinion of Ukrainian people can be ignored. Then, the war is also too costly to be continued. But costly for whom?Oleg: russian federation symbolizes all the evil i can imagine: all those cases of raping and killing of civillian people, all those cases made by russian army, since the first day of the war…The consequences of loosing the war will be deadly- and not just for Ukranians.Dmytro: if you will not help this state and its army, you will help another one state and its army, that have all the capability to not conquer the world, but to bring as much turmoil with very bad results… I promise, you will never want to face those results in real life. If russia succeeds, there would be the rise of dictatorship, right-wing populace all over the world, and the new diplomacy and the new world order would be blood for blood, cruelty for cruelty…

While these are horrific consequences for the Ukrainian people, oppression and conquest have long been strategies of empire states- whether those in office are left or right-leaning. Neither the ceasefire that conservative politicians are calling for, nor the insufficient aid from progressives is designed to hold Russia accountable. But, both strategies serve the fundamental interest of the imperial ecosystem: weaken the Russian empire, but prevent it from collapsing.Holding Back Ukraine
Dmytro: if russia collapses, that would be a disaster, a huge turmoil, and they will lose all predictions. When the conflict is not predictable, this sounds disastrous for western officialsEven three years into the full-scale war, Russia remains the 3rd largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world. Allowing Russia to occupy Ukraine will have consequences on human rights everywhere. but for imperial economies, standing up for the freedom of Ukrainians is much more life-threatening.Dmytro: they want to make russia stay as it is, maybe make it more or less humanized, but not falling apart or not collapsing. Maybe you remember when the henchmen rebellion started last year in Russia, when the henchmen of the Wagner group were marching from Rostov towards Moscow. It was a huge panic around Russia, and I can’t say that our western partners showed some kind of courage around that: “well we have nothing to do with this, we will just stay around and look how this all finishes…”Throughout the war, Ukraine has been held back from resisting adequately.Dmytro: I think we should simply assassinate all people involved in the politics of this war. If there are nobody who is interested in the conflict going on and escalating, the frontlines would freeze and collapse.To Dmytro, it is not nuclear escalation or high taxpayer cost that Western officials are concerned about- but Ukrainians pushing Russia into defeat.Dmytro: russians are hitting all over Ukraine with their missiles, and when we try to attack a target we are called escalators… We didn’t want this war. We got into it because russia simply invaded. Each time we have some success, it’s portrayed as escalation in the West: ‘oh my god, they killed a general in moscow! this will cause nuclear war, everyone will die.”As a result, Solidarity Collectives is fighting on two fronts at once- against Russian invaders, and against misinformative narratives from many western countries.Neither Ksenya, nor Oleg, nor Dmytro hold positive outlooks on the future of war- even if Ukraine will manage to return some of its territories in 2025.Ksenya: it’s pretty bad situation, and to be true, with after election of trump, some sort of illusions of some brightful future get erased. [We are] mostly preparing for some upcoming challenges now.Dmytro: If putin dies of old age it doesn’t matter, some other old guy can step in the kremlin and proceed and prolongate this war.Oleg: putin made this decision instead of Ukrainians, he didn’t ask what we want to do… putin thinks that Ukrainians don’t exist, putin thinks that Ukraine is not a country, that Ukraine is just some “error of history”… All of this is totally a lie.Regardless of the outcomes of this war, Solidarity Collectives will keep working towards a just society.Ksenya: our collective will stay where we are, and work in this situation and put our priority on the most needed things. If its justice, it its returning of territories, if it’s helping people who suffer from the war, if it’s rehab of soldiers, if it will be returning of military prisoners… We will work for this.

Kostya: I don’t think that w/out a reading club our collective would exist even.SAD operates in Odesa, Ukraine, providing mutual aid to unhoused folks in the city and building community every Saturday. While certain aspects of SAD (which stands for “garden” in Ukrainian) are specific to Ukraine, as it is operating under the conditions of war, their principle-based work can be applied anywhere. Today, we will be hearing from three of SAD’s members: Vira, Kostya, and David.Kostya: Before that, there were no leftist collectives in the city.This is Kostya. Kostya has been with SAD since inception- back when it was just a group of friends.Political Foundation
Kostya: the reading club was an opportunity to pull all the people together into the same room… At a certain point we reached the limit and we wanted to take it a step further, we read a lot of stuff and wanted to do things together… A certain group of people formed, like 5 or 6 people at that point, coming to meet and discuss the readings, and one of the meetings, after discussing one of the texts, we’ve decided to create a collective that would work w/ the homeless people.Unlike many larger organizations, SAD was not founded by a charity fund- it was simply a politically-oriented reading club that one day matured itself into direct action. SAD’s members describe the collective as a “group of people who have come together horizontally, have left, anarchic views and are engaged in political education for themselves.”SAD realized that here, specifically in Odesa, and probably in the world, the most oppressed category is the homeless, or more precisely, homeless women, or, more precisely, homeless women with disabilities, homeless LGBTQ+ people, and other multiply marginalized individuals.And so, they started working with the homeless.Horizontal Approach
This grassroots approach limits SAD in its ability to scale the work. But Kostya believes that the drawbacks of not having as much funding are outweighed by the depth of impact of SAD’s politically-instructed approach:Kostya: our collective would not exist without that principle of horizontal work. Yeah, it was kind of necessary for us to figure out how to work w/ each other in the most ethical way, and of course we don’t want to dominate each other or the people we are helping. We want to build the most non harmful way of working w/ each other, a kind of horizontalist approach.By horizontalist, Kostya is referring to a lack of hierarchy in the organization- something all members refer to as a cornerstone of SAD’s functioning. While SAD’s mission is not particularly unique: “to restore people's sense of dignity in the condition they are in”, SAD’s means to this end is what makes SAD so distinct from other homelessness support projects.David: because we didn’t do charity work but specifically trying to form this relationship that we have as a mutual aid thing. That’s the key point in this regard, mutual respect.This is David, another member of the collective.Communication
Both David and Kostya see relationship building, and, more specifically, communication, as the core principle of SAD. When at the weekly distributions, it’s hard to tell apart members of the collective from the individuals they are serving- the way people interact and talk to and about each other is more akin to a potluck setting than charity giving out donations. No lines, no IDs, no formality, no strict rules- and no chaos either. There is a sense of authentic warmth and genuine friendship at the distributions, and that appears to drive the way people distribute the resources amongst themselves. No one can be seen hoarding or fighting; friends know better.Kostya: social workers positioned themselves above the homeless people they were working with, our job was to teach them the right way of living, like we knew what’s better for them. There was a lot of punishment involved in the work, like punishing people for their bad behavior, whatever was considered bad behavior by the organization.Kostya has had 2 years of experience working with homeless people prior to SAD- but unlike SAD, the organization he worked in was not structured horizontally- and that negatively impacted the work Kostya was able to do.Kostya: of course it was a vertical organization, like an international NGO. The main man in London, it goes down to the social worker at the bottom. And that approach carries across to the work. In a lot of cases made the case worse for them, because they were depending on the help. That experience was a negative for me, working for 2 years as a social worker. Trying to figure out how to do things differently has been a part of our work.”Honesty
The intent to do things differently has taken SAD into multiple directions. One of them- a commitment to transparency:David: I mean, we are not silent about our political ways, and we often try to talk about it. We try to mitigate some things like racist remarks and racist violence that may arise, because sadly these things happen, especially to people of Romani descent. We are not silent about our beliefs, but the fact that we’re not cold and we’re trying to talk to them as equals and we actually do that…David states that this honesty has been integral in changing the culture amongst the communities that SAD is aiding:David: I sometimes have polished nails with some designs, and many of the people that I’ve talked to or gave out aid to, they were, at first, some homophobic joke, and then it changed into a curiosity, and even acceptance. Some of the newcomers say, “what’s up with the guy with the painted nails, is he gay”, and the older guy says, “no, stop saying it like that!”Community Building
While being intentional with structuring individual relationships, the collective also cares for creating a community beyond giving out socks every Saturday. under the principle of horizontal organization, SAD’s members are all free to bring in their own ideas into the broader work of mutual aid:Kostya: it was not intended when we started, it has kind of just happened because a lot of the people are artistic. We were trying to figure out how can we interact with houseless people and everyone kind of proposed, “I can do this, I can do that”. Seeing the talents of people, trying to figure out what they can do in our common work, figuring out what everyone can contribute, what each member can contribute, what each member can do, and just do that.With many in the collective being artistically minded, painting sessions also came up as a venue of validation for the folks experiencing homelessness- that they are not just homeless, but they are people, creators, artists.David: this is more about community building and collaboration. It’s really heart warming to see people asking “are we going to draw today”, and we hand out the papers, crayons, colored pencils, painting. Seeing some of the worlds they’ve made, some really out there and creative works with some cool designs, really passionate vision, with a lot of emotion hidden through that painting.And, art-making became a way to integrate all members of the community into supporting SAD. Not just those financially privileged.David: we’ve told them right away, “guys, you’re not going to receive another cigarette and cup of coffee, but you can also draw with us, it’s completely voluntary, all of this money that we will get from the drawing will be reinvested back into SAD”. People were actually big fans of us being honest with this project because we didn’t try to make it exploitative. Telling them upfront and earning a significant amount of resources to then give back to these people and handing them also t-shirts with the printed artworks, postcards. We’re thinking of turning this into other sorts of merchandise that we can sell online to give to this profit to further our org and give to artists who are making this work.While the art sessions bring in the funding that SAD needs- which you can see on SAD’s instagram ‘@street.aid.daily’ -there is a sense of bittersweetness in this community building process.David: On the other hand, that these talented and interesting and peculiar people are left on the streets, and are trying to survive, that there are maybe empty housings and a possibility for everyone to have a home these days, it’s really sad. That’s all that can be said about this line of war- it’s rewarding but we’re not trying to fix this issue.Not a Solution
SAD is keenly aware that they are a small organization tackling a systemic issue as old poverty- and this informs their mission, too:David: we are not contempt with just making handouts every week or so, because these things do not help with the homelessness as a systemic and institutional problem. Our job as activists is bringing this issue under the spotlight.Addressing homelessness at the structural level requires policy work- and SAD is aware of both their collective responsibilities, and the limitations of their reach. The main aim of SAD is culture work- changing how we understand and engage with the issue of homelessness.David: it’s good to see people of our age, like Zoomers and millennials , who are really interested in our project. It’s nice to see people doing some work and not writing posts on the internet.

