Black Hustlers Mutual Aid
Who we are….
A Black sex worker ran mutual aid. Mutual aid is a Black traditional abolitionist practice. It's a necessary practice needed among oppressed people because it allows us to keep each other safe and addressing the needs of our community by community. Mutual aid is about taking care of each other and protecting each other from state violence, white supremacy, & cisheteropatriarchal violence etc. This is the necessary relationships needed to bring us to abolition. Black Hustlers Mutual Aid stands behind these politics and principles fully. We understand the state is predatory to Black people. Therefore, we do what we have to do for our community. Our community is Black sex workers is in need of support. We are abolitionists, which means we want to see the end of white supremacist institutions & systems like jails, prisons, police, ACS, CPS and capitalism and build a future based on love, care politics and healing. Although we stand with sex workers in demanding the decriminalization of sex work, we recognize true freedom is the abolition of the institutions that allow us to experience violence such as police and jails. Decriminalization of sex work is not the end of the war.
Mission….
Our mission this year as well as always is to support Black sex workers, primarily street base, incarcerated, full service and strippers. Our events are open to all Black sex workers. In the middle of a pandemic, while others were able to receive unemployment checks, full-service sex workers were not able to. This is to support Black sex workers throughout this pandemic and beyond. BHMA is to address the needs of the sex work community has been lacking even prior to COVID-19.
Please respect this space is for BLACK SEX WORKERS. We understand others who may not be Black or may not be sex workers are in need of help, please find another group to support you. This is for BLACK SEX WORKERS. this is extremely limited resources and for an extremely marginalized group of people who does not receive explicit support.
A year of organizing …..
In the last year, Black Hustlers Mutual Aid has organized letter writings to incarcerated sex workers coupled with adding money to their books, sending them packages of their requested items, sent mutual aid funds to people who need it, community baby showers, care packages to street base sex workers, Back to School events, funds for free childcare as well as a document with supporters to get it for free, political education events, a book fairs and other items. We have made it a mission with our events to provide harm reduction kits, hot meals, groceries, condoms, hygienic products, and others. Now we are celebrating a year of organizing around Black sex workers during a tough pandemic where others were getting what they needed but Black sex workers were not.
Contact: blackhustlersaid@gmail.com
Instagram: blackhustlersma
Venmo: BlackHustlers-MA
Yes! We are celebrating Black children & Black August by organizing the second book drive for Black children. Black sex workers have always taken cared of the children! The children are our daily reminder of the war towards Black liberation. We believe in nourishing the mind and the body. Purchase a book in the link below. To mail any NEW books use address 234 glenmore ave Brooklyn NY 11207 ATTENTION to BHMA
https://www.myregistry.com/giftlist/blackhustlersbookdrive
People sprinkles all over offering free child care
NYC and Massachusetts
NYC- hi everyone! i’m dean (pronouns they/them) and i am a caregiver and school teacher! this summer i am providing $FREE childcare to BIPOC SWer families. availability 1-3 days/nights per week either in my home or yours. i promise to keep your profession confidential, and will never call the cops while your kids are in my care. i am great with creative play, games, reading, art, and am very compassionate, thoughtful, and patient with all kids 🌸 if you need childcare support email mxdean@protonmail.com
Brooklyn- Hi! I’m Lissy, a Thai queer cis woman & use she/her pronouns. I live in Brooklyn and have been working with children for the past 10 years, both in the school system & in the home. Some of my best memories with kids are from working at Lewis Latimer Elementary school in Bedstuy as an assistant to an amazing black 2nd grade teacher. For the past 5 years, I’ve been a volunteer with Regeneracion Childcare NYC, a free childcare collective. I am also a licensed clinical social worker and believe strongly in sex worker-affirming care. My practice celebrates the lives of BIPOC, queer & trans folx, and sex workers. I bring creativity, imagination, silliness, outdoor exploration, and Theatre of the Oppressed activities to my childcare. Offering free childcare to black sex workers. You can contact me on signal at 503-333-9711.
BROOKLYN- My name is Rachael and I am a queer, white cis-woman living in crown heights with my partner and dog.
I am a grad student studying applied theatre and I have about six years working professionally as a nanny in Manhattan.
I am currently offering $FREE childcare 1-2 days/nights a week in my home (only during covid, when things clear I can travel!)
