Autumn Breon on Artistic Activism as a Rights Space

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/10/08

Autumn Breon is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the visual vocabulary of liberation through a queer Black feminist lens. Using performance, sculpture, and public installation, Breon invites audiences to examine intersectional identities and Diasporic memory. Breon imagines her work as immersive invitations for the public to join in the reimagining and creation of systems that make current oppressive systems obsolete. Breon has created commissions for Target, Art Production Fund, Frieze Art Fair, and the ACLU of Southern California. Breon’s performance history includes Hauser & Wirth, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Water Mill Center. She is an alumna of Stanford University where she studied Aeronautics & Astronautics and researched aeronautical astrobiology applications. Breon is a recipient of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Fellowship for Abolition & the Advancement of the Creative Economy and the Race Forward Fellowship for Housing, Land, and Justice.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Today, we are here with Autumn Breon, a recommendation from Martha Dimitratou. Thank you, Martha. I received an email about an event happening outside, somewhat affiliated but not directly connected to the UNGA, the 79th General Assembly. How did you hear about it, and have you been involved in it in previous years?

Autumn Breon: Yes, I’m familiar with the UN General Assembly through my work with Repro Uncensored and Plan C. I’ve collaborated with them for a while, and they’ve supported much of my artwork, especially the Care Machine, a travelling vending machine that dispenses objects related to care, free of charge. The founders of Feminist Collage, Martha from Plan C, Repro Uncensored, and I, came together to think about a unique way to engage with care during the UNGA. That’s how Care in Action came about.

Jacobsen: On a personal level, you seem to have a long history of activism, especially related to feminist issues, reproductive rights, and abortion access. Do you deeply commit to activism, particularly focusing on the impact on American women in recent years?

Breon: Yes. One of my projects travelling around the U.S. this year is called the Care Machine. It’s a retrofitted hot pink vending machine, with everything inside available for free. It moves around the country, offering abortion pill resources, emergency contraception, edge control, lip gloss, candy, condoms, pads, tampons—everything for free. The concept is based on asking Black women what items represent care to them. It’s a physical intervention in public spaces to highlight the different forms of care and emphasize that they should all be accessible.

Jacobsen: From your surveys of Black women in the U.S., are specific items considered more primary than others?

Breon: What’s important about how the items are presented in the vending machine is that they are all primary and essential. We started with basics—pads, tampons, abortion pill resources, condoms, lip gloss—and have expanded as we travel, adding items like Narcan, which has been very popular in different cities. I’m glad to see people taking it. The key idea here is that care isn’t just about caring for yourself—it’s about caring for your community. People often take Narcan not for themselves but because they know it might be useful in certain situations.

Jacobsen: From a practical standpoint, are there challenges in scaling up the Care Machine? You’re offering primary and essential products to select demographics in the U.S., but do you see any barriers to systematizing and expanding the initiative?

Breon: Scaling is the next challenge I’d like to tackle with this project. Right now, the vending machine serves as a reminder of what should be available everywhere, all the time. It’s an intervention to show what our systems should provide and something we need to mobilize and organize around. Eventually, I’d love to scale it up and make the items more widely available. But for now, it’s about raising awareness and reminding people that care should be accessible to everyone.

Jacobsen: Are there any national systems, particularly in health care or pharma care in other countries, that you believe offer valuable insights?

Breon: Yes. Any country with universal health care. That’s the reality we should have here in the U.S., but until we achieve that, we rely on mutual aid and systems that communities have built. We need to create those systems to make the current healthcare system obsolete.

Jacobsen: What are some core reasons for the opposition to providing basic reproductive health care, even from an economic perspective, considering the cost-saving benefits for the general public?

Breon: Reproductive freedom has been stigmatized—that’s the primary reason. And this stigma is relatively recent. It’s part of what makes this situation so frustrating. Historically, doulas and midwives didn’t just deliver babies; they also provided abortion care. Abortion wasn’t always illegal or stigmatized. It’s become a political issue because of that stigma. If we returned to the understanding that every person should have access to this care, it wouldn’t be such a stigmatized issue, and lives wouldn’t be lost.