homelessness and queerness
To SAD, it is not enough just to get people involved- properly supporting those unhoused requires an accurate understanding of why they end up on- and remain -on the streets.David: there are a lot of queer homeless people, and at the same time many of the homeless people are really, really homophobic. But that means many of the people who now are living on the streets of Odesa another Ukrainian towns, they are often victims of homophobic violence.SAD is passionate for reforming, rather than rejecting individuals whose beliefs may be contributing to their own housing insecurity. As a result, those with homophobic tendencies are not prohibited from SAD’s mobile distributions.David: they’re pretty much closed off about those sorts of things, but at the same time, it’s interesting. Seeing how we communicate with people like that because of their closeness with large reactionary groups, and them having a lot of… I would not say superstitions but biases. Some of them are really conservative leaning despite living on the streets.While meeting everyone where they are at, SAD cares for challenging those learned hierarchical beliefs- and treats every Saturday as an opportunity to alter how the homeless view themselves, and how they’re seen by the broader society. Whether that be normalizing men painting their nails or learning creativity (as opposed to obedience) through artmaking. The way SAD chooses what, and how to challenge are grounded in the collective’s political upbringing, which goes beyond their reading club. For Vira, the city government’s carceal solutions to homelessness have been long contributing to the problem.Vira: I’ve been a journalist for 15 years in Odesa, Ukraine. I was born in Odesa, it’s my homecity, with all its vices and disgusting things. Odesa used to be a city w/ so many homeless kids, before 2000. And then we had a program, and all these NGOs and everyone in the town were so happy that they conquered homelessness, kids no longer being in the streets, not caring for what is happening in the closed institutions. Odesa is also a city, there used to be three prisons and one detention center, in the center of the city. I was discovering about tortures there and in the police detentions center, that’s what I was doing as a journalist. And then I became interested in the problem of homelessness.SAD’s commitment to horizontal community building is a direct cultural opposite to the Odesa’s government’s push for putting the homeless in institutions. While prisons provide roof and bread, the social conditions which inmates are subjected to often destroy people’s abilities to form relationships- which increases their likelihood of ending up on the street, again.David: many of the people who technically are not homeless are a cat hair away from becoming homeless. And, queer people, as a marginalized group in Ukraine, are at a big risk of becoming homeless.Both homophobia and carceral culture increase social isolation, and housing security is often impacted by one’s access to social support systems. And this is exactly the problem that SAD is addressing- breaking the ‘prison to homelessness” pipeline by helping the homeless community form resilient, sustainable social networks. All of this started from a reading club- and not too long ago. SAD’s mutual aid initiative is about three years old, the same age as russian invasion of Ukraine. The proximity of SAD’s activist beginnings and the start of war are not coincidental- in fact, war has been a catalyst for SAD’s mutual aid initiative.Positive Impacts
Kostya: going into homelessness work started when the war started. We existed as a group before that, but our level of activity was pretty low. We definitely started to do more activity after the full-scale invasion.Active threat of oppression is a strong motivator towards collective action- war has pushed SAD to escalate their activity, and also moved the broader community to provide SAD with the support and resources necessary for mobile distributions.Kostya: before the war, many people were apolitical, doing their own thing. But after the war, it created the urgency of collective action, and a lot of people realized how important it is to work together to solve problems. So, many people realized how it’s important to work together to realize problems.While war spurred positive social changes, it has also made the lives of SAD’s members more dangerous, and the collective’s work- more challenging. Odesa is a port city crucial for Ukraine’s grain export and, of course, Russia attacks it on a nearly-daily basis with drones and missiles.War Proximity
Vira: Kostya lives very close to the seaport, where they usually hit and aim. He’s the person I fear for the most among my friends.For Vira and many other Ukranians, russia’s invasive violence has been ever-present for long before full-scale invasion, both materially and mentally.Vira: I’ve been thinking about the war since my childhood, we had some events in 2014 in Odesa, motivating potentially pro-russian people in Odesa by many things, not just money. I was feeling that this was approaching, but also I’m coming from a very pro-Ukranian family, it felt always like an opportunity and a threat, and I cannot imagine being free from this threat. This anxiety- social anxiety, and this rage for things happening unfair, will always stay with us.The long presence- or rather awareness - of the conflict has influenced SAD; even prior to the full-scale invasion, its members took efforts to learn self-defense.Kostya: the war started in 2014, and we also were thinking of learning those skills, not because of the possible invasion, but because of the far right violence in the streets. From the beginning we thought of the importance of self-defense. The war made it very urgent, development of those skills.While most of the collective chose to learn self defense in Odesa, one member is directly practicing resistance against the russian occupation at this very moment.Kostya: right at the start of the war one of the members enlisted in the UAF and is still a part of the army, still on the frontline, for almost three years now. We’re in constant communication with him, and whenever he has a vacation he comes back and works with us, continues to work with homeless peopleThe rest of the collective chose to prioritize work with the homeless first- but being prepared to physically resist the invaders from russia is important for them, too.Kostya: when the war started we, individually and as a collective, started undergoing different trainings, like in first aid. Two members of our collective have undergone more military training, it was like 5 days. Learning how to carry weapons, patrol areas, dig ditches. We started going to a martial arts collective, to develop our capacity for self-defense.Along with accelerating SAD’s capacity for direct resistance, the current war has exaggerated many issues that result in homelessness- mental and physical traumas and disabilities, poverty, and housing crises.Kostya: we started to talk about that fairly recently, maybe like 6 months, about the nature of the housing crisis in the country, what exactly is the problem. How the war connects to the housing crisis, how the war makes everything in the country worse. How the price of rent is increasing, how the people cannot afford it, or how because they have big families and nobody wants to rent them an apartment.Post-war Concerns
The war has caused great suffering and provoked development of collective action. While there is no doubt that suffering will remain for long after the war is over, SAD has concerns about the post-war resilience of social unity.Kostya: a lot of people are already exhausted and tired, and I feel like a lot of people would want to exhale when the war ends. But I feel like there a lot of work to be done after the war ends. There is the danger of neoliberal reforms taking over the country.The war may have mobilized people to support SAD- yet it already is pushing many to the opposite end.Kostya: a lot of people moved to the right, to the more conservative side of things. Not based on any research, just my feel of things. People who were on the left moved further left, people on the right- further to the right. Those in the middle follow the general mood, the general ideology that the government creates.The political polarization and the threat of conservative reforms are some of SAD’s biggest concerns for the post-war future. But what matters far more is the outcome of the war itself- which will determine, among other things, russia’s level of ideological influence over ukrainian people.Kostya: if this territory ever became a part of russia, the laws and the government’s attitude toward organizations like ours would be very strict. That would make our work impossible.The way russia operates, both as an expansionist empire and an aggressively authoritative state, is inherently incompatible with SAD’s principles and action. The threat of russian occupation is not a hypothetical projection for the collective. As the war is slipping away from the consciousness of their international allies, Ukrainians fighting for their land and people are literally running out of ammunition.Call For Action
David: excruciatingly small amounts of aid were being given, the problems that come with russia gaining a lot of ways to go around sanctions and continuing to produce their rockets and stuff. And the reaction of the international community being lackluster. This thing is really sad, especially for the last half a year, it is not going too well right now and we need much more aid and much more action from the international community.SAD has been strategic about the limited funding they are able to receive from individual donors- $150 covers an entire distribution, including clothing, medicine, and food, or can be used to provide one person with housing for over two weeks. Despite worsening conditions of war, SAD is determined to restore people's sense of dignity in the condition they are in.Kostya: continuing the work we are doing, furthering the work we are doing, fighting for free housing, for affordable housing, for policies like housing first. That’s what we can do as a collective for a better, freer future, a lot of other things. Depends on the whole society, global society.You can learn more about the work of SAD and its people through their instagram- again, it is @street.aid.daily. Their pinned post is a 20-minute documentary that captures the collective’s community building practices at mutual aid distributions.David: specifically for me, my activism in helping the homeless people comes from a place of solidarity with them. And me being queer is just a thing that helps me realize that I have the solidarity and that I am inclined to help them because of that.

Ava // I auditioned at multiple clubs and they either gave me the run around or told me to come back another day, or just flat out tell me they weren't hiring me. And it got to a point where I'm like, you know, “do I want to leave my city or do I want to create something in my city to where I can dance and also my friends can dance?”This is Ava Marie, founder of Black Skrippa Brigade, “a Chicago based collective of black, queer strippers & pole dancers committed to combating the current lack of local opportunities & community for black dancers.”Ava // The strip clubs in Chicago just simply do not want to hire certain black dancers. And even myself included, I created this organization specifically because I could not work at any of the clubs.Unwilling to accept the racist hiring practices of Chicago’s Sex Work Industry, Ava decided to make a space of her own.Queen // It was an idea that we came up with because we wanted to dance in some different pole stuff in Chicago. And there's a few different collectives throughout the city. And we felt as though there was nothing that was highlighting exactly what we were looking for. There was some that were like pole showcase-specific to the point where they didn't have any community offerings. It was just shows, just ticketing. We wanted to be able to have the shows and then still offer that community space and still offer the members, which are the dancers that are a part of the brigade, that membership opportunity to be able to hang out outside of the group.The industry treated Ava as disposable, but the city’s communities saw something precious in Black Skrippa Brigade.Ayanna // Every time I went, I wanted to come back for more. They make it a really safe space but also, everyone is welcome to the party, to the celebration, and everyone is here to celebrate no matter what it is.This is Ayanna, a regular attendee of Black Skrippa Brigade’s pole shows.Ayanna // Black Skrippa Brigade, it has a lot of representation, a lot of quiet things that are very important for us to see in the community. I mean, it’s in the name, like, having all Black strippers perform at these events, and having that kind of representation is incredibly important. Not just seeing Black women on pole, but being surrounded by Queer people and the LBGTQ community, that’s really important, and I think it does a lot for the community in general, just by existing.Gretchen // It’s become a joy to be not only invited but really welcomed into that space.This is Gretchen.Gretchen // I’m a white, queer, cisgender woman sex worker, but I’m also a writer. I’m a trained journalist, I have a Masters in Education. I wrote a story about BSB specifically, and also interviewed someone from SWOP. I reported on that for 6 months. And now, due to that reporting, I made 2 great friends, which is Ava from BSB and Queen from SWOP.You can find Gretchen’s story on Chicago Reader, titled “Sex Workers Live Here.”Gretchen // What I really see in these rooms and the events is the joy, that is around. And I went to a house show last week and it was a party, a pole show, and I knew a lot of people there, but a lot of people I didn’t know, and everyone is just so able to be themselves. And, it’s an amazing space to be in.With communities from all over Chicago finding a home at Black Skrippa Brigade, Ava has cultivated what the mainstream industry failed to offer: a safe and empowering space for those marginalized. And Black Skrippa Brigade is not alone in their story of communal upbringing.Queen // Everyone was like, “we demand that you continue operating because we need you guys.” And I was like, “you’re absolutely right.”This is Queen, Communications Manager at Sex Workers Outreach Project Chicago, or SWOP (as you heard it mentioned by Gretchen). SWOP is a “Black-led, grassroots organization dedicated to providing direct aid and advocacy for anyone working in the sex industry.”Queen // So it’s literally been all hands on deck ever since, and that makes me feel very-very full. I have a great team, a board of directors now. I feel like we really support each other. We have a really nice network of community members.Both Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP are supporting Sex Workers- but focus on different needs.Gretchen // SWOP means a lot to me in the outreach that it does, right- “Sex Work Outreach Project”. SWOP works with Black and Brown Sex Worker, where BSB works primarily with Black Sex Workers.SWOP’s current iteration came about just over a year ago, as SWOP was announcing pausing its operations.Queen // And then, I feel like putting out that announcement was my cry for help.Ava’s struggle came from the discriminatory culture of Chicago’s Sex Work industry. For SWOP, it was the broader economic neglect of Sex Workers during the COVID pandemic.Queen // And we didn’t know when our grant was coming. We didn’t know, when we were gonna be able to disperse any money. None of the board members had been paid in 6 months. At the time, it was just me on the board, cuz we had a couple people that were going in and out, cuz you know, capacity and personal health reasons.The government’s response to COVID-19 exacerbated the economic instability among sex workers- and that has driven some SWOP members to desperation.Queen // Last year, we dealt with a lot of financial issues. We’ve had numerous people that were coming onto the board, misappropriating the funds, and then kind of leaving black women clean up the mess as usual. // And unfortunately the board member that appropriated our funds left me with $11 in our bank account.While all SWs were impacted by the pandemic, some chose to prioritize personal wellbeing over communal survival.Queen // The reason we were having issues with the previous folks was because they were operating from a space of frenzy and… You’re going to do a lot of things when you’re in survival mode, so I try to extend a certain amount of grace to people. However, in the same breath, it’s just, like, “you’re stealing money from marginalized people, because of whatever personal reason you felt you needed to use this money for.” I don’t think that it’s fair, not just for the board members but the community. It’s just really disheartening to see when folks need mutual aid, and they’re not able to get it because they’re with someone that misappropriated the funds or didn’t follow through with their promise.Queen could repair the colletive on her own. So she called out to the broader communities, just like Ava would in 2023.Queen // I made that post and I just had this huge flood of messages, and texts and DMs that were like, “dude, why didn’t you tell me you all needed more volunteers, like tell me, how can I help? How can I help keep SWOP alive?” the amount of people that were like, “you can’t do this! what can we do to help?” And I was just like, “oh, I didn’t know this was…” Cuz when you’re in the thick of it, working in a nonprofit, and you have 17 hats… It’s really easy to just get burned out and you don’t see the bigger picture all the time.Like Ava, Queen didn’t anticipate that SWOP would be so valued by Chicago’s sex worker and adjacent communities- but when they offered support, she embraced it.Queen // I knew that SWOP Chicago had a large impact, but I didn’t think that me saying we were gonna take a year was gonna have a big of a reaction as it did.Today, we’re going to explore how the commitment to collective solidarity has uplifted Black Skrippa Brigade, SWOP, and their communities.Ava // As sex workers, I feel like the sex work community is different from a lot of communities in the sense that, you know, we are facing a particular stigma that brings us together for safety and just comfortability in our work. And some of the people that I work with that are a part of the brigade and people that I've collaborated with (venue spaces and other organizations) are people that are a part of the sex work community and they just want to help uplift other sex workers.Like for other marginalized groups, operating in communities is a survival necessity for many sex workers- but SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade have created their own niche.Gretchen // Being in Chicago, you are around plethora of organizations and mutual aid, and for it was so apparent and it felt new… BSB has become a staple in the Sex Work community for Black Queer and Trans People.Queen // And of course, we cater to all races of sex workers, but primarily we try to prioritize BIPOC, trans, and gender non-conforming sex workers, because they are the highest at risk for death, disease, lack of resources and medical care. Issues with being able to change their pronouns and even having gender-affirming care. A lot of folks can’t get IVs because of their identities. We try to prioritize those folks, but we don’t turn people away if we have the resources and we make sure that we can either provide them directly or provide you with a community resource that we have.Focusing on most marginalized members of their communities moves Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP to continuously expand how “safety” is defined.Cherry // Having a more diverse crowd, a crowd that is majority sapphic or not cismen, allows for safety for outside dancers.This is Cherry, a Chicago-based dancer.Cherry // There tend to be people who may not feel comfortable at a strip club that come to us because they want to see all of that but they don’t feel comfortable in that environment. Where there tends to be more alcohol, more men, more skinny dancers, more white dancers. So, the crowd comes to us and they’re very willing, very open, very excited by what we do. They make me feel respected as a person and as a dancer. In strip club, the environment is more about how somebody can save money, make money off of you, you always have to kind of watch your back. And I don’t feel like I have to do that when I’m at BSB shows, because people are there genuinely just to support and happy to be there.
Just by centering the needs and desires of marginalized SWs, Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP are creating an environment with far less risks than the mainstream industry.Ava // But being able to have that safe space that sometimes is better than the club. Because, the club can't guarantee you that safety. You know, the customers potentially following girls home, different things, different stigma. And safety issues that we have to deal with on the job, you don't have to deal with that at a BSB show. And we've also seen a lot of different organizations in Chicago that don't really uphold safety… even in the sense of like having the proper door person there, having the proper security, making sure that, you know, we're letting people know that the dancers are not supposed to be touched in any way without their consent.Both collectives know well what’s missing from the conventional venues- but they do more than just filling the gaps.Ayanna // First of all the DJ rending always, like, that consent is important. And even if we’re here to celebrate, we should still respect each others’ boundaries, and everyone here deserves to be here, but in a way that celebrates that, and celebrates independence and being called in and powerful. And showing each other how to do that, and how to be that for yourself.Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP continuously expand their understanding of what safety means by asking their communities for feedback.Queen // We’ve been talking about safe spaces and what constitutes a safe space. And we were discussing how, no matter what the person conducting the group says, if an individual has stated that they don’t feel safe, it is not a safe space.Putting safety before convenience means that the collectives review critically each of their formal partnerships.Ava // We don't really just jump at random venues. We really do our homework on where they stand. There are some places in Chicago that have people have told me, hey, “let's do a show here.” But if it's ran by an abuser, I don't want my brand there, you know, and I think that that's something that a lot of people that come to our shows can really respect.Queen // We are very passionate about the work. We all represent our organization, period. So, we are very intentional about the organizations that we partner with, the folks that we collabl with. All of us, whether current of former sex workers, we are very passionate about the work. So we represent our organizaiton, period. We are always trying to get people, “hey, we had soeone aopparoach us about XYZ, do you know this person, have you workerd with this person, do you know anything about this person?” Because we don’t want to accidentally align with someone or an organization that doesn’t align with our values and the community that we serve.The commitment to their communities leads SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade to miss out on certain opportunities.Ava // There was a venue that we were already, we were almost right to sign the contract and they had all these allegations of being racist to other performers and it was people that I knew personally as well. And we didn't end up finding the contract and we, unfortunately, didn't end up having the show and that sucks, to not have the show. But everybody respected that we chose to pull out instead of just doing the show to just do the show, you know.But these compromise are not hard choices for the collectives to make.Ava // I don't want to put anybody in a uncomfortable spot, not dancers, not, customers, not people that we affiliate with by putting us in a space that doesn't respect sex workers, doesn't respect women, doesn't respect anything that we stand for.Some of this integrity is nourished by the communal connections, but it also is an cornerstone principle for both collectives. As a result, both collectives’ definition of safety is wholistic and ever-expanding.
Wallet CoveredAva // I've had people say all the time, like, “you can tell that you guys were really trying to put on a certain caliber of the event, but you also aren't pushing anybody out.” That's why we keep our ticket sales at the price point that we keep them, regardless of even if we get a nicer space. Because, I don't want to price out my friends and family who are struggling. I know, we know what the economy is doing right now.SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade see financial insecurity as a barrier for their audience- and as a safety concern for their community.Ava // And I've also danced with people who, you know… They have a budget of maybe $50 to $75 per performer and we are paying people $100+ per event. And I really just wanted to make sure that if I'm asking sex workers to come to an event on a Saturday night when they could be at the strip club making money, the money that we are, you know, providing them should be able to sustain, if not compete with whatever they would have made at the club. So, I think that they started to really, the members of the brigade… The ones that are sex workers definitely were able to see that, “wow, this is a space where I can come in and get my bills paid. This is a space where, you know, I'm not just dancing at a random house party and leaving with $100 and going home upset.”The collectives’ safety precautions expand beyond the event spaces themselves- and not just financially.Queen // Anytime that I book a venue I try to make sure that it is ADA accessible. Anytime. That is the first things that I look at. Because, again, inclusivity is very important. There are sex workers that are disabled. There are families, customers, friends that are disabled. There are customers that are disabled. There are patrons that are just walking into the bar, like “oh what’s going on?” They could be disabled. We wanna make sure that anybody, everybody is able to enjoy whatever we have going on.
With a holistic approach to safety, BSB and SWOP can’t always meet all of their communities’ needs by themselves.But instead of accepting their limitations, the collectives call in allies.

