mamablack

and medicine

HEALING AND RECONCILIATION HAS ALWAYS REQUIRED

TRUTH, ACCOUNTABILITY AND ACTION

What April Teaches Us About Rape Culture and What You Can Do About It

Dear Black Girl....

Dear Black Girl....

1. You must let the pain visit. 2. You must allow it teach you 3. You must not allow it overstay. (Three routes to healing) - Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Questions for Ada Photo source: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/young-black-woman-on-wooden-boat-dock-she-looks-stock-video-footage/472903806 You are precious. They will never say this enough to you, Black girl. I say it neither to erase what’s been hard nor to ignore the reasons you don't believe you are but to give you

When the Silence Shatters: Post-Black Women's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Reflections f

When the Silence Shatters: Post-Black Women's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Reflections f

“The fact that we are here and that [we] speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken” – Audre Lorde Photo by Maybelline McCoy The time between mid-July till mid-September is rough for me. July 11th and September 13th bookend my summer as the dates of two of my sexual assaults. Some people name the date the “annive

With Harp and Sword: Trauma, Survivorship, and Reproductive Health

With Harp and Sword: Trauma, Survivorship, and Reproductive Health

“I have been in sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots, then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands.” -Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road In Kenya M. Fairley’s recently published book, With Harp and Sword: A Doula’s Guide to Providing Trauma-Informed Birth Support, she answers the call to action that many women of color birth workers have been waiting for. This book is a spiritual gathering of knowledge, wisdo

Not Having It: Nate Parker and the False Choice for Black Women

Not Having It: Nate Parker and the False Choice for Black Women

As college students head back to school, the media and social media are abuzz with daily news about filmmaker Nate Parker and his college roommate Jean Celestin who were accused of raping a woman—who later committed suicide—when they were students at Pennsylvania State University. With their much anticipated Birth of a Nation film coming out in a few months, this story is both timely and critically important. Many black women, specifically survivors of sexual assault, and the

#RememberKhwezi: South African Women Continue to Resist in Case of Jacob Zuma

#RememberKhwezi: South African Women Continue to Resist in Case of Jacob Zuma

In a video released on Saturday, four women dressed in all black stood before President Jacob Zuma as he addressed the nation to discuss the 2016 local government elections. These four women enacted a silent protest as he prepared to make his announcements. They sought to address the rape trial against Zuma that transpired before he took office. Zuma was shocked by the protest that took place on live television. This shock demonstrates the fragility of masculinity and patriar

Recanting Rape: Incidents in The Lives of Modern Black Girls

Recanting Rape: Incidents in The Lives of Modern Black Girls

As the school year comes to a close and our children and youth prepare to spend their summer at camp or neighborhood swimming pools, at the beach, park barbecues or on the couch binging on Saturday morning cartoons, I remember Brownsville and how we vowed to take it back. We were in the middle of the school year. It was February when I heard an eighteen-year-old girl in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York was reportedly gang raped at gunpoi

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