Black Women's Dept. of Labor

Part Two: The Old Fashion Gay Way
Are you curious about how to get pregnant when queer?
“Don't use a turkey baster!” Olivia Ford

Olivia started her path to parenthood before being partnered. After her intuition told her it was time to pursue pregnancy, she popped the question to her gay guy friend: how would you like to make a baby with me? After 10 unsuccessful tries, she and her boo (now wife) purchased semen during a BOGO sale at a sperm bank and got pregnant with the second vial.
Tune in to hear Olivia's nine year journey to Black queer motherhood including:

• intracervical and intrauterine insemination
• pursuing pregnancy with a known donor who is living with HIV
• dating while trying to get pregnant
• the limitations and possibilities of the fertility industry for Black people and queer folks

During the interview, Olivia mentions this piece from Linda Villarosa in The New York Times Magazine entitled: "Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis"

This episode is the second part of a two-part series featuring birth stories that relied on assisted reproductive technologies and it has been edited for clarity and length. To listen to the full interview, visit Patreon.com/TajaLindley.

Olivia Ford (she/her; they/their) has been engaged with HIV-related media since 2007. She is the editorial director for The Well Project, an online information, support, and advocacy resource serving a global audience of women living with HIV. She trained as a doula in 2004 and serves as a perinatal health advocate with Birthmark Doula Collective, a birth justice organization supporting pregnant and parenting people and their families in the New Orleans, Louisiana area. Olivia and her wife are the dazzled, exhausted co-mamas of a smart-mouthed toddler, Orian (pronounced like “Dorian” without the “D”).
Her full interview is available on Patreon (running time: 02:26:18)

Support the Show!

• Follow @BlackWomensLabor on Instagram and turn on notifications!
• Sign up for our newsletter!
• Support our work on Patreon where you will have exclusive access to full length interviews with each of our guests featured this season.
• Make a one-time donation on PayPal.
• Purchase the podcast music. All sales go towards the production of the podcast and support with project expenses.

Visit www.BlackWomensLabor.com to learn more.

Credits

Creator, Host and HBIC: Taja Lindley

Audio Engineering by Lilah Larson

Music by Emma Alabaster who also served as the Pre-Production Associate Producer

Additional Music Production by Chip Belton

Vocals by Patience Sings

Mixing and Mastering by Chip Belton

Lyrics by Taja Lindley and Emma Alabaster

Logo and Graphic Design Templates by Homegirl HQ

This podcast is produced by Colored Girls Hustle

“We are in the business of putting ourselves out of business.” Nico Le Blanc
In our first - and only! - panel discussion of the season, Taja Lindley facilitates a conversation with 3 diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practitioners with 40+ years of experience between them. Tune in to hear:

• What DEI work looks like in institutional settings to support racial equity and social movements.
• How they determine who they will (not) work with and why.
• The frameworks that guide their practice (i.e. critical race theory, radical Black feminism, etc.)
• The ways race and gender impact how their work gets done.
• What it’s like to hold space for anti-racism while Black.
• Who is responsible for doing this work? And who should (not) be doing this work?

PANELISTS

Megan Pamela Ruth Madison is a facilitator and author based in NYC (unceded land of the Lenape people). As she wraps up her doctoral studies, she works part-time as a trainer for the Center for Racial Justice in Education, the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, and Bank Street's Center on Culture, Race & Equity. Megan is co-author of First Conversations, a critically acclaimed series of books for young children on race, gender, consent, and bodies.

Nico Le Blanc is a passionate Black, Queer, Non-Binary BEing who currently serves as Associate Director for Diversity & Inclusion at NYU and as a yoga and meditation instructor, counselor, and advocate focused on creating positive, safe, and empowering spaces that facilitate vulnerability, and healing. They are committed to the upliftment, self-care, health, vitality, and liberation of ALL Black BEings.

Zerandrian Morris (aka ‘The Ignant Intellectual’) is a capital 'B' Black non-binary transmasculine girl-identified person born & raised in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans currently living in DC. Zerandrian is a 2001 graduate of THE Spelman College. Zerandrian is a social impact strategist who creates paradigm-shifting experiences for companies, institutions, organizations, and individuals around topics like anti-racism, anti-Blackness, and racial equity.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

• Follow @BlackWomensLabor on Instagram and turn on notifications!
• Sign up for our newsletter!
• Support our work on Patreon where you will have exclusive access to full length interviews with each of our guests featured this season.
• Make a one-time donation on PayPal.
• Purchase the podcast music (and remix!). All sales go towards the production of the podcast and support with project expenses.

Visit www.BlackWomensLabor.com to learn more.

CREDITS

Creator, Host and HBIC: Taja Lindley

Audio Engineering by Lilah Larson

Music by Emma Alabaster who also served as the Pre-Production Associate Producer

Additional Music Production by Chip Belton

Vocals by Patience Sings

Mixing and Mastering by Chip Belton

Lyrics by Taja Lindley and Emma Alabaster

Logo and Graphic Design Templates by Homegirl HQ

This podcast is produced by Colored Girls Hustle

Have you ever asked yourself:

“why am I alive?”| “what is my calling?” | “what’s my next career move?”