Emily // We’re especially thrilled to be working with BSB because this is a community at higher risk of COVID, and our core mission is reducing the chances that people get COVID while they’re at work, while they’re performing, while they’re in community with other people.This is Emily from Clean Air Club, a collective that “provides free air purifiers TO Chicago artists, touring musicians, and organizers.”Emily // Air purifiers help reduce the chance of COVID when you are in a shared space with other people. And COVID disproportionately impacts Black, Queer, and Trans communities. These communities have higher death rates, disabilities due to COVID infections.Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP haven’t always been conscious about COVID, but their commitment to fostering an intersectional understanding of safety has led them to requiring masks at their events.Emily // Both of our organizations try as best as we can to operate on the idea of “prioritizing the needs of the most marginalized in our community”. What BSB and we identified was that the needs of disabled and people with long COVID in our community helped make the entire space safer for everybody. Through communicating with us and many other people, BSB came to see that requiring masks was another safety measure they could put in place that benefited everyone, but also their spaces safer and more accessible for the most marginalized among us. We try to come out to this by inviting everyone to do better when they know better, and BSB and SWOP is a perfect example of that.House of Blues is a music venue in downtown Chicago, with a capacity of up to 1800 visitors, and has hosted major bands like Maroon 5 and Pitbull.Queen // And after we just had our House of Blues show, which was on January 19th, and that was a mask-required event. We were just deciding like, “we might as well just continue this momentum.” We still had a good successful show.Queen // The mask requirement is not affecting, really, anybody in the sense that we've had some people at the beginning who didn't come to a masked show before and then they started coming to some of our shows, have them masked. So it wasn't like we felt like we were alienating any group. But what we really wanted to make sure is that we don't have any events where dancers, especially, sex workers and vulnerable community who need to be able to work when they need to be able to work. We don't want anybody to getting sick. Like we, if you are working at one of our events and then, you know, you have to go to the club the next day or you have clients or whatever, that's being able to spread COVID a lot farther than some of these other community organizations that do some small events that are not mask-required. And we were just really thinking about the impact on just our city as a whole, the impact on the dancers and the people who are in our spaces as well, to make sure that no Black Skrippa Brigade event is ever a super spreader. That's not something that we want to be perpetuating.From thorough consent to COVID precautions, the safety culture of SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade is guided by the most marginalized members of their communities.Ava // So many people try to do pole shows, and there's no shade to them at all because we're all in the community and I like everybody that's doing, that's furthering, you know, the pole dancing mission in Chicago. But, specifically us doing it, for Black people in a city where Black culture is talked about very regularly, but it's not appreciated on a larger scale…Cheery // There are definitely pole or Burlesque or drag groups in the city, but I do not know of any other ones that are exclusively black, so that’s very important for me, to be in an environment where I’m safe and valued for some things that may be a detriment in other environments. Like a strip club, a lot of what happens in the strip club and the reasons you are chosen are things that just don’t have to do with what’s inside of you, with the type of person that you are. I feel like BSB allows me to express more of my true self, and also be able to perform around a crowd that appreciates that. Usually you have to put away one side or the other, depending on the environment you’re in.Cultivating a deeply intersectional praxis of safety takes a village- and the collectives took the time to build up this level of communal dedication.Ava // Chicago culture is so vast and just in different pockets of the city for different communities. And there's always potential for, you know, people to not be intentional with their stuff or people to cause harm or whatever. So I think at first people were definitely like, “okay, well, we don't really know if Ava yet or we don't really know BSB yet as an org.”Building trust took time- in part to stigma, in part to Black Skrippa Brigade being an unusually passionate collective.Ava // And it took time for them to see that I care and see that I'm passionate and for them to continue that passion and continue that labor of love with me once we started to do more events. I think, once we got to maybe about our fifth or sixth event, that was when people that were in the organization were reaching out to me personally and saying, “hey, I would love to have more input…”From the very start, building a culture of care was what helped BSB gain a reputation of a principled, dedicated collective.Ava // I really wanted it to be a situation like feels like home, and that feels safe and fun. There's still fun, and we're obviously throwing money and dancing and eating wings and drinking and having a good time, it's still a party. But there's an extra layer of love that's there. And it really does warm my heart when people comment on that, because I really am glad that the vision that all of us in the brigade consistently work on every single day is coming to life on our stage.While SWOP has a long-established audience, both collectives have formed fresh relationships with their communities.Ava // Because, that was my concern, that I and a few of the founders, all of us will be the ones that are passionate and everybody else is just, you know, there to dance and get their little money and go home. But I think it started to become a more important dynamic for people to see that this is something that is needed in our city.Building trust created a space for community to grow their passion. But purposeful communication is what filled that space.
InterconnectedQueen // We are in a space where we have a group of people, and we have a solid team. We are constantly checking in with each other, we make sure that with everyone consults with each other before we make any purchases, like, “hey, I wanted to get these kits for this donation drive, what do you guys think?” Nobody has more power than the other, we all operate equally, we all have equal operating power. And we try to consult with each other before we make any big decisions, especially when it comes to our moneys.Horizontalized communication keeps all of the collectives’ members accountable in upholding solidarity with their communities.Ava // So now at this stage, Queen and I are doing a lot of the facilitating of events and the additional things that are coming up. But we are always in the group chat with the additional brigade members chatting about it, asking people, “hey, have you been to this thing? Okay, what do we know about this?”Queen // Making sure that we always operate as a group- “one band, one sound”. We operate best when we’re together. We keep us safe, you know what I mean?
Both collectives value feedback- and not just between the core members.Ava // And I think that intentionality of the event for the dancers is what led some of them to really becoming, you know, more in depth and more involved in the operations of the organization and just the community building as a whole. And being able to have that community where it's not just me running the show and making the decisions solely, but I'm also checking in with each individual person that dances with us, works with us, vendors, DJs, everybody. To consistently get that feedback on what went well and what did not go well. Because not every single show we've had been the best show on earth. I've been happy with every single, you know, person that comes to our shows and every single event that we've had. But there's always room for improvement. And I think our consistent knack for wanting to push forward and see what we can do better every single event is what creates that intentionality that people always comment on.With the community taking responsibility for shaping the success of their collectives, passion and care extend beyond event safety.Gretchen // A couple weeks ago, Queen, my friend who works at SWOP as organizing these events, these drives for people. So, people can come get clothes, harm reduction tools and kits, and feminine care products.SWOP prioritizes serving Sex Working communities- but others benefit from their efforts as well.Gretchen // She called for all these volunteers, and I’m thinking, “Sex Work feels very small. When you’re in it, everything kinda feels like everyone knows each other?” But I was so surprised to see at that drive, at that volunteer session, that the place was packed with people. And I think that it is a testament to (not to chew my own worm) to what my story said, that people in the community, whether they overtly are involved or not, they do care about Sex Workers.SWOP has become highly relevant for many marginalized communities- and they show up in return.Queen // We did kit packing this past Sunday, because we’ve had so many folks who wanted to donate clothes, shoes, and electronics. And nice lingerie, things like that. And we don’t have the storage space for any of that anymore, so I decided that we should have a drive for all these things and give them out to the community.This is Queen recounting the same event.Queen // An we had about 50 people sign up to volunteer, and about 35-45 folks showed up. We were packing hygiene kits, making hygiene and beauty supplies. We were building clothing racks, so people can hang up some donations. It was really nice, being able to see how much people actually care about sex workers in this city and people just want to show up for us. We can continue to provide, be able to expand our resources and network.Consistently proving their dedication to solidarity, SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade are met with ever-growing reciprocation.Ava // There's people in the group that sometimes they do not even want to get paid. I still pay them at the end of the day because I want them to have, you know, money for their labor, but they asked to volunteer. They asked to, “hey, use my car to go pick up these chairs for the event, use my car to go get this.” And that definitely shocked me as it started to continue because I'm like, “wow, you guys really do care about this.”As community shows up more and more for the collectives, SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade expand the reach of their efforts.Queen // We do have a partnership with some clinics, like Beyond Legal Aid. They’re able to take on so many cases from our network from network of folks who apply for legal assistance. We’re in the process of restructuring our housing assistance program. At one point we had a tenant, and we partnered with this other housing organization initiative, and we put our funds together and were able to pay this young lady’s rent. It was kind of like subsidized housing- we were able to determine how much she was able to afford and then we paid the difference for the rest of her lease.As the network keeps growing, Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP are able to reach communities that would otherwise be too distant.Queen // We’re also able to do outreach out a church! In Chatham! Every first Sunday we do a table and people can come to the church and get harm reduction, reproductive supplies. Having a relationship with an organization like Pride and […] is phenomenal. You have queer pastors that are here and that are willing to accept our community and accept us, and share their resources with our community. And that’s big, I have never in the history of ever known for a SWOP chapter to be at a church for outreach, consistently.Ava // I was surprised to see certain people associating themselves with us in a larger scale and sharing our flyers and coming to the show and telling other people to come to the show. And you know, there's been times where we've been… we've posted something about donations and people are sending $100, $1,000, you know. It's been very surprising, but it's been wholesome as well because you know, starting from a situation where I felt like there was no space for us, people are starting to create that space for us.BSB and SWOP have nurtured a unique culture of communal care. But they still exist within broader environments that rarely uphold the collectives’ safety standards.Ava // There’s been plenty of times when we are trying to utilize a venue for an event, and the venue owner will be all for it until they find out what our organization does. And then they’re like, “no, nevermind, we don’t wanna be aligned with that.” We’ve been told no numerous times. And I’m just like, “I don’t know if it’s because that they assume that we’re trafficking, running a brothel.” I don’t know what they think. But I know that we’ve been told “no” numerous times, because not only are we black but we’re sex workers, and they don’t like being aligned with that. If we were burlesque troops, we wouldn’t have those problems. But anytime there’s a Gogo fit or pole performance, it’s like, “no, that’s okay.” Because burlesque is classy, and it’s palatable.Despite having broad recognition, Sex Worker collectives still have doors shut in their face.Queen // How important it is for people to unlearn whorephobia. Whorephobia gets in the way of a lot of our opportunities, because of lack of education. And lack of willingness to be educated. A lot of people that work square civilian job, they don’t realize how common sex work is. Whether it be you’re exchanging pictures, or you wanted to get your nails done so you had sex with this guy… That, to some degree, is sex work. That is what I feel like a lot of people, because there’s so much shame surrounding sex work, they’re willing to denounce whatever is associated with it. And we need to allow ourselves to be educated. People need to allow themselves to be educated and ask more questions and not be so judgmental.Chicago’s stigmatization of Black Sex Workers has a long and local history.Cherry // A lot of this, this Queerness, this Blackness, erotic movements comes from not only Chicago but South Side, and previous red light districts. Now we don’t really have the opportunity to do that much in the South Side because of over-policing, because of lack of spaces, lack of Black-owned spaces. Black-owned spaces get shut down very quickly, especially if they’re underground, especially if they’re in the South Side. So, I would love to see more infrastructure in the South Side, more allowing for this kind of thing all over the city. Because, the segregation does keep out some people who I know would be very interested in the mission. And I know, we are very interested in going there. We’ve done a couple South Side shows, but there’s just not that much space for it, you know.Even with systemic oppression, Black Skrippa Brigade, SWOP, and many other collectives that could not be included in this episode are reshaping how Chicago treats their Sex Workers.

