62 Search results for "reproductive health"

by JeCorey Holder Straight people continue to be homophobic for some of the most absurd reasons, I swear.

Content Warning: Medical Violence My nana, Ella D. Martin, was a nurse from Greenwood, Louisiana who slept with medical books underneath her bed, and sometimes her pillow. And no matter the time of day, Nana would receive medical emergency calls from folks all over the world, well until she was 80. Though she worked in […]

Content Warning: Descriptions of medical violence against folks who are intersex and/or have been diagnosed with PCOS by Gillian Giles When I was 12, the anticipation and excitement of preparing to experience my first period was all consuming. Cultural messaging taught me that the event would be a gender defining moment. I hoped starting my […]

COVID-19 has quickly taken center stage in the lives of virtually everyone around the globe. As things have unfolded over the last couple of months, I can’t help but notice aspects of this pandemic that feel familiar. As someone who is living with HIV and has learned a lot about the AIDS epidemic over the […]

Editor’s Note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. This is also the month that we celebrate Mother’s Day. At BYP, we will be exploring these topics alongside the theme of Imagination and the Arts, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. This […]

Editor’s Note: April is Black Women’s History Month. Throughout this month, Black Youth Project is celebrating Black women. This month is also National Minority Health Month, Autism Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month. We are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. by Donnie Moreland […]

by Loni Amor This essay contains discussions of suicidal ideation. Inspired by First Fruit festivals of Southern Africa, African-American civil rights activist and academic, the extremely problematic  Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga established Kwanzaa in 1966. Deriving from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, which translates loosely to “first fruits of the harvest”, Kwanzaa offers Black […]

by Riya Jama The first time I experienced debilitating cramps. It awoke me from sleep. I will never forget how stunned I felt by the intensity of the pain that engulfed my pelvic area, forcing me to crawl on my hands and knees to get help. If I could have screamed, I would have, but […]

This essay contains discussions of death in childbirth and reproductive violences “Who she pregnant for?” This is how I remember my aunts inquiring about the potential father of any given person’s unborn child while I was growing up. Not “Who are they pregnant by?” or “Who are they pregnant with?” The question was always, Who […]

When Beyoncé’s Lemonade dropped in 2016, I became the target of ire from many of her fans. The album, its imagery, and subject matter did not move me in the way that it moved most of them, and my apathy towards it and critiques of the artist have always been easily dismissed as hateration. But […]

With her debut film Little Woods, which stars Tessa Thompson and Lillie James as two estranged sisters, filmmaker Nia DaCosta made a splash at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film explores themes of sisterhood, poverty, family obligation, poverty, and reproductive rights. Taking place in rural North Dakota, Little Woods is set against the opioid epidemic […]

Black mothers and Black babies, who often literally struggle to remain alive in the U.S., are miracles. Educator and journalist Linda Villarossa’s recent investigative report “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis,” both beautifully and hauntingly details these challenges in illuminating ways. For Black women,  structural, social and psychic trauma often shrouds reproductive justice. However, doulas, trained healthcare […]