My apartment is full of craft supplies, board games, all the good movie streaming services, and a very sweet puppy. I love cooking and can always work with the pickiest of eaters!
This is an anti-racist, pro-sw house and we acknowledge the importance of discretion and never involving the police.
You can email me at rachaelfeldman4747@gmail.com if you’re interested in working with me!
Massachusetts- My name is Maya Brinton, I am a white 24 year old white cis-woman. I am an easy going libra who loves making art and who believes in the abolition of police, and freedom for Black people all over the US. I practice anti-racist childcare and have spent the past few years working in schools across Western Massachusetts. I have experience working with children with special needs, as well as teaching content such as math, writing, and reading. I love working with kids because they teach me about creativity, patience, and love! I will be offering FREE childcare to Black sex workers through Black Hustlers MA. I currently live in Hadley Mass. I can drive and feel comfortable traveling to Northampton, Amherst, Holyoke, Springfield, Greenfield, Easthampton, and other smaller towns around Western Massachusetts. I can travel to you as well as taking care of children from my home. I am pro sex-work and understand the importance of discretion and unconditional support while potentially working for a sex-worker. I am open to discussing further needs! You can text or call me directly at 434-326-7960 or email me at mayabrinton@gmail.com.
Black Hustlers Mutual Aid also willing to pay up to $100 in childcare for your own sitter. email blackhustlersaid@gmail.com ”childcare” & nothing else. for your safety.
Reading recommendations for sex workers
Political education to understanding sex work, abolition and Black feminism etc
Books to pick up
Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis
The End of Policing by Alex Vitale
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution by Adrienne Rich
From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Carceral Capitalism by Jackie Yang
Woman, Class & Race by Angela Davis
This Bridge Called My Back writings by Radical Women of Color
Golden Gulag by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Online reading recommendations
8 to Abolition
8toabolition.com
No New Jails jail plan
nonewjails.nyc
What is mutual aid?
https://tinyurl.com/what-is-mutual-aid
Solidarity economy
https://www.awid.org/solidarity-economy
Food sovereignty
https://www.awid.org/agroecology-and-food-sovereignty
8toabolition.com
A whole breakdown on what abolition would look like
No New Jails in NYC
There's plans to build jails in NYC & further incarcerate Black sex workers and other Black people while lying about the closing of Rikers. We stand behind the statement NO NEW JAILS.
Mutual aid
The dream is for many more mutual aid groups lead and organized by Black sex workers for Black sex workers to exist. Mutual aid is the connection we need to build to get us to liberation and keep each other safe. WE KEEP US SAFE.
The issue with EARN IT ACT
This is an anti sex work bill that will further push criminalization
Community fridges, arrest plans, mutual aid groups etc
List of wide variety of resources for Black sex workers
SQuAD
Prioritize Black QTGNC
IG: (@squ_ad_)
Do it Safe Heaux
Safety kits for drugs
IG: doitsafe_heaux
SEXUAL ASSAULTNational Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
LGBTQ OR HIV-RELATED HATE VIOLENCEAnti-Violence Project Hotline: 212-714-1141 (English/Spanish)
SUICIDE
Hotline: 212-673-3000
Sex Work Outreach Project General help
The SWOP Community Support Line
If you are in trouble in North America, call us and we can help you get access to what you need.
1-877-776-2004, extension 1
SWOP Bail
Sex Worker Bail Out Request
Please call our community support line at 877-776-2004 Ext 1 AFTER you have completed this form. Please be sure to include your contact information and if there is a private attorney or a public defender representing the individual you are requesting assistance with, please let them know that you have reached out to us for assistance. We cannot communicate with attorneys about specific cases without a release of information but we can communicate with attorneys using general information to assist us in making the best decision.
Form on swopbehindbars.org
FREE COVID TESTING INFO
https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/covid-19-testing-sites/
This is a link of different events and activities we plan others might need help knowing how to organize on their own
About the FREEdom boutique
Black Hustlers Mutual aid sister group
The FREEdom Boutique is a mutual aid collective that works to build community solidarity by addressing material needs, providing political education, and promoting food sovereignty. Using this abolitionist framework, our efforts intend to prevent our people, Black people, from being fed into a colonial capitalist white supremacist criminal system by opening a moving store with material necessities where everything is FREE. Our goal is to keep our community safe.