Cherry // BSB is a part of a larger whole of groups of people who are all trying to have parties or event series that are trying to highlight Sex Workers. I think it’s important to acknowledge the context of Chicago in general and our history with Sex Work, prostitution, stripping, with prohibition, all of these things that have created a kind of culture where Sex Work is more underground. Within the past 4-5 years I’ve lived in Chicago, I’ve watched it come more alive and more into the main stream because of BSB and other groups whose mission is to bring that to more open crowds. Chicago is a very dense, music-heavy, dance-heavy town. It’s exciting to watch dance be promoted that is more erotic and sexual in nature from the people who make it.There’s many barriers SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade can’t yet break, but the collectives don’t linger on the limitations.Queen // We are very serious about the work that we do, and about integrity and autonomy. We wanna make sure that we provide people with safe spaces where they’re actually safe.Ava // I think that my level of integrity is really the only reason why this business thrives at the level that it does. Because, I don’t wanna be put into a situation where anybody can say that I’m not thinking about our safety and our brand first.Gretchen // What I love about SWOP and Black Skrippa Brigade is that they’re unapologetically themselves, and the people who just get it, get it.Building a brand image rooted in radical authenticity, the collectives are reaching new professional heights.Ava // And I realy felt like continuing to provide educational resources to folks and hosting these events and show these venue that, “hey, we are business people. We are actually here trying to provide housing and resources all those things that people need to have a successful and fullfilling life.” Just because someone is a sugar baby doesn’t mean that they shoulnd’t get life insurance.Queen // I do think that the tide is changing, actually. When we first started, we were just a little bit anxious about how we were going to be received. And also, you know, obviously ticket sales, like, “are people going to come to the show or people going to be caring about the show?” And, you know, the first few that we did were sold out. The first few were consistently sold out. It was to the point where people were like, you know, “if the link is going to drop, please text me personally because I want to make sure I get tickets.”Queen // We just had a phenomenal event at the House of Blues. We almost sold it out, we were very close to selling out that event. And that is huge, it’s huge. Because we’re black, we’re marginalized people. We’re BIPOC, we’re queer. They let us have a pole, in the House of Blues. And not just that, it was amazing to see how many people wecoming and the hawk was out on that Sunday. It was freezing, right before MLK day. We had almost a packed house. And these are folks that I’ve never seen at any of our events.Ava // And I feel like as we start to navigate these bigger spaces, you know, I don't think last year we would have been able to get into House of Blues. Like, that was a milestone to be able to have black sex workers on a big stage like that, because House of Blues is not really like just your average venue, you know, they're really only putting in their people that have some sort of Instagram clout or people that are established celebrities, musicians, stuff like that. So it's really been beautiful to see us getting into these spaces that are normally not reserved for pole dancers or sex workers in any capacity, especially not a group of black ones.Those professional achievements come from maintaining focus on the community.Ava // And you know, a friend of mine who worked, who still does work at House of Blues is how we were even able to start to get into their space and do some shows there and we're even planning to do a future one again. So, being able to build community with people and some of these people reach out to us, you know, they're like, “hey, I really love what you're doing and I really want to uplift you and I really want to put you guys on, you know, my story or my podcast”, or “here come to my venue”, and it’s been really shocking to see thatFor Black Skrippa Brigade, SWOP, and allied collectives, nothing is more important than remaining in solidarity with each other.Emily // Everything each of us does when it comes to the safety of all of in these entertainment spaces, which are also spaces for workers, is a part of this larger network of solidarity and safety during an ongoing pandemic. So, the interests of Black Skrippa Brigade are also the interests of Clean Air Club, even though that may not be apparent on the surface. In reality, the same forces that marginalize Black Queer SWs are the ones that treat disabled people as acceptable sacrifices during a pandemic. And this is white supremacy, capitalism, heteropatriarchy. So we’re in the same fight, we’re crushed by the same forces, and we have to support each other. We have to be in solidarity with one another. Each one of these organizations, Black Skrippa Brigade, SWOP and Clean Air Club are in a larger network of community members creating safer spaces in the midst of political instability and oppression.With resilient support networks, Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP are confident that they can sustain themselves- and their communities.Cherry // BSB and SWOP, they’re focused on sustainability. I’ve seen a lot of collectives pop up and then just have a few, and then just not be able to sustain it. So the sustaining from the community is really what’s allowing SWOP to blossom, so I appreciate that.Regardless of what the future will hold, Black Skrippa Brigade and SWOP trust community care to move them forward.Ava // I feel like we’re gonna be in rooms and have resources we’ve never had before. 2024 really showed me that we are doing the work that we are supposed to be doing. And, that we’re impacting the community that we’re supposed to be impacting in the way that we’re aiming to do. 2024 really has shown me that, as long as we’re gonna keep doing this work, we’re gonna be OK.

This is Part 1 of 2. Part 2 is airing March 26th, 7pm CT on wortfm.orgDavid // Yeah, we’re not gonna get this out of the schools in this decade. It’s gonna be four more years until we have another presidential administration, at least.This is David, an award-winning sci-fi writer. He’s talking about the lack of Sex Education in US.David // It’s just terrible, that we have to go to some independent web comic to get this information when it should be in the schools. But, I’m glad that it’s there, and actually, as an independent web comic, you she can do things that even in the best administration, a lot of this information would not be in the schools, ever.The independent webcomic he’s talking about is Oh Joy Sex Toy, or OJST, a webcomic platform that focuses on “all things sex education and sex positive”.David // And so they can say that might be too scary or too off-putting to the mainstream audience. They can say it in ways that really work for everybody, especially for kids. They’ve done a couple of books of sex education cartoons, aimed at young adults. And I think that is a population that is really badly served by this messed up society of ours. And it is great that it is available, and available online for free and in book form.David // We’re a webcomic platform, we post once a week. We post sex-positive comics in all their shapes and forms. We try to explore a lot of different things from education to reviews to occasional fictional stories, got some journalism. I’m really big on autobio, I love hearing people’s stories.This is Matthew and Erika, founders of OJST.Matthew and Erika // One moment that happened recently, I might have to get my ovary removed, maybe? I don’t know, it’s fine, we’re thinking about it! Anyway, we’re in there talking to the doctor about it, and Matt is asking this guy super specific questions about ovary this and fibroid that. And the doctor stops, and says, “oh, are you in medical?” “No, just sex educators making comics. Just a nerd”Erika and Matthew have always been passionate about sex, but struggled to find education about it when they were younger.Matthew and Erika // We didn’t have super direct sex education resources. And we both had so many questions, and we didn’t even know what our questions were. We just knew, “sex exists.” And we didn’t even know where do you even start, how does this happen?Fueled by their curiosity, Erika and Matthew started OJST.Matthew and Erika // So when we got into sex education as adults, we were trying to make comics that would be the icebreaker, that would be really friendly, really open.Nowadays, digital sex-positive comics are in abundance. But when Matt and Erika were designing OJST, the internet didn’t have much to offer.Erika and Matthew // When Matt and I were teenagers and learning about sex… This was early days of internet. Getting internet porn, it would take an hour to download. This was not the sex on the internet that we have now.Erika and Matt wanted to see more sex positivity on the internet- and launched the platform.Matthew and Erika // Back in the early days, it used to be the Matthew and Erika, or Erika and Matthew show. Erika is a comic artist by trade, and I’m a writer by trade now. I used to work in the video game industry, I used to do a little bit of coloring at work, on Erika’s comics. And slowly but surely, this became our full-time gig that we both do.As you may guess from the platform’s title, OJST started out with a particular subject focus.Erika and Matthew // Doing sex toy review comics, I’m pretty sure we invented that! I think we were the first to do that.The niche focus immediately garnered an audience.Matthew and Erika // The sex toy reviews were really what drew me to it at first, because this is giving me good, solid information. I mean, finding good, trustworthy reviews like that can be really difficult. So, the quality of the reviews, of the education, and the products that they were reaching out to, and finding, were things I didn’t necessarily know much about. So I learned an awful lot about sex toys and about the variety and availability of toys, and also which ones weren’t that good, which is a really important thing to learn.Jay // I really appreciated their reviews of toys because we don’t have the money to find out for myself. It was nice to just know exactly what I was gonna get.Corry // I’ve started with reading reviews for different sex toys, because these things are expensive so it’s good to know before you invest.This is Jay and Corry, long-time supporters of OJST.Corry // It’s not like you can borrow and return them if you don’t like them.As OJST’s audience grew, so did the dedication of its creators.Erika // We were co-writers. Either Matt would write a full comic and I would edit it, or I would write one and then Matt would edit it, and then I would draw it, and then Matt would color it. And that would make the website work.And as Matthew and Erika persisted in their work, OJST became more than a personal project.Jay // There are so many other comics that are educational-only, and there are some that are have a completely different tone and they’re punny and sexy and funny, and there’s the toys reviews, which are a mix of both. The educational ones, I can’t think of another example where to find that type of information, whether it’s about urine play or how to pick a butt plug, or the ones just published, about lube… Even the companies that sell lube don’t have the types of questions and answers that OJST has.Today, we will explore how OJST has become a global platform for reshaping sex culture.Erika and Matthew // You’re going to explain how to take difficult to explain subjects, like education, or, let’s say STDs, and how to break that apart into something like a comic. Because when you got very dense material like that, it becomes really hard to read past more than a sentence or two and continue to keep learning. Doctors and lawyers, they’ve been training their brain to absorb that.Erika and Matthew // They go to school for that!Matthew and Erika // Yeah, but if you’re just like a regular person, you haven’t practiced that muscle, you’re trying to learn something, and it becomes hard and draining.Zomby // Some books that are strictly walls and walls of essays for people to go through. It can make sex education be more boring than it actually is.This is Zomby, another supporter of OJST.Zomby // They use direct and simplified language, cuz certain things involving sex education can come across as more complicated.Erika and Matthew wanted to do more than talk about sex- they wanted the readers to understand and share their passion.Erika and Matthew // Comics is like the coolest platform for that, because you get to slow those words down, you get to add pictures that are engaging, you get to create conversational language, and it all translates. The reader is encouraged to take as much time as they like with it. It’s different than a video, where there is a pace. Here, you can put it down, bring it back up, and re-read something, and you’re not punished for anything.Matthew // I think we were at the forefront of taking a lot of hard, dense sex ed material and then trying to crack and make it accessible.By default, comics are a medium well-suited for communicating complex narratives- but Matthew and Erika wanted to take it a step further.Zomby // The way that their comics are laid out, it’s very straightforward, it’s not complex, it’s not all over the place. It’s A to B, at the same time, it validates different experiences.OJST uses numerous tools, from metaphors to visual breakdowns, to turn dense articles into short comics- and it works.David // It worked so well for me because of the quality, because of the subject matter, the art, and because of the information that she was conveying and how she was conveying it.Matthew and Erika // And it just kind of makes it easier