38 Search results for "black motherhood"

I feel guilty for dreaming of motherhood when the world is so dangerous for Black children
by Tynesha M. McCullers Growing up, all I wanted was to someday become a mother. I can’t recall a time when I didn’t fantasize about having kids, naming them after me, dressing them in adorable clothes, and loving on them unconditionally. My desire likely came from gendered socialization and the belief that being a mom […]
My mother, my Black feminist role model, is more than her motherhood
by Kathleen Anaza I feel a sense of healing and reconciliation when I consider Halimat’s life outside of being my mother. My own navigations of womanhood help me contextualize her as a nuanced and fascinating individual I can relate to. Positioning her as a peer, makes it difficult to be the hypercritical daughter I’ve at […]
The Revolution of Black Mothering: Confronting a future that doesn’t always include us
by Hess Love belly of boat dissolves you, precipitates you into nonword from which you cry out, generates clamor of your protests, boat is your womb, a matrix, yet it expels you- Edouard Glissant I always wanted to be a mother. I wanted motherhood’s playfulness, its duty, its imagination and selflessness. Like most people that […]
Contending with the violent history surrounding Black wombs as I await fatherhood
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 […]
What I learned from studying my Black mother’s pedagogy of love
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 […]
A meditation on intergenerational trauma and how we raise Black children
This essay contains discussion of suicide. by Donnie Moreland On the other side of her beautiful and hardened, bulging belly, I can feel them. My baby navigating the uterus of the woman I love, curious to the pressure of my palm on the soft brown flesh between them and I. I imagine their curiosity, or […]
It’s not just white incels. We need to talk about the Black Manosphere, too.
Mainstream conversations about online misogyny keep neglecting The Black Manosphere, and it’s because of misogynoir by Aaron Fountain On his weekly podcast, The Brother Pill, Sacramento-native and now Poland-transplant, Oshay Duke Jackson, conducts segments, interviews, and discussions about the issues faced by Black men. Occasionally, he talks about these things alone, but on most episodes […]
I am a childfree Black woman and I owe my womb to no one
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 […]
I’m not bipolar, I’m just traumatized: What I learned about Black womanhood from my misdiagnosis
By Ashley Young A narrative was erased for me in the summer of 2017 when I was informed by a new doctor that I had been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. It was my mental illness narrative, one with which I had become so strongly identified that, when it was stripped away, it occurred more as […]
Black Mamas Matter Alliance launches first national Black maternal health week
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. The Black Mamas […]
NYT report highlights challenges facing Black mothers & babies, and the value of doula support
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 […]
Brooke Obie Gives Us Black Girl Magic in ‘Book of Addis: Cradled Embers’
Harlem-based writer, Brooke Obie, has some ideas about freedom that you need to hear. In her debut novel, Book of Addis: Cradled Embers, the first book in a three part series, she tells the story of 17-year-old enslaved Igbo girl, Addis, who kills her enslaver, the president of the new country Amerika. In this story, […]