In a glaring oversight, I (Missy) forgot to post about this fascinating podcast when it came out in 2024. About one billion years ago — well, at the turn of the century — I was thrilled to be part of an affinity group called the Black Cross Health Collective. Jodi Darby, Honna Veerkamp, and Erin Yanke decided to document some of our history in podcast form, writing, editing, and producing “Fight the Power, Do No Harm.” I’ll quote the podcast’s synopsis, with a few minor corrections, from the website:
The Black Cross Health Collective was a group of street medics who lived in and around Portland, Oregon. They formed after the WTO protests of 1999, after seeing a need for medical care that specifically served people who were attending direct actions, demonstrations, and political protests.
In the early 2000s they pioneered community-supported trials to find a remedy for pepper spray. These trials resulted in an antidote that has been used in street protests internationally. The collective disbanded as a street medic group in 2005 or so, morphing into the Black Cross Social Club.
Fight the Power, Do No Harm is the story of the Black Cross Health Collective.
Erin, Honna, and Jodi took the pod name from our slogan. They interviewed lots of us and made a 74-minute podcast with an accompanying ‘zine. You should definitely give it a listen here, and check out ye olde BCHC website with the pepper spray trials here.