Villainous: The Time is Now
A Black Sex Worker-Led Conference on Radical Survival & Community Care
April 2025 | Berlin, Germany & Online
Villainous: The Time is Now, was a three-day conference celebrating seven years of BSWC’s transformative work and aligning with World Health Day. This gathering is an emergency response to the current global crises, addressing the global food crisis, the spread of misinformation about diseases and pandemics, increasing surveillance, lack of housing access, and the erosion of community care systems due to budget cuts, job losses, and the mounting burdens faced by communities worldwide.
This is a call to action and will feature workshops, skill-sharing, and community-building focused on radical survival, alternative healthcare, financial sustainability, collective care and of course, art! The conference will take place over three days at a privately shared location in Berlin. With public events shared on our platforms.
Event Details:
- Date: April 16-18, 2025 Pre-Conference April 14-15, 2025
- Location: Privately shared & online – check website for updates
Since 2018, BSWC has supported over 40,000 Black sex workers and marginalized individuals globally through peer education, direct aid, health initiatives, and creative platforms. This conference reaffirmed our commitment to self-determination and building sustainable systems of care beyond oppressive institutions.
Workshop Highlights:
- Alternative Healthcare: Reclaiming ancestral healing traditions.
- Radical Survival Skills: Emergency care, water purification, and air filtration.
- Financial Sustainability: Mutual aid and economic empowerment outside capitalism.
- Community Action: Building lasting support networks.
Inspired by artist Vanessa Aldrich’s Villain Challenge, the conference commemorates The BSWC’s 7th birthday and encourages discipline, preparedness, and decisive action. “We’ve built our own systems of care because institutions have failed us,” says BSWC’s guiding spirit, Akynos. “This is our declaration: we will thrive on our terms.”
Media & Partnership Inquiries:
Contact Team BSWC at: conference {AT} thebswc DOT org.
For more information, visit our FAQ page.
Thank you to our sponsors!
