Black Women's Dept. of Labor

Season 1 Episode 4 features an interview with Chanel Porchia Albert. We discuss how she became a doula, why she started Ancient Song Doula Services, the role of doulas in and beyond birthwork, and how Ancient Song is pivoting during this pandemic moment. We also chat about intergenerational hope and birthwork as political work for both the birthing person and the doula supporting them.

Chanel Porchia Albert Bio:
Commissioner Chanel L. Porchia Albert CD, CPD, CLC, CHHC is the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Ancient Song Doula Services: a reproductive health organization of over 70 full-spectrum community-based doulas focused on providing resources and full-spectrum doula services to women of color and marginalized communities throughout NYC and Northern New Jersey. She is a certified lactation counselor, midwifery assistant, and vegan chef who has served on various advisory boards throughout the country. When she is not working on legislative policy or facilitating workshops, you can find her spending time with her six children.

References During the Episode:

• Follow Chanel (@chanel_porchia) and Ancient Song Doula Services (@ancientsong) on Instagram
• Learn more about the Listen to Me Now! Campaign
• If you live in NYC and need a care package/box from Ancient Song, email info@ancientsongdoulaservices.com
• Donate to Ancient Song via PayPal or via their Amazon wishlist
• Stay tuned for announcements from Ancient Song about the Virtual Decolonizing Birth Conference in Fall 2020 and recipients of the Juneteenth Birthworker Seed Fund
• Young Lords takeover of Lincoln Hospital in 1970 on WNYC

Questions to consider after the episode:

• How can we center intergenerational hope in birthwork and community organizing?
• How to engage people who experience oppression and marginalization in political organizing and policy work? In world building work? How do we meet folks where they are so they too can bring their voices and experiences into the processes that shape our world? 
• Birthwork is political work. For birthworkers: what is the work you can do to address unequal birth outcomes and experiences?

Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster

Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc

This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of&

Season 1 Episode 3 features an interview with Leslie Grant Spann. We discuss her three birth stories, and do a deep dive into the history of reproductive justice community organizing via Sistas on the Rise in the Bronx, New York City and nationwide with young parents in the early 2000s.

Leslie Grant Spann Bio:
Leslie Grant-Spann began her work in social justice as a 15-year-old-mother working with Sistas on the Rise in the South Bronx. Leslie organized other young mothers around  access to education and childcare in New York with intersections to the larger reproductive justice movement. Leslie has served in a number of leadership positions: Executive Director of Sistas on the Rise (2007-2011); Secretary to the Board of Directors for SisterSong (2007-2013); and as a member of the Standing in Our Power Leadership team (2013-present). Leslie is the Director of Conferences and Convenings for Race Forward. In this role, Leslie is the Executive Producer of the Facing Race National Conference: the largest multiracial racial justice conference in the United States. Leslie also manages the production of over two dozen in-person and virtual events for the organization annually. In 2019 Leslie founded 31st Event Productions LLC which supports organizations and businesses to produce unique and inclusive in-person and virtual experiences to drive mission and brand awareness.

References During the Episode:

• Young Women United (now Bold Futures)
• Martha Neilson Schools (closed in 2007. Learn more about the closure’s effect on Sistas on the Rise and young parents on this blog post on Radical Doula)
• Organizations and projects in NYC that are no longer around but organized with Sistas on the Rise: Brooklyn Young Mothers Collective, Sister 2 Sister, Community Birthing Project

Questions to consider after the episode:
Leslie’s birth stories and history of reproductive justice organizing highlight some of the ways that multiple City agencies impact the health and well-being of parents and families. Consider: how do multiple systems and institutions impact health and families? Especially sexual and reproductive health, including pregnancy and childbirth. And how does this understanding impact how we organize communities for reproductive justice and birth justice?

Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster

Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc

This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Season 1 Episode 2 features an interview with professor Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens. We discuss a brief history of American gynecology and we reflect on what this history means in present day gynecological care, including her own experiences of medical racism.

But before we jump into this week's episode, we take a moment of silence for Sha-Asia Washington - a 26 year old Black woman who died during childbirth in early July at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn. Say her name. Learn her story. Here is the gofundme page to support her newborn and her family.

Deirdre Cooper Owens Bio:
Deirdre Cooper Owens is the Linda and Charles Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and Director of the Humanities in Medicine program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer and has won a number of prestigious honors for her scholarly and advocacy work. A popular public speaker, Dr. Cooper Owens has spoken widely across the U.S. and Europe. She has published articles, essays, book chapters, and think pieces on a number of issues that concern African American experiences. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2017) won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the Organization of American Historians as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history.  Professor Cooper Owens is also the Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest cultural institution. She is working on a second book project that examines mental illness during the era of United States slavery and is writing a popular biography of Harriet Tubman that examines her through the lens of disability. 

References During the Episode:

• [Book] Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology
• [Lecture] Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens presenting on her book Medical Bondage at Carnegie Mellon University (2019)
• [Organization] East Harlem Preservation Society (Marina Ortiz, founder)

Questions to consider after the episode:
What are some examples of practices, behaviors and policies that are considered “normal” in healthcare that do not sit right with you? Consider how racist practices, behaviors and policies have become so rampant and routine that they are accepted as a normal part of American healthcare.

Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster

Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc

This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

The first episode of the first season of the Birth Justice Podcast NYC features an interview between podcast host Taja Lindley and her mother, Adrianne Robinson. This episode - the birth of the Birth Justice Podcast NYC - is released on the same day as Taja’s birthday! Adrianne shares her journey into motherhood and what it was like to give birth to Taja in New York City in 1985.

Adrianne Robinson’s Bio
Adrianne Robinson has always had a passion for science and helping others, while growing up her passion translated into her career. Adrianne obtained her degree in nursing at Beth Israel School of Nursing, completing her program while 7 months pregnant with her first daughter, Taja Lindley. She likes to joke that Taja has an honorary degree in nursing because she graduated while pregnant with her. Adrianne is currently an RN with 30+ years of experience in various areas of the healthcare industry including geriatrics, hospice, and homecare. Adrianne has concluded that the hardest thing about motherhood is keeping your cool when others try to come for your kids.

Questions to Consider After the Episode

• What do our birth stories reveal about who we are and provide clarity about the lives we’re living? Also consider other births, other moments when you recreated yourself and are birthed anew.
• How do birth stories and origin stories reveal patterns that show up in the American healthcare system and in New York City? 

Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster

Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc

This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

In this pre-season (and pre- series!) prelude episode, the Birth Justice Podcast NYC host Taja Lindley shares what brings her to this podcast project, and what you can expect to hear and experience in Season 1 and beyond.

Links to information and resources that Taja references in this episode:

• [Book] Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
• [Book] Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
• [Article] Exam Rooms and Bedrooms: Navigating Queer Sexual Health on Rewire News
• Taja Lindley’s A Blade of Grass Fellowship Project: The Bronx Birth Justice Tribunal
• NYC Public Artist in Residence Program overview, including the culminating project for her first year: The Bronx Birth Justice Gathering (which was postponed due to COVID)
• [Organization] Southern Birth Justice Network and their Birth Justice Bill of Rights

Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster

Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc

This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Get ready for the Birth Justice Podcast NYC - the only podcast on the internet exclusively grappling with the sexual and reproductive health of New Yorkers. Every week there will be conversations and interviews with people, projects and organizations doing the good work of making reproductive justice and birth justice possible in our city and beyond.

Season 1 Episode 1 drops July 8th, 2020.

Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster

Support our work on Patreon
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc (website launches July 1st, 2020)

This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.