Jacobsen: I recall Human Rights Watch having a straightforward webpage on this issue. The text might only span two or three pages in a Word document, but it’s very clear. “…equitable access to safe abortion services is first and foremost a human right,” and I believe that’s a direct quote. Why is the U.S. context politicizing equitable access to what should be a basic human right in reproductive care beyond just the stigma?

Breon: Stigma is the root cause, but it’s hard for me to speak for those who see this as an issue because I don’t. However, I would say it’s primarily stigma and the cost. The idea of socialism scares some Americans—the concept that something could be free and accessible to everyone. There’s also a serious lack of information about how abortions work and the different ways to access reproductive health. That lack of knowledge is a big factor in this issue.

Jacobsen: Is there any access to relevant information on reproductive health in high school education in the U.S.?

Breon: It depends on where you go to school. In some places, you might have a sex ed class in public school, but what that entails varies by state—what’s legal and permissible in that state. Private schools have more autonomy, but in religious private schools, you might only be taught abstinence, or there may be no sex education class at all. On the other hand, a progressive private school might offer much more accurate information about reproductive health. The problem is that there are so many variables, and young people leave school systems with vastly different levels of knowledge about reproductive health. That’s why interventions like the ones we’re working on are so crucial. Instead of relying on existing systems, including the education system, we’re creating alternative ways for people to access the information they need. We’ve been doing that for a while now.

The Jane Collective is a prime example. That’s how people seeking abortions were able to learn how to access them when abortion was illegal. It was a group of women who came together, some even learning how to perform abortions themselves, and they created their own transportation and information networks to get that knowledge to those who needed it. We’ve done this before and must keep doing it until the systems catch up. I believe they eventually will.

Jacobsen: What about the vocabulary used when discussing these topics in public? Are there certain concepts that aren’t being communicated straightforwardly? Is there language being used that high school students, post-secondary students, or ordinary Americans working non-academic, blue-collar jobs might not immediately understand? And does that affect their ability to use this information to access services where they are?

Breon: Some resources offer straightforward access where your education level isn’t a barrier. For example, Plan C Pills has a simple digital platform where you can enter your location and find out how to get abortion pills by mail, wherever you are in the U.S. But the real challenge I’ve seen, and the reason I use art and objects like the Care Machine, is that many people don’t even know abortion pills exist. So, while there are resources, there are still significant barriers once people have some information.

Jacobsen: What about financial barriers?

Breon: Yes, that’s a huge problem. Not everyone has health insurance. That’s why clinics and mutual aid networks exist to help. And that’s also why everything in the Care Machine is free.

Jacobsen: Regarding your fellow activists, what do you encounter the most pushback on? Are they financial arguments, political arguments, issues around access, or maybe the vocabulary and tone of the conversations? What generates the strongest resistance in the American context?

Breon: Some people think no one should have access to abortion at all—plenty of people hold that view. Others believe that talking about abortion openly is taboo or inappropriate. That’s the same reality most organizers and activists face. Finances are also a big barrier. Suppose you live in a state where abortion is banned or heavily restricted. In that case, not everyone can afford to travel to another state where it’s available. Some people don’t have the time or can’t make the trip for many other reasons.

Jacobsen: Regarding the UNGA this year, were there any other services or presentations you provided besides the Care Machine? There is quite a range of activities associated with it.

Breon: Yes. The Care Machine wasn’t in New York this time. We held an activation at NeueHouse Madison Square in New York City during UNGA. The entire event was special. We screened a wonderful film by Emani Nakia Dennison called Bone Black: Midwives versus the South. It’s about Black women’s historical role in reproductive freedom in this country and the current reality for Black women. We also had a dance workshop by Mulheres Ao Vento. This Afro-Brazilian dance group explores the relationship between Black women, ancestral heritage, and reproductive freedom. We had a panel discussion about what’s working globally as we continue to create art and organize around reproductive justice.

Then we wrapped up with reminders of care. We always offer free care services whenever we activate the Care Machine, whether in any location or as part of the Care Van campaign that’s been travelling around the country. These can range from massages to tooth gems or hair adornment. We had free nail art and Reiki sessions in New York, both facilitated by local New Yorkers. It’s great to remind people that they deserve these different forms of care.

Jacobsen: I’m also getting insights from different angles by interviewing various participants. What was your favourite part of the event you participated in?

