Society for Applied
Anthropology Conference
SfAA 2025
In spring 2025, we took our workshops on the road to Portland, Oregon,
to the annual meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology!
We were pleased to host an amazing group of anthropologists who created a zine about harm reduction that contains art and educational resources.
Beyond the Hauntings of the Drug Overdose Crisis: An Art Workshop
Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association
New Orleans, LA
November 2025. Autumn is a time of heightened spiritual activity, and in Latine and other global communities, ancestors are welcomed back and honored through ritual and ceremony. By now, nearly all of us have been affected by the U.S. drug overdose crisis through losing loved ones and knowing of others who have passed on. Rather than thinking of this crisis in terms of ghosts that haunt us, we propose harnessing the spiritual energy of this time of year to share stories and do better by each other in destigmatizing overdose and bringing more love, compassion, and community into honoring lives who are too often erased. This workshop will be led by an anthropologist and a community artist, who will initiate a critical space of reflection on the experiences of overdose through a creative exercise that holds space for grief, honor, and profound transformation. Using collage and mixed media, participants will create a death tarot card to build an altar honoring our muertitos - or the spirits and guiding ancestors of our beloved who have passed on but still have important lessons to share.
November 2025. Autumn is a time of heightened spiritual activity, and in Latine and other global communities, ancestors are welcomed back and honored through ritual and ceremony. By now, nearly all of us have been affected by the U.S. drug overdose crisis through losing loved ones and knowing of others who have passed on. Rather than thinking of this crisis in terms of ghosts that haunt us, we propose harnessing the spiritual energy of this time of year to share stories and do better by each other in destigmatizing overdose and bringing more love, compassion, and community into honoring lives who are too often erased. This workshop will be led by an anthropologist and a community artist, who will initiate a critical space of reflection on the experiences of overdose through a creative exercise that holds space for grief, honor, and profound transformation. Using collage and mixed media, participants will create a death tarot card to build an altar honoring our muertitos - or the spirits and guiding ancestors of our beloved who have passed on but still have important lessons to share.
We are grateful for everyone who attended our workshop, including those who shared their artwork as a vessel to tell stories about meaningful people in their lives.
This workshop will be led by an Anthropologist and a Community Artist, who will initiate a critical space of reflection on death and near-death experiences of overdose through an imaginative art activity.
Using collage and mixed media, participants will create a death tarot card to honor the lives affected by the overdose crisis. Although the death card can be feared, our focus is on its divinatory symbolism for profound transformation in the context of a public health crisis.
Tarot as a Tool for Transforming the Overdose Crisis
We are grateful for everyone who attended our workshop, including those who shared their artwork as a vessel to tell stories about meaningful people in their lives.
The Art of
Harm Reduction
Zine