to digest that information. So the kind of community that we foster are people who kind of tend to be a bit tender-hearted, and people who want a friendly introduction, who want something that will be very patient and kind and inviting to them to read.By centering accessibility, Erika and Matthew were able to transfer their passion for sex to their readers.Erika // And I definitely get people who are like, “I’m not interested…” Asexual people read our comic! And they say, “I personally don’t want to have sex, but I am interested to understand what this means to other people, how they do these things. Why it feels good.”Matthew // I’d like to learn.Erika // I’d like to learn, I am curious! And then other people are like, “I’m not into this kind of kind that you’ve showcased, but having read this kind of comic, I can understand why somebody would be. It makes more sense intellectually now, even though I am not going to partake in that.”Matthew // We ourselves are fascinated by sex! And I’ve learned so much. The amount of times I had to sit down and do some research, and I’m just like, “wow, I didn’t know that’s how that works.” Or, “I need to find a way to squeeze this in, because that’s a really cool way of communicating.” It’s made us a lot… Better people for learning more, and getting to touch base on this stuff, it’s really good.By cultivating curiosity among their audience, OJST created a committed supporter community.Jay // I’ve sent in some questions before, I’ve subsribed to “OMGYes” because of their recommendation.David // I’ve been following Matt and Erika for many years, and over the years I’ve been very fortunate to have the ability to contribute financially and I’ve been able to help them out quite a bit in recent years. And so we’ve gotten to be friends.David // I’ve asked Erika to do a couple of projects for me, and she’s been a great partner on those projects.Jay // I’ve written in and being on Patreon, being able to comment on the posts has been a whole new experience of something I haven’t done the entire time I’ve been a reader. It’s only been the past 4 years or something. Joining that community has been a different level of investment.OJST’s community is committed to the cause- and that creates room for compassion between the audience and the creator.Corry // I’m not one of those people who needs something produced exactly on this day every week- “I need my fix every so many days or else I’ll ditch.” I’ll take good content however long it takes for them to put it out, whenever they choose. And I want them to be able to live comfortably while they do their art. I’m with them 100% still.As audience of OJST grew further, the platform expanded its diversity of topics.Jay // Honestly, they just never stop. They just published one that was about lube, and it’s always educational, it’s always something new, they’ve never let anything get stagnant.OJST made complex conversations about sex accessible, and became a widely shared resource.Corry // On top of that, it is a great explainer for a lot of those topics for other people, that was digestible and quick and fun to watch and look at, so I could send these to family members and friends, who were like, “well, what does nonbinary mean, what does it mean to be polyamorous”, or whatever other things that are not so common.As OJST continued to expand its content while maintaining accessibility, it became a public platform.Matthew and Erika // Our audience has kind of grown up with us. We’ll have people talk back to us, say “hey listen, I was 18 and your comic was updating, and now I’m 20-something. You’ve been with me at so many different stages of my life, and that is really powerful to me.” With them aging with us, like, them being in their 30s and early 40s, they’re using OJST as a resource to give to younger people what they know. And they’re like, “hey, this is where I learned about this thing, you can learn about it there.” And it’s nice to see it being kind of passed on like a baton to newer generations, who maybe didn’t find it on their own at first, they just had somebody say, “hey, read this!”Matthew and Erika do outreach- but a lot of it comes from their community.Matthew and Erika // The sex education, that was largely stuff that I already knew (and continues to be so), but I really enjoy reading about it. Because, I’m a firm believer in taking a class in something that you already think you know about, because there is always more to be learned. And one thing I really get out of OJST is good introductory information to stuff that I already know about. But, I know that this resource exists, so when I’m talking with somebody that doesn’t know about a thing or is interested in a thing, I can just use the search feature on the site, and find, “oh yeah, they did a comic about this!”The synergy of accessible and abundant content with a committed audience creates a perpetual cycle of growth.David // It’s an easy, informative, humorous, unthreatening introduction to a lot of topics, which is a library of great information that I may share with people who need it.Zomby // I got in touch through a queer support group. Erika’s did a comic on gender constructs, it was a really well done physical artform talking about gender is more of a construct and some can have genders that differ from their sex assigned at birth. But also, I’ve gone through that rabbit hole and found OJST about 10ish years ago.That “rabbit hole” experience is made possible by the accessibility of the website- and allows for new readers to become invested in the mission of OJST.Zomby // I spent a fair amount of time just reading them on a monthly basis, going through some of their guest comics. I used some of their resources in daily life. I got access to sex education manuals that I still use to educate people to this day.Jay // I’ve been recommended the site for a long time on discord and meetup and things like that.With an ever-growing base of committed supporters, Matthew and Erika were able to expand their work beyond the realm of internet.Jay // I’ve been following for a very long time, and I’ve also bought their books- so not just the compilation of the vlog, but the “Drawn to Sex” series, there’s the “Basics” and “Our Bodies and Health.”Zomby // I really like the fact that their books are also held in stock at some indie sex shops.While OJST carved out a safe virtual space, the mainstream discourse remains hostile to sex-positivity.Zomby // Unfortunately, there is stigma around it, and there is many people that come in contact with that, when discussing it, use language like, “oh well, I got my STI testing and I came back clean.” And that implies that somebody who has an STI may be dirty. It’s not correct information, STI is such a large amount of population and can really affect anybody.Zomby // When we talk about getting tested for STIs or how we navigate things like gender identity, OJST does a very good job of, first of all, normalizing different types of bodies that exist, using language that simplifies it so that people can understand what they’re talking about.The first two words of the title’s platform forecast its strategy for countering stigma- being fun and easygoing.David // I just love Erika’s style. She and Matt together, they’re fabulous technical communicators. They are so good at conveying information in a graphical form, making it easily digestible, fact-based, and fun, and funny! It’s a great combination of humor and accurate information about sex, which is a thing, as you know, people tend to get wrapped around the axle around.Erika // One of the reasons we lean so hard into puns and humor was because, when you can make somebody laugh, even if it’s laughing at us, you lower their defenses. You release the tension, whatever anxiety or fear they may have had about herpes, we come in with some bad puns, they laugh, and now we’re like, “let’s talk about herpes.”

Matthew and Erika // We make it sound like we do a lot of the leg work, but sex is really interesting! And I think that a lot of people are genuinely interested. And like, even if somebody isn’t very sexually active, they wanna know about herpes! They want to learn. And if you show this silly thing and you have a joke in there, it’s even more appealing. People who are curious and excited to learn, and maybe they have their own hang-ups about sex, but they’re clicking on a comic and they’re engaging, and that’s just a wonderful thing.OJST synergizes accessibility with engagement, and that allows the audience to see beyond the stigma and immerse themselves into the platform’s passion.Erika // Actually, this happened a couple times: somebody gets diagnosed with herpes. And herpes has a huge stigma around it, it’s a scary word. And they said that, they had read our herpes comic before they got diagnosed, and so they still had a little bit of a freakout but it was a lot more reduced, and they went back and looked up our old herpes comic to read them, and be like, “No, I’m okay!” And this is obviously, not ideal to have herpes, but this is not the end of your romantic life, not the end of your whole complete human being who deserves love and to be treated. Wait, where was I going with that?Matthew // Herpes.Erika // Herpes, man. Check out our Herpes comic!Matthew // Something about community… Tying it into herpes, getting older, community, using as a resource…Erika // Yeah, somewhere in there!Matthew // We’re educators!Erika // Yeah, we’re good at talking!OJST normalizes sexual experiences- and by doing that, Matthew and Erika translate stigma into empowerment.Zomby // So, it sort of makes me feel better, considering that during the AIDS crisis, there was an issue talking about the “cleanliness” of queer people that were existing with AIDS. It’s not that people are morally incorrect for existing with an STI. It’s that something infected them and they now have to live with it. We have to hold space and respect people who exist in that kind of space.Hien // By making these comics, and I think that they’re pretty fluffy and safe and accessible for people, especially even in topics like fisting, and fetish and kinky, like the way to approach them is very much like a [bright-eyed dough] in front of a truck, except that both parties survive.This is Hien, another comic artist at OJST.Hien // It’s a safe way to talk about these big, intimidating things. And by having these comics existing and being like, “it’s okay to share these things that he’s talking about, and he lived through, and that’s fine”, that makes it okay for other people to be like, “oh yeah, I might be into that kind of stuff as well.”OJST’s unique approach normalizes sexual discourse, and allows readers to expand and deepen their relationship to sex.David // OJST is a great resource, although the people that I find myself recommending it to the most often are parents of adolescents, because it is superb and very digestible introduction to a lot of scary things. Which is definitely intended for adults, but I find that a lot of the content works well for young people. So, I have so many parents of adolescent children that I’ve recommended, especially the books, to.OJST achieved a platform of radically honest, passionate, accessible, and expanding sex-positive comics. But they’re alone in their success.Hien // The thing with Queer comics, especially sex-positive queer comics nowadays is that places we’re able to exist in are slowly sinking below us, so we’re trying to prop each other up in finding more ways to connect through, finding more ways to put out the things that we’re doing and passionate about.Unlike other platforms, OJST has been able to sustain itself long-term.Matthew and Erika // We thought we would start this. And, I kind of thought that once we got the ball rolling, more people would start their own sex ed comics. I remember, there was some of the big websites did a couple of things: they made the plan for it, but it really never held traction.Jay // Other comic centers for education and justice, like The Nib came and went within the time period, [while] OJST has been flourishing this whole time.Matthew and Erika // Turns out, making an expensive comic each and every single week is kind of difficult in the long run, unless you’re very tenacious. It’s kind of a hard sell for big companies. But we found it, we managed to do it.OJST achieved this consistency with more than strategy alone.Matthew // We’ve been doing that now for more than a decade.Erika // Yeah, 11 years, this will be our 12th year.Matthew // This will be our 12th year, and I don’t think we’ve ever missed a week. I think we took one week off once.Erika // We got COVID once, we still put up a picture on that day. Technically, something goes up every week.Matthew and Erika were willing to sacrifice time and effort at an ambitious scale.Erika // When we started, we did always have guest artists contributing, it’s just like, Matt and I would do the majority of the comics. We’d basically fill up a month worth of comics. Then we’d have one guest comic come on, and then it would be another month of Matt and me doing the comics, basically more or less.Matthew // And when we say “a comic”, for us, that means 4-6 full-size comic pages that you would read in a book.Erika // Written, drawn, colored…Matthew // In one week.Erika // Get it done, post it to a site.Matthew // It’s a lot of work.Erika // Jesus Christ, in our heyday, Matt and I were pumping this out once a week.Erika and Matthew’s passion- and youth -gave them the strength to maintain a consistent and independent platform for many years.Corry // I’m a Patreon supporter, I’m really glad that they’re mostly driven through that rather through ad networks or doing big sponsorships all the time by unrelated companies. They’re not doing Raid: Shadow Legends and such.But the world at large is still hostile to OJST’s mission.Let’s pause for today- we’ve explored how OJST came to be, and how it became a public good. In two weeks from today, on March 26th at 7PM CT, we will explore how OJST sustained itself against the broader oppression of sex-positivity.