If so, this episode is for you!

In this intergenerational podcast workshop, we discuss:

• Astrology 101 reviewing signs, elements, and modalities
• How to tap into your personal astrology without knowing your birth time or location
• The houses to look to in your natal chart for a sense of your talents, gifts, resources, work style, purpose, and legacy
• Example chart readings of Black women artists and activists

Tune in to learn more about your place among the stars!

Also! check out our 37 page digital workbook designed to help you follow along and to integrate what you learn in the episode. This workbook includes:

• 22 worksheets to help you decode your cosmic blueprint
• 10 cheat sheets of correspondences, rulerships, and keywords
• Plus! Relevant bonus info we didn’t have time to cover in the episode!

Join the Patreon at the Creative Foundation level or above to access the workbook!

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

deria (they/she/we) is a revolutionary lover looking to the stars and the soil for guidance in this lifetime. she has creative works published at Nightboat Blog, Spicy Zine, Felt Mag, Black Youth Project, and Desert Rose Magazine. you can email her at deria [dot] em [at] gmail [dot] com to connect. Listen to her full interview on Patreon (running time: 01:32:43)

Deborah Singletary has served as an astrological consultant for 40 years. She loves teaching astrology, giving personal consultations as well as utilizing her passion for art in her work as an interfaith minister to create workshops to help people to pierce the veil separating them from their true selves. She founded Vision Carriers in 1986 as a way of organizing her life missions and purposes. Listen to her full interview on Patreon (running time: 01:50:35)

SUPPORT THE SHOW

• Follow @BlackWomensLabor on Instagram
• Sign up for our newsletter
• Support our work on Patreon
• Make a one-time donation on PayPal
• Purchase the podcast music (and remix)

Visit www.BlackWomensLabor.com to learn more.

CREDIT

Creator, Host and HBIC: Taja Lindley

Audio Engineering by Lilah Larson

Music by Emma Alabaster who also served as the Pre-Production Associate Producer

Additional Music Production by Chip Belton

Vocals by Patience Sings

Mixing and Mastering by Chip Belton

Lyrics by Taja Lindley and Emma Alabaster

Logo and Graphic Design Templates by Homegirl HQ

This podcast is produced by Colored Girls Hustle and supported by the
Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Part One: The Ol’ Mama Gang

“I saw my daughter for the first time in a vision while I was meditating.” LeConté Dill

After Dr. LeConté Dill’s vision in 2014, she met her husband, had an epic first date, eloped, and began her journey to motherhood.

She soon discovered she would need some support to get pregnant, namely A.R.T.s - or assisted reproductive technologies. She leaned on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive the baby of her literal dreams and gave birth in her early 40’s right before the lockdowns in NYC Spring 2020.

Tune in to hear how this crunk public health scholar:

• created sacred ceremony and rituals to support her process
• moved through the grief of miscarriage with poetry
• addressed disrespectful medical treatment
• received bomb-ass support from her mom, hubby, and doulas (Dana Ain-Davis - author of Reproductive Injustice - and Katy Cecen) during her pregnancy, labor, and immediate postpartum

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. To listen to the full interview, visit Patreon.com/TajaLindley.

Dr. LeConté Dill is a scholar, educator, and a poet in and out of classroom and community spaces from South Central Los Angeles, California. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University. She listens to and shows up for urban Black girls and other youth of color and works to rigorously document their experiences of safety, resilience, resistance, and wellness. Her work has been published in Poetry Magazine, Mom Egg Review, Journal of Poetry Therapy, and The Feminist Wire. Her full interview is available on Patreon (running time: 01:31:06).
Learn more about podcast guests here!

Support the Show!

• Follow @BlackWomensLabor on Instagram and turn on notifications!
• Sign up for our newsletter!
• Support our work on Patreon where you will have exclusive access to full length interviews with each of our guests featured this season.
• Make a one-time donation on PayPal.
• Purchase the podcast music (and remix!). All sales go towards the production of the podcast and support with project expenses.

Visit www.BlackWomensLabor.com to learn more.

Credits

Creator, Host and HBIC: Taja Lindley

Audio Engineering by Lilah Larson

Music by Emma Alabaster who also served as the Pre-Production Associate Producer

Additional Music Production by Chip Belton

Vocals by Patience Sings

Mixing and Mastering by Chip Belton

Lyrics by Taja Lindley and Emma Alabaster

Logo and Graphic Design Templates by Homegirl HQ

This podcast is produced by Colored Girls Hustle

It's been a minute! The Birth Justice Podcast NYC team has been deep in process for the last year to bring you season 2 in 2022! But before we jump into a new season, it felt important to revisit and review some of the wisdom and insight from season one. Tune in to take a trip down memory lane and hear highlights from our esteemed guests as well as updates about the podcast.
Also: this podcast will be getting a new name! Stay tuned for details and be sure to support this work on Patreon.com/TajaLindley!
Hosted and Created by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster