“Imagining Livable Black Futures and Centering Black Maternal Wellness”

"And because we stopped telling stories we had this huge gap - Black folk been catching babies. Black folk been doing abortion. Black folk been healing outside of a doctor's office. Black folk been doing this, but we stopped talking about it. So to start telling stories again and to share stories, that's what's going to heal our nation. That's going to heal our people." – Marsha Jones, Founder and Executive Director of The Afiya Center

What does radical Black feminist care look like in terms of Black maternal wellness? Our panel will explore the forms this takes in discussing our 2021-2022 Livable Black Futures Storytelling Research Project at The Afiya Center in Dallas, TX. This project centers the critical work of storytelling in Reproductive Justice work as a form of healing and building systems of care for Black wombholders (all those with wombs inclusive of trans* and nonbinary folks). Grounded in Lorretta Ross's theorization that storytelling in Reproductive Justice mitigates against the onslaught of anxiety and the internalizing of oppressive ideas within ourselves due to harmful encounters with the Medical Industrial Complex and how storytelling disrupts what Byllye Avery calls the "conspiracy of silence" that often surrounds Black women's sexual and reproductive experiences, our panel affirms storytelling (both critical and creative) as an crucial medium for the work of Black maternal care and healing.

We define the Livable Black Futures Storytelling Research Project as: a transformative expressive space for Black wombholders to find community, healing, and a space to enact livable Black futures: ones that prioritize Black dignity, Black safety, Black community, and Black freedom. We also work under Audre Lorde's premise that "there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." We raise up the full definition of reproductive justice in our work to account for all realms of Black justice and wellness. Our presentation will include the following: shifting the way we understand the work of Doulas (including abortion care and long-term postpartum care); centering voices that are often marginalized (those living with HIV/AIDS, those who are queer and nonbinary, across the economic spectrum, and more); raising up Black feminist research methods and analyses; and charting our creation of a Black Wombholder's Bill of Rights. 

We also want to amplify the need for more spaces invested in Black wellness, especially as it relates to Black wombholders. As such, we are invested in practicing "care work." In calling up this term, we look to disability justice discourse and others who have theorized what it means to create systems of care that address access. In our case, we are addressing access to Doulas, information about various procedures and medicinal treatments, postpartum support, therapy – all the things Black wombholders deserve but do not always have because of structural inequality.

Drawing from our work facilitating the 2021-2022 Livable Black Futures Storytelling Research Project at The Afiya Center in Dallas, TX, our panel affirms storytelling (both critical and creative) as an crucial medium for the work of Black maternal care and healing. Our work aims to: shift the way we understand the work of Doulas (including abortion care and long-term postpartum care); center voices that are often marginalized (those living with HIV/AIDS, those who are queer and nonbinary, across the economic spectrum, and more); raise up Black feminist research methods and analyses; and name the necessary conditions for truly expansive and empowering Black maternal care.