The Unjust Outcomes: Reproductive Violence on Black Bodies 1800-Present
April 7th, 2018. 2:30-5PM.
RSVP required.
The Unjust Outcomes: Reproductive Violence on Black Bodies 1800 to Present will bring together social activists from the Black Youth Project’s NYC chapter to increase knowledge about improving reproductive health outcomes for black families. We will explore how past and current socio-political climates impact the health of Black people. The panelists will analyze the unjust health disparities afflicting Black communities ranging from maternal death to failure to thrive to deficits in later life as seen through a reproductive justice lens. Our aim is to engage members of the community and gatekeepers of health information from different backgrounds to discuss collaborative methods of approaching these issues. The Unjust Outcomes: Reproductive Violence on Black Bodies 1800 to Present will be a platform for communities to engage in Black health throughout 2018 and beyond. Donations will be accepted at the door and will go towards supporting BYP100 NYC’s initiatives. Presented as part of the Health Show II.
Coinciding with Women’s History Month, the Health Show II will take place in three different Brooklyn locations in March-April 2018. This initiative is dedicated to a series of shows that took place in Lower Manhattan in February 1994, called “The Women’s Health Show.” Launched in collaboration with the Women’s Caucus for Art, “The Women’s Health Show” explored the American medical system, and questioned “how women are perceived within it.” The original project included panels developed with community and arts organizations such as A.I.R., and SOHO20, which explored race and racism in healthcare, and medical research deficiencies for diseases affecting women and people of color. These concerns and the systemic imbalances they stem from, remain urgent problems today. The illnesses that primarily affect women and gender non-conforming people continue to receive proportionally less medical research, and they frequently face inadequate care due to entrenched sexism on the part of doctors. This contemporary iteration of the Health Show will focus on new projects that address health and care both in the medical industry and our day to day lives.
PANELISTS:
Arissa Hall is a born and raised New Yorker, mama, wife and sister-friend that is passionate about about achieving transformative socio-economic justice and base building. Her passion and commitment to this cause has been inspired by both her personal and professional experiences, while guided through an intersectional lens. Currently, she’s the Project Manager at the National Bail Fund Network where she co-leads the work of the National Bail Out- a collective of Black organizers committed to ending pre-trial detention while doing tactical bail outs. Her leadership in this collective helped bail out over 100 Black mothers and caregivers for the National Black Mama’s Bail Out and over 100 more Black folks in subsequent bail outs.Prior to this work with the Network, she served as a Research Intern at the Women’s Legal Centre in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa through the Jeannette K Watson Fellowship. Her research focused on decriminalizing sex work and attaining socio-economic rights for women farm workers. In addition, Arissa is a founding member of the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), NYC chapter. As an original member, she was an integral part of building the collective as a Membership Co-Chair. She then went on to assist in streamlining membership and organizing nationally, as the BYPTime Data Administrator. Arissa has a B.A from Long Island University-Brooklyn in Humanities with a concentration in Africana Studies.
Delaine Andrea Powerful is a Black queer agender femme whose multiplicity of identity guides and shapes her/their politics and values. She/they hold(s) multiple roles and navigates through various spaces doing justice and anti-oppression work as an organizer, consultant, trainer and educator. She/they have organized with Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) and Liberate, Eradicate, Activate to Dismantle (LEAD), and sits on a number of coalitions, working groups and taskforces looking to change policies and institutional requirements and dismantle oppressive structures. After receiving her Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins, Delaine returned to New York City to further incorporate reproductive justice and anti-oppressive politics at National Institute for Reproductive Health, where she focuses on the TORCH Program. She/They is also a part of an NYC Birth Justice Collective, a Woman Deliver Fellow, co-founder of (x)Change - a monthly salon series for Black and Brown folx, and a full-spectrum doula in training.
Nancy Morrisseau is a practicing Public Health professional at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She is a graduate of Emory and Penn State Universities. Nancy is the child of Haitian immigrants and her passion for health has taken her all over the world - she spent 2 years as a Community Health Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan and a summer working with Partners in Health in Haiti. Nancy’s passion for public health is practiced through a lens focused on systemic oppression and racism.
Destiny Crockett is a Black Feminist scholar activist who uses her work to help create a better world for Black youth. She graduated from Princeton University in the spring of 2017 with her B.A. in English, African American Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. A Mellon Mays fellow and incoming PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania in Africana Studies, her research focuses on Black girlhood during the Black women’s literary renaissance of the late 20th century. She is a ReachOut fellow at Girls for Gender Equity where she designs a curriculum on Black feminism through Black women’s art and literature and teaches it to middle school and high school students.