Erika + Matthew // We’re a webcomic platform, we post once a week. We post sex-positive comics in all their shapes and forms.Two weeks ago, we introduced Oh Joy Sex Toy.Erika + Matthew // [we are] at the forefront of taking a lot of hard, dense sex ed material and then trying to crack and make it accessible.The creators of OJST, Matthew and Erika, reflected on what made OJST an engaging resource.Erika + Matthew // When you can make somebody laugh, even if it’s laughing at us, you lower their defenses. You release the tension, whatever anxiety or fear they may have had about herpes, we come in with some bad puns, they laugh, and now we’re like, “let’s talk about herpes.” And it makes it easier to digest that information.OJST supporters Jay, Zomby, David, and Corry explored how OJST’s unique qualities turned it from a personal project into a global platform for reshaping sex culture.Jay // I can’t think of another example where to find that type of information…Zomby // And the way that their comics are laid out, it’s very straightforward, it’s not complex, it’s not all over the place. It’s A to B, at the same time, it validates different experiences.David // It’s an easy, informative, humorous, unthreatening introduction to a lot of topics, which is a library of great information that I may share with people who need it.Corry // I could send these to family members and friends, who were like, “well, what does nonbinary mean, what does it mean to be polyamorous”.And staff artist Hien Pham introduced some of the challenges that OJST has had to face.Hien // The thing with Queer comics, especially sex-positive queer comics nowadays is that places we’re able to exist in are slowly sinking below us, so we’re trying to prop each other up in finding more ways to connect through, finding more ways to put out the things that we’re doing and passionate about.Now, we will dive into how OJST flourished through the struggle with resilience.Erika + Matthew // When we started, we did always have guest artists contributing, it’s just like, Matt and I would do the majority of the comics. We’d basically fill up a month worth of comics. Then we’d have one guest comic come on, and then it would be another month of Matt and me doing the comics, basically more or less.Matthew and Erika maintained a demanding content creation pace for many years, and built an abundant library of sex-positive information.Erika + Matthew // This will be our 12th year, and I don’t think we’ve ever missed a week. I think we took one week off once. We got COVID once, but still put a picture up that day. Technically, something went up every week.While upkeeping the creative flow, Matthew and Erika also faced stigmatization.
Erika + Matthew // There’s lots of little platforms and issues with trying to monetize adult content of any kind. It’s just tough being out there.OJST refuses to compromise its explicit sex-positive communication, and this choice is what makes it a precious resource.Corry // I’m a Patreon supporter, I really like that they’re mostly driven through that rather through ad networks or doing big sponsorships all the time by unrelated companies. They’re not doing Raid: Shadow Legends and such.Zomby // It’s really cool to get a 3rd-party look at what sex education looks like, and how to navigate sexual relationships with people in a more holistic way, and a more body positive way.Rejecting censorship helped OJST maintain integrity, and also made them subject to stigma-driven discrimination.Hien // Matth and Erika have gone through a lot.David // I know that Erika and Matt had to fight so many battles, and fight so hard, not only against government censorship, but against things like payment platforms and web hosting platforms cutting them off because they have the word “sex” in the name.Jay // Erika and Matt haven’t given up, there’ so many challenges… They’ve talked about it a bit about how when they started, the internet was a very different place, and now everything has to be marketed a certain way.Despite the challenges, Matthew and Erika have refused to compromise to stigma or slow down the pace of production.David // They’ve been so persistent in doing all the work that they need to do in order to keep the platform alive. When they could, at any time, given up and gone on to do something else with their lives. But they stay on the front lines, they stay in the trenches, they keep fighting the good fight.Over time, this level of dedication has strained Matthew and Erika.David // I know how hard it has been and know it’s taken a toll, especially on Erika’s and also on Matt’s life and mental health. I’m glad that she is choosing to use her limited energy to keep trying to put this information out there, where people can get it.Erika + Matthew // It takes 20s… You gotta be in your 20s, full of energy and ready to take on the world. Where we are now, we’re are in our 40s. We’re tired!Erika and Matthew refused to surrender to the ever-growing challenges. But as the founders of OJST aged, they could no longer confront the obstacles head on.David // And I really enjoy reading it every week, and the one thing, the one big thing that has changed (and I understand why this has happened), is that lately Erika isn’t doing all of the art herself anymore. As a matter of fact, I think she’s barely doing any strips herself.Matthew and Erika found a way to maintain integrity, consistence, and their wellbeing- by turning OJST into a community-driven platform.Matthew // We kind of shifted, in the last half of the years, to start incorporating more and more artists, and we’ve taken a backstep on it all. And now we have this community-driven platform with as many different voices as we can, and it has made the place way better.Erika // We are the people that we are. We only have the perspective that we have, and we know it's really important to share more than that. The perspectives we have on sex/gender/sexuality do not represent everybody, because it's impossible to represent everybody. So we were intentionally hiring guest artists the whole time.Matthew // After a few years, we starting to run out of material. There is only so many times where we can cover a piece of sex ed or talk about a specific toy or perspective. And we were like, “man, we’re coming up dry, it would be good to have other people to have talk about whatever is going on in their lives.” And as soon as we started to do that, too, we were like, “wow, these are really important stories, we should be giving more and more of the platform to that.”In the beginning of this episode, OJST was called a “global” platform- and this is how it got here.Corry // more recently, it seems like they’ve been platforming other artists that do either erotic comics that are just telling a story about people who are engaging in sexy activities in some way or telling a personal story.Jay // There’s been a lot of changes, and by bringing in other artists there’s just a variety of perspectives as well as topics.While OJST always featured guest artists, Matthew and Erika began to give them more room. You’ve already met one of them, his name was Hien.Hien // And so, I feel, I can see a lot of the motivation behind me telling my stories in that way. Generally speaking, the happier, fluffier stories come from very dark places. So I think another reason why I’m okay with putting my face on there and being like, “I’m experiencing these things,” is because I’ve got nothing to loose, baby. My favorite movie of all time, Everything Everywhere All At Once, kind of spoke about [it]- nothing matters, so we can do anything. It’s kind of my way of telling my stories, and telling the stories of people around me, who make me feel like I matter.Along with Hien, dozens of artists are now coming to OJST every year.Hien // We have two semi-regular guest artists, me and Ripley, and the last two in each month are all guest artists. It’s become a place where diverse comic artists can come in and get paid a really nice rate and have this incredible platform to test their stories. It went from a personal project of a small group of people to, now, basically a global platform.OJST’s long-time audience has many feelings about this shift- but their commitment to the mission of OJST, rather than its founders alone, has helped them embrace the change.Zomby // They have people come in and talk about things that they love, for example there is “all about gag” that comes up. And the way that they navigate their experiences with navigating kind and sexuality is sort of a different viewpoint, and I like that it’s become a community platform.Jay // So, I follow Erika’s patreon as well and I know, from her diary comics, the reason why she’s pulled away. And even though I miss her content, I’m not wishing for her to do anything that she can’t. But it’s been nice, like she illustrated the review this year, and having her still be a part of the community even while she’s not responsible for having the entire thing on her shoulders anymore has been a way for it to continue, because it’s been doing so much good educating people around the world.With more voices onboard, the narratives of OJST have expanded greatly.David // They’ve acquired, or created a community of artists to carry on the work. It’s a great variety of voices, a number of voices, a lot of queer stuff that you won’t see in other places. A lot of furry stuff that you’re not seeing in other places. It is a great resource to have out there and I love reading it just because it is fun and funny and beautiful. It is an aesthetic experience, to have originally Erika’s art, and now so many different artists landing on my screen every week, and that’s great.Zomby // I really enjoy that they have excerpts from a lot of really lovely indie sex workers.By inviting new voices, OJST has branched into new storytelling dimensions- and with that, it has given more room for belonging.Corry // A lot of the content revolves around self-image about having our bodies represented faithfully and beautifully, with out having to meet some standards that are set by some marketing company somewhere. Seeing people with different types of bodies and hair and different gender expressions is great, when we can get that.Zomby // It does a really good job of being body-positive and validating without being too complicated.The content of OJST is more diverse than ever- and makes audience members feel seen and understood in new ways.Jay // My polyamory identity is pretty important to me, so I’ve searched through the tags and gone through the whole website to try and find content that I can find with other people that are also polyamorous. Whether it’s Dani Corsetto autobiographical comic where she just talks about her identity, to the other, pornographic ones, where it’s just super inclusive. Seeing cartoons and porn that were inclusive of group relationships was pretty cool.Beyond offering validation, greater representation empowers readers to connect with themselves and their communities.Hien // And I might feel intimidated about going to a community […], but he has writing comics about it, I know what to expect. Breaking that entry barrier is very important for me, because I didn’t have that growing up.Zomby // It made me feel more prepared while simultaneously being something that I can easily relate to on a visual level, like I knew what I was looking for, I knew how to interact a little better with someone I was interested in.Matthew and Erika are no longer as public-facing in their work- but they are still the heartbeat of OJST.Erika // It’s a lot of work. In our current incarnation of the site, we have 2 kind of staff artists, who each commit to doing 1 comic a month, and then we have 2 artists that Matt just finds fresh…Matthew // I’m always trying to hunt for people who can do the stories. I’m much better of an editor, I feel like I have that clicked, rather than having to constantly create, which is a different part of your brain and resources. Editing, it’s a full time job as well. Once we transitioned to being just a publisher for other people, we brought on an additional editor.Matthew and Erika have aged- but it doesn’t mean that they’re any less passionate about sex.Matthew // It’s in a really interesting phase. We’re always on the hunt to try to get more support and funding for it.Matthew // The pace of having to try to make sure we fill a comic, even when Erika and I aren’t working on these and we’re hiring out, trying to get one done in a week… I’m working with so many artists in a given time. A lot of them will drop out, or things will happen… It can take a month to make a comic, if somebody is properly on it. With editorial, it’s a lot of work!For many years, Erika and Matthew maintained the platform itself- now, they help it remain true to its core.Hien // I wasn’t really allowed to have a life of my own. It was very much like, “you study, you do well in school, and that’s it.” There was no creative arts. The concept of a “gap year” didn’t exist, there was no finding yourself. So, when I grew up and I moved to Australia, and I kind of split off on my own, I was like, “you know what? I was silenced more than enough!” So I went the complete opposite way of, I would say, everything and anything about myself. I lived most of my life not being able to express myself, so now I will just do it at the expense of everybody around me.Hien’s identity, experiences, and perspectives differ from Matthew and Erika’s- and his work is challenging the upbeat and light tone of prior OJST works.Hien // When I was writing OJST comics, I haven’t been able to tackle truly heavy stuff. I think that the heaviest comic I’ve made is one where I was really heart broken and I really needed to be for myself to hold my own hand. But that obviously came from an incredibly dark place.Along with Hien, many other artists are bringing in fresh stories- which don’t always match the energy of Matt and Erika’s contributions.Erika + Matthew // I think when we were doing it as the “Erika and Matthew Show”, we were always just jumping on silly gags or keeping it really light-hearted through comedy, or puns. But when we started bringing other people in, we had to sort of try to find a line in the sand when it came to how much trauma from an artist would we, sort of, give space to. And, how do we correctly point them towards the powerful part, which is the moment of change or revelation, or moment where things got better. And that's been quite tough for us, so we're changing things a little bit as we go all the time...Aligning new perspectives with the founders’ contributions has become Erika and Matthew’s new role- and they’re threading it carefully.Erika + Matthew // We’ll take on harder subjects- you add more and more voices, and they come with a lot more variety in the kind of stories that they bring. We are changing this equation all the time. I sit down with our main editor, Erika and I and him will talk about this, a lot. Our artists will constantly challenge the lines in the sand, and they’ll be like “I really want to talk about this.” And it’s like, “wow, that’s a really great story! Does it work of OJST?” And maybe it doesn’t, maybe it does, maybe we need to think about this again. And that line keeps shifting, maybe it will continue to do so as the world changes as well.As OJST’s content becomes more vibrant, the editorial team, which is more than just Matthew and Erika, is moved to re-examine what is at the core of OJST.Hien // I love my work, I love OJST, and this is nothing against them, but there is certain topics that I want to explore the impact that certain things have had on me. So that, the payoff, I’m hopeful, optimistic, hits a bit harder. Or, that I’m able to portray things in its full shape, right? The positive, the hopeful stuff. But also this really dark sh** that also happens. So, the work that goes online, and especially with OJST, I’m only able to present happy stuff.

