Black Women's Dept. of Labor
Colored Girls Hustle
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A project and podcast by Taja Lindley examining the intersections of race, gender and the double entendre of labor: to work and to give birth. Formerly known as the Birth Justice Podcast NYC. Episodes available every other Wednesday. Produced by Colored Girls Hustle and supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
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The A.R.T. of Birthing with Olivia Ford | Part Two: The Old Fashion Gay Way
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
05/11/22 • 64 min
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
Support the show1 Listener

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) | A Panel Discussion about Race, Gender, & the Labor of Anti-Oppression Work
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
06/08/22 • 52 min
5.0
“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
Support the show1 Listener
1

Discovering Your Purpose with Astrology
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
06/22/22 • 59 min
5.0
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
1 Listener
1

The A.R.T. of Birthing with LeConté Dill | Part One: The Ol’ Mama Gang
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
04/27/22 • 54 min
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
Support the show
BJP NYC: Run It Back! S1 Recap
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
02/22/22 • 24 min
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

BJP NYC 12: Tales from a Bronx-Based Time Traveling Doula with Evelyn Alvarez
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
09/23/20 • 90 min
Season 1 Episode 12 is the season finale and features an interview with Evelyn Alvarez: mom, doula, trainer, and the world’s best hypewoman! She’s also the cofounder of Bronx Rebirth and Progress Collective. In this week’s episode Evelyn shares the tales and the tea of being a doula in NYC. She also shares insights on the politics of doula compensation, what is happening in NYC hospitals, how medical routines cause harm, and how our City can do a better job of increasing doula access to clients who want and need them.
Announcements:
- Help us grow and strengthen the podcast by filling out our listener survey!
- Share your story on the Birth Justice Podcast NYC! Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch to learn more about you and your experience(s).
Evelyn Alvarez’s Bio:
Evelyn Alvarez facilitates workshops for educators and parents about Restorative Justice and practices, race and equity, and other topics. She is also founder of Prom King, a nonprofit that donates clothes to urban students to enable them to participate in special life events. She is one of three lead trainers at Radio Caña Negra, where they lead workshops about anti-Blackness in the Latinx community and co-host the Radio Caña Negra podcast. Most recently she is a co-founder of Bronx Rebirth and Progress. This collective donates diapers and formula to families in need. Bx Rebirth offers low cost doula support, mentoring to new doulas, and supports advocacy efforts that seek to improve maternal health outcomes for Black people in New York.
References During the Episode:
- Donate to Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective via PayPal and through their registry on Target
- Follow Evelyn and Bx (Re)Birth and Progress on Instagram
Questions to Consider After the Episode:
- How might medical practices and policies, as well as health