The FREEdom Boutique provides personal care items (such as pads, tampons, & condoms), clothing, and highly nutritious groceries and nutrient dense meals and harm reduction kits. Through these efforts, our collective addresses period poverty and reproductive justice, food apartheid, and harm reduction in our community.
This project centers Black families, Black Sex Workers, Queer Trans Black People, and Black people, Black people who are housing insecure.
This is a living document that will change with who is involved.
This project is currently brought to you by a group of Black abolitionist organizers who are Haitian, GNC, Queer, Muslim, and No Gender.
This effort is out of Survival and LOVE.
These are small businesses that are sex work-friendly
To make content
http://buymeacoff.ee/?via=imthereasonwhy
Statement on the police reform proposal/trap
Black Hustlers Mutual Aid Statement on the police reform proposal by the mayors office on 3/16/2021 on sex work
This proposal is nothing short of egregious, insulting and damaging. This is written by Black sex workers to address the issues we find wrong with this foolish proposal and what we, Black sex workers of Black Hustlers Mutual Aid demand:
First, it is insulting that regardless of the real organizing sex workers have done that stated we want full deciminalization, a “pre arrest” that we are assuming will be coerced and still requires police and other agents of the state to “trap” sex workers is the best the mayor can and “advocates” could come up with. If there is a “pre arrest” plan as oppose to a “post arrest” plan this means police officers are still survialling sex workers which then means the state is not deciminalizing sex work and continuing its legacy of being a primary organizer of violence to sex workers.
Second, this proposal says “drastically reduce the amount of arrest” which means arrest to sex workers will not end. The state and state interest aligned organizers/organizations have co opted radical movement language like “decriminalize” and harm reduction from sex working.drug using communities while doing nothing of this sort. This is not a decriminizaization proposal, if arrest of sex workers are still a possibility. It is not lost on us that the plan does not list how clients will be dealt with, we are assuming this detrimental proposal will not work to stop arresting clients which means, it is not a decriminalization of sex work. This type of model has been praticed by other states and have harmed sex workers ability to make a decent living.
Third, police, prisons and state surveillance are capitalist and white supremacist instiutions and systems and they are primary organizers of racialize and anti Black gender based and whorephobic structural violence, we do not believe these same institutions can provide us with alleviation of our struggles and needs. These same administrations and institutions are partnering with the state to continue to build jails in our city and criminalize our people. This means Black people, sex workers, LGBTQ people, people involved in the sex trade and steet base workers. This is a fraud proposal to increase funding for harmful institutions like police by trying to play savior for sex workers and doing nothing WE asked for. We know based on how these capitalist white supremacist systems/ instituions operate this is a trojan horse to increase police funding. The proposal stated frivolously it would help sex workers with safty plans and yet, this proposal does not even admit or addressing the ways police both on a instiutional, strucutal and individual level have caused havoc to the lives of sex worker especially Black sex workers.
We are not fooled, this is the prison industrial complex finding new ways to expand itself and further root itself into our lives through liberalism.
Therefore, BHMA demands the following actions from the Mayor in his new found need to support sex workers:
Defund the police. We do think the money needs to go to housing, healthcare and other listed community based services. We do not believe that these need to be married with the prison industrial complex and we are not willing to compromise our communities. Grass root organizers and organizations that actually do work to keep our community safe have proposals on how the money given to the collaborative death making institutions in the PIC would be better used.
Legalization of all drugs. Period. We know one of the strongest ways to increase the incarceration time of a sex workers arrest is if they have a drug that is allegedly “illegal” on them.
Free all incarcerated people in the city of New York. Even prior to 2020 we have lived in a public health issue of state mandated, funded and organized pandemic of kidnapping and holding our people captive and calling it incarceration. These are Black people, undocumented people, queers, trans people and sex trading/working communties. Now, our people have to experience TWO pandemics with COVID- 19. We want the mayor to FREE THEM ALL in NYC by closing all the jails.
BHMA calls on other sex workers to also speak out againt this cringeworthy proposal. Attached is the proposal.
https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/192-21/advocates-praise-new-effort-decriminalize-sex-workers-combat-human-trafficking