Ephemera
I WAS CARRYING HER COFFIN IN MY POCKET.
The use of the matchbox in Jean Genet’s novel Funeral Rites is perhaps the singularly most beautiful passage in literature describing the erasure of the marginalized by the dominant culture. In the narrative the protagonist Jean D sits at the back of the chapel, alone and excluded from the family and religious ceremony for his lover. Homosexual partners were criminalized and went unacknowledged in society, so Jean D grieved and performed his own ritual, alone:
“The matchbox in my pocket, the tiny coffin, imposed its presence more and more, obsessed me:
“Jean's coffin could be just as small.”
I was carrying his coffin in my pocket. There was no need for the small-scale bier to be a true one. The coffin of the formal funeral had imposed its potency on that little object. I was performing in my pocket, on the box that my hand was stroking, a diminutive funeral ceremony as efficacious and reasonable as the Masses that are said for the souls of the departed, behind the altar, in a remote chapel, over a fake coffin draped in black. My box was sacred. It did not contain a particle merely of Jean's body but Jean in his entirety. His bones were the size of matches, of tiny pebbles imprisoned in penny whistles. His body was somewhat like the cloth-wrapped wax dolls with which sorcerers cast their spells. The whole gravity of the ceremony was gathered in my pocket, to which the transfer had just taken place. However, it should be noted that the pocket never had any religious character; as for the sacredness of the box, it never prevented me from treating the object familiarly, from kneading it with my fingers, except that once, as I was talking to Erik, my gaze fastened on his fly, which was resting on the chair with the weightiness of the pouch of Florentine costumes that contained the balls, and my hand let go of the matchbox and left my pocket.”
Like the tiny coffin, we created our own shrines. On the mainline bodies piled up, and too often we were excluded from public burials, so we honored the dead on our own terms.

Your Prayers Have Been Answered, Eleanor Eleanor Herasimchuk, 2000. Santa Cruz Needle Exchange tee-shirt, artist unknown, 1991. Santa Cruz Needle Exchange tee-shirt, artist unknown, 2000 A Benefit for the Dope Operas, a project of the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange, 2000. Santa Cruz Needle Exchange tee-shirt, artist unknown, ca. 1990’s.

Drop-In Center
Volunteer ID Card, Heather Edney, Executive Director, 1990’s. Drop-in Center, Parking Pass, 3” × 5”, 1990’s. Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program Volunteer Manual Vein Vanity, 8.5” × 11”, Maquette, ca. 1990’s. Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program, schedule, ca. 1990’s. Bathroom Rules, artist unknown, 8.5” × 11” Maquette, ca. 1990’s.
Rokki’s Lockbox
Metal storage lock box, Property of Roxxane Baker, 12” × 8” × 4”, ca. 1980’s. By the time Heather Edney became involved with Santa Cruz Needle Exchange in 1989, Rokki Baker had been on the front lines of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for decades. Her involvement as a volunteer at SCNEP bridged the historical divide of earlier non-abstinence based advocacy with a younger generation of activists. She would eventually serve as President on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Methadone Advocates, and has continued her risk reduction work for the past fifty years. Rokki’s years at SCNEP were marked by her involvement in many of the groundbreaking programs that they implemented, and continue to serve as the blueprint for legions of needle exchange programs across the country. Her extensive experience with MAT had an untold influence on the type of outreach services that would prove to be the lifeblood of the SCNEP harm reduction model. This was Rokki’s personal transport box for methadone and sharps, among other contraband. Rokki explained what else the box held, and a bit of it’s history: “Drugs of various sorts. It’s been to Copenhagen, Warsaw, Vancouver BC, and all over the United States and through customs. Its old cuz the sticker is from the Santa Clara programs. I’m in Santa Cruz now for 30 years. I bought it at an Ace Hardware store on Front Street.” It truly holds the DNA of early harm reduction history. The SCNEP “fuck safe shoot clean” sticker adhered to the box top is one of the only that has survived the formative years of boots-on-the-ground activism. Rokki is one of the OG’s of harm reduction. She noted, “Heather and I did presentations at UCSC. One of the SCNEP volunteers taught a class there and we were each asked to do presentations in her class. It was very revolutionary in itself. Both of us being so open about our drug use, and me being a sex worker and on MAT. All the things only talked about in sleazy back rooms...” Not any longer. They’re being taught now in Universities and are having exhibitions on their important contributions to public health, higher education, and shining a light on class, gender and sexuality. Rokki is truly one of the heroes of harm reduction. Home Delivery, Santa Cruz Needle Exchange, 8.5” × 11”, ca. 1990’s. The Santa Cruz Needle Exchange volunteers made home visits which engaged in a level of intimacy that engendered trust and love among the volunteers and participants. There were many reasons people would not or could not come to a fixed location. Some were moms with little kids, others were homebound, and there was also the real fear of arrest. For the first few years, the SCPD would often stop people before or after they exchanged. Richard Smith was one of the SCNEP cofounders. He was also a hospice nurse, so it made sense that as an RN that he would go to people’s homes, and it was from this direct experience that the inspiration for bringing services to those who were homebound was borne. It was truly the definition of “meeting people where they are at.” Heather recently recalled, “George Clark, [executive director of Prevention Point in San Francisco] loved to point out that the main harm reduction slogan isn’t grammatically correct, but I guess you gotta choose your battles.” By expanding harm reduction to address the needs of people unable to make it to a fixed site, particularly women, was a revolutionary advancement in the nascent field. These programs would eventually be replicated throughout the harm reduction community nationally, and continue to serve as the bedrock for current training in the field. This educational AIDS flyer highlights the various outreach services that SCNEP brought out to the community.