Recap of Denied Access: Stories in Art
On July 12, on a sunny day in Bushwick, River's Studio opened its doors for an afternoon of art and conversation, in a room built to feel safe rather than heavy.
It was ACTUM's first of three summer community events supporting reproductive healthcare access: Denied Access: Stories in Art. Local artists set up for the afternoon, our wonderful sponsors kept everyone fed with food and drinks, and a short documentary screened later in the day, explaining the why behind it all. All afternoon, curious souls wandered in, wondering what the event could be about.
Frank, who runs the beloved Bushwick thrift store FRONK, set up in one corner of the room and painted live while people came in, with his finished piece going into a silent auction. He also brought a wall of other work that was up for sale all afternoon. Naomy Pedroza showed photography she took at the NYC Knicks parade, catching the kind of unscripted joy that's hard to plan for. Shelby Bourke brought paintings too, and one of them was a surprise: she'd painted my partner and me without either of us knowing, and unveiled it that day. Yuko Kudo sold canvas paintings and handmade journals. Julia Heineman showed up with leather belts and clothing she'd made herself, each piece one of a kind.
Ace's Pizza sponsored food for the day, and our partners donated wine and beer, so nobody left hungry or thirsty while they browsed. Lasting Change, the round-up app that helps crowdfund for causes people care about, partnered with us again. It's one of my favorite collaborations to keep coming back to. Every purchase people make through the app rounds up to the nearest dollar and supports various nonprofit organizations, including ours, so guests could keep giving even after they walked out the door.
But the center of the day was a screening of ACTUM Giving's short documentary, Denied Access. The film looks at how funding decisions made in the US ripple outward, cutting off access to reproductive healthcare both at home and abroad. This was the idea behind the entire event.
What struck me most was watching who walked through the door. Some people I'd known for years. Others were strangers who saw a flyer or got dragged along by a friend, and stayed anyway. They wandered the room, talked to the artists, bought a print or a journal or a belt, dropped cash in the donation jar, bought raffle tickets for a chance at a piece they liked. Every dollar that moved through that room that afternoon went toward the cause.
That was the design of the day: give people a reason to walk into a room together, let them fall in love with the work our artists made, and give them a chance to really think about what access to care looks like, without it turning into a polarizing debate. We didn't set out to convince anyone of anything. We set out to make a space where people could sit with a hard topic, get curious about it, and talk without needing to be right.
The film itself doesn't offer easy answers. It asks what happens when a nation starts stripping rights away from its own citizens, and whether anyone, including the United Nations, has the power to stop it. Those aren't small questions, and the film doesn't pretend to answer them. It just asks you to sit with them for a while.
Thank you to Frank, Naomy, Shelby, Yuko, and Julia for giving their time and their work to this event. Thank you to Ace's Pizza and our wine and beer partners for keeping the room fed and warm. And thank you to everyone who walked through the door, whether you stayed for five minutes or the whole afternoon. It was a good day, spent honoring the people who make art in this city and asking what human rights mean, and how funding decisions end up shaping people's everyday lives.
