'Museum of Drug Policy' to Be Featured During UN General Assembly Meeting

(New York, N.Y.) -- The Museum of Drug Policy is a pop-up cultural hub that includes an immersive art experience and special live programming looking at the impact of current drug policies on populations around the world. The Museum will occupy space on Park Avenue for three days this month, during the United Nations General Assembly’s Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem.

The three-day event, which will be held at 245 Park Avenue from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., will run April 19-21. Through art, conversations and experiential events, the Museum will showcase that the moment is now for drug policy reform and that damage caused by the war on drugs is evident across the world. The Museum will uplift the voices of people most impacted by the global drug policy: people who use drugs, crop growers, people who are incarcerated, people who have saved lives or lost loved ones to drug overdose, people on death row for drug offenses, doctors who can’t prescribe adequate pain relief to their patients, and other voices of the international drug policy reform movement.

The Museum of Drug Policy will feature 70+ works from artists around the world, with interactive art installations, keynote addresses, panels, and community discussions that take attendees on a journey exploring the real impact and human cost of drug policy in communities around the world. Highlights include a special, live version of “Nerdland Forever: Live With Melissa Harris-Perry” that will include some very special guests. “Beats, Rhymes and Reform” will elevate the stories of people most impacted by the war on drugs through a night of spoken word poetry, featuring world-renowned poets and a special appearance by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered in 2011 by Mexican drug cartels. Academy Award-nominated director Matthew Heineman will do a Q&A with audience members after screening his new feature-length documentary, Cartel Land. The  film sheds light on the Mexican drug war, with a focus on vigilante groups on both sides of the border to combat the cartels. 

 

The Museum of Drug Policy is supported by the Open Society Foundations. This event is free and open to the public.  

 

Source: Mercury