In order to maintain consistency the editorial team imposes narrative limitations- and that requires artists to sacrifice certain aspects of their story.Hien // So like, I’ve been working with my editors for a really long time to find a right balance, like, I don’t bump people out but I still have that sense of, “there’s probably more to this, but today we’re going to focus on what makes this happy.” So it’s kind of difficult in that sense, sometimes, when those topics come up. And the thing is, it’s difficult to separate the art from the artist, when my art is kind of “me” in a sense. It’s not completely me. The Hien on the page is still like an edited version of Hien in real life. Especially on a site like OJST, where we focus more on the “joy” part of it. In fact, my editors have had to deal with me being more heavy-handed towards certain topics. But that kind serves to making the vibe of the site more accessible to certain people.Erika + Matthew // They’ll get feedback and say, “hey, this story went to a really dark place, can we take it this place?” And it’s always encouraged to the writers and the cartoonists, to be like, “if you disagree with us, please push back, please argue with us, please explain to us why it really does need to be told this way.” So it’s not really a one-way street of our way or the high way… Or maybe it can feel like that sometimes. But it’s dialogue, between the creator and editors.As OJST continues to expand its artist base, the editorial team digs deeper into what makes OJST- OJST.Erika + Matthew // With the stories that we are sharing through OJST- yes, we’re sharing our personal stories, but it’s always through the lens of “how will this relate to the reader, how will this benefit the reader? how can we connect to the reader?” Rather than being like, “I’m gonna tell my story!” It’s like, “what can I put in my story that will connect me with somebody else and be relevant to them?”Since inception, the ultimate aim of OJST was to be a relevant and empowering resource- and that does not have to be limited to sex toys and lighthearted stories.Matthew // We mix things up and we do take a couple fiction comics, and I’m always trying to get the mix feeling right, because I don’t want there to just be tons of fiction. But I enjoy a silly little comic that’s a little flirtatious comic as much as the education. It’s fun to find education where you sit and you read and you learn, and then to move to another thing where you just have a giggle.Blending change and integrity is challenging- but OJST and its community both embrace this uncertain process.David // It’s a combination of performative and sexy and funny, and I think that the flavor of the site has changed quite a bit over the years, but the basic message and mission are still the same. I’m here for it, I love reading it every week and I’m here to support it.The diligence of Matthew, Erika, and the rest of the editorial team has empowered the platform to blossom while remaining true to its core.Corry // I really like that too, it’s not like I’m missing out on the kind of activity that they were doing earlier. They still intersperse those reviews and educational pieces sometimes. The new stuff, I think, fits perfectly fine with it.Erika // I feel like OJST is kind of in its golden age of comics.While OJST may be flourishing, the world around it keeps growing more desperate and oppressive.Hien // I grew up in Vietnam in the 90s. I was the first generation of peace, my parents were both in the war. The country was still rebuilding itself, so the ideology and the culture was geared towards “economic growth”. It’s not focused on individual culture, it doesn’t matter so much who you are as a person so much, back then… I’m sure it’s different now, but when I was growing up, it didn’t matter who you were as a person, it mattered more how much you can contribute to the wider country.Hien is speaking of a different time, but the individual struggles he had to confront are equally relevant today.David // OJST is a uniquely necessary resource in this incredibly, increasingly messed-up time and place.Hien // The work that I do is a bit more on the fluffy, happy side, like the, “ooh, trippy, happy, go lucky” side. I write about sex, I write sex education. I write fluffy romantic stuff, but I also support freaky, sexy stuff. I’ve seen the genre that I operate in being pushed to people who don’t want to view sex at all to use like, “oh, this is the acceptable queer work.” As opposed to the, “this is a part of the larger sum”, because there is multiple perspectives to be had. My work should not demonize other people’s work, because I also enjoy those people’s work.Even spaces where self-expression has historically flourished are impacted by the dominating narratives of doom and despair.Matthew // Especially in today’s day and age, we’ll talk to an artist and they will bring a lot of difficult subjects. And trying to make the comic feel like there is a positive, a good takeaway, it can be quite difficult.Matthew and Erika’s commitment to positivity can appear personal- but it is also a commitment to leaving the world better than they found it.Erika // When you’re talking about trauma and difficult experiences, you can either talk about in the “trauma dump”, where you say, “here is everything bad that happened”. And that can be really cathartic, and there are plenty of artists and cartoonists who do tell that, and that’s important, that resonates with some people. And the kind of way we want people to talk about traumatic and difficult experiences is to find what was hopeful in that. So, you can still talk about the hard thing, the trauma, because that’s still going to resonate, and then we don’t want to just leave it at that. We don’t want to leave it at, “that was bad and it hurt me,” we want it to be, “okay, that was bad, that was hard, and here is what I’m doing to survive it. Here’s what I’m doing to heal, here’s what I’m doing to keep existing in this space and have some kind of hope.” Because we want for someone to read the site, and leave with a grain of hope or joy.OJST’s positivity is in conversation with, rather than avoidance of the oppression that Queer and sex-positive communities are confronting.Erika // As opposed to, doom scrolling on social media- you can just see a list of horrors with every scroll. We want to be a place where things aren’t always perfect, but you can still have some hope.Matthew // The internet at large, there is a lot of people doing sex comics, but doing ones that leave you better off is always what we wanted to do with OJST. Dan Savage kind of created a one-liner, which is the campsite rules: you leave someone better off than you found them. And that’s how I like to approach treating readers. I’m very much readers-first rather than creators-first. A creator will come with their story, but it’s really important that the story is not just for the creator. It’s very important that it leaves the reader better off. Or helps translate the message to the reader.OJST’s storytelling approach invites readers to dive into darker subjects- and emerge empowered rather than suffocated.Matthew // I don’t mind a little bit of trauma, if it helps to travel the point. But if it’s just that, then you’re leaving the reader potentially worse off than you found them. You don’t want to trigger folk, you don’t want to make them just see their own hurts and harms. You want them to be able to go, “hey, listen: that exists, but then this!” And that’s the moment that feels really valuable and constructive for somebody to read and take away.With this intention, OJST’s ever-growing library of stories molds into something greater than itself.Erika // Cuz even if you can’t end of a note of, “and then I fixed everything!” We want the comic to feel like, “this is how I’m resilient in this. This is how I maintain my hope. Here’s how I maintain my humanity. And maybe that will resonate with you, dear reader. Maybe that will give you a seed to grow in your own heart about how to be resilient and how to survive.OJST’ commitment to hope in face of despair nourishes communal resiliency.Hien // It’s become a tool for me to connect with my local communities and connect with my friends, like “oh, I see someone having a kink or a fetish that I haven’t heard about. I can do it for work, aha!” It’s kind of become such an encouraging and enabling tool for me, to become more brave in the way that I approach people and talk about things.And when resilience becomes praxis, it blooms into courage that empowers us to break through the oppressive barriers and connect with each other.Looking upZomby // So, they’ve created a sexual health resource that not only exists to support body positivity, sex positivity, understanding for people who live with STIs, understanding for people with different body types, gender expressions, sex expressions, but all around they’ve created such a holistic space to exist that it’s become part of everyday life for me. I regularly go back to it for information.OJST has gone far in reshaping sex culture- and cultivated a precious space like no other.Hien // OJST has been incredible. I’ve been working with them for more than 3 years, and we’ve had our ups and downs, but it has been such a huge part of my life, and it has helped me refine my work process, how I work with other people.Hien // And the entire team at OJST, I absolutely love them to death. I think that they’re the best group of people I’ve ever worked with.Hien // They are just… It kills me, they’re incredible!And despite all that they’ve gone through, Matthew and Erika still burn with passion.
Erika + Matthew // The world of sex is fascinating. It’s so much more than the anatomy and the physical act of sex. It’s social, it’s cultural, it’s legal. There’s so much around it that’s beyond the act of it, and I think it’s really fascinating, both of us do.Erika // And we want more. We want there to be more people to do this as well.Matthew // But 600 comics. To me, I kind of thought, we would be done, that would be the world of sex, right? That’s wild! But we still keep getting more people applying, bringing a completely different perspective. And I’m just like, “yeah, wow, that’s really important! Of course I want that. Oh, that! Sure, let’s do it!”Erika // I gotta say, I have a completely different perspective on my end. In the first few years of OJST people would say, “when are you gonna wrap this up, when are you gonna run out of stuff?” And I’d be like, “there is more to talk about sex than I have time and space to.” And I still feel that way, it’s just that I’m old now, and I’m tired, and I don’t have the energy and time to do all those comics. But there’s so many more subjects that I do want covered. It’s a topic that has no bottom to it.