Breon: My favourite part was seeing a unique and necessary approach to the conversation about reproductive freedom. We often have panel discussions and talks, but this event was different. Yes, we had meaningful dialogues with experts worldwide and in various industries. Still, we also saw people moving their bodies and engaging in bodily exercises. That’s such an important form of care, especially with the amount of harm and violence in this country right now. Watching people enjoy an aesthetically pleasing film with so much content, substance, and a real message was also powerful. The whole experience felt special and refreshing.

Jacobsen: When interacting with individuals who bear the brunt of these issues—women who have survived unsafe abortions—what are the emotions and words they use to describe the aftermath of those experiences? As we both know, making abortion illegal doesn’t stop it; it just makes it unsafe, leading to more injuries and deaths. What comes up in these discussions?

Breon: One of the biggest things I hear about is the lack of dignity people feel when navigating and manipulating a system to get the care they need and deserve. There’s also the terrifying reality that they might be risking their lives. That lack of dignity is what stands out the most in these conversations. It’s a huge emotional burden. When we talk about what we’re worthy of and the reality I hope we soon achieve, dignity is at the heart of it. That’s what’s most important to me. It needs to be the foundation of the reality we’re working toward.

Jacobsen: So, would you say there’s an intrinsic argument here? Suppose people have open and safe access to abortion as part of reproductive healthcare. In that case, they inherently receive respect and dignity for their rights without being subjected to rights abuse.

Breon: Absolutely. That’s part of being a fully realized human. Maybe that’s also what stood out to me the most at the activation in New York—seeing what it looks like when everyone expects and is treated with dignity. We were modelling what the world can and will be.

Jacobsen: Do you think people in the social media and Internet age follow others more by their example or image? It’s a subtle distinction but important. You, I, and others have essentially grown up as digital natives. Older generations lived much of their lives without the digital trail we have now; things were hazier and more easily forgotten. Everything is curated; more than that, it’s often self-curated. Do you think this curation is unrealistic or even inauthentic? It ties into the broader conversation about the rise of narcissism in culture. Do you think the philosophy of leading by example has been diluted because people are projecting an image rather than authentically living as healthier versions of themselves?

Breon: People follow by both example and image. It’s a mix. Especially with elections, it’s fascinating to see where people get their information now. Many are no longer influenced by traditional media—network news or print publications. Instead, they’re influenced by peers or people they follow online. People make decisions based on the images they see, and often, that’s interpreted as following a model or example. But, in real life, people follow others by example—how they act and what they do.

That’s why creating spaces where people can share authentic stories is so important. They must share how they’re navigating the healthcare system and accessing reproductive healthcare. These stories offer opportunities for others seeking answers to see options and examples of what’s possible.

Jacobsen: If I may put you on the spot, what would you say is your contribution—your drop of water—to the larger activist space presented at this UNGA event?

Breon: Well, I’m an artist. I’m not a diplomat or a healthcare provider. But as an artist, I can create work that contributes to our shared human language—our lingua franca, if you will. I can use textures, colours, and objects to model the world I want to live in. That’s my contribution. I can show what it looks like to have safe and accessible abortions. I can present a vision of a world where care is the norm, where care is expected.

I can model interactions that break down stigmas and taboos through my art. Even if these ideals only exist while you’re in a gallery or at an activation like the one we had at NeueHouse, it’s something people can see and take into their personal lives.

Jacobsen: We’re almost out of time. Any final thoughts or feelings based on today’s conversation?

Breon: Oh, yes. I brought this up during one of the panels in New York, and I think it’s worth mentioning again. More than half of Black women of reproductive age—between 15 and 49—live in states where there are either abortion bans, severe restrictions, or limited to no access to abortion. That’s an alarming reality.

This is why we can’t rely on the state or existing systems. These systems are what got us into this situation in the first place. The only way forward is to create solutions and take care of each other in this reality. When you look at numbers like that, the urgency becomes clear. People have already died, and sadly, more will continue to die because of these bans. We cannot rely on the systems that got us here to solve this crisis.

Jacobsen: Autumn, as a foreigner and a Canadian, I truly feel for you and your situation. Thank you so much for your time and this conversation today.

Breon: Thank you for your thoughtful questions. If there’s anything else you need—more info or follow-up questions—please feel free to reach out.

Jacobsen: Thank you again, Autumn.

Breon: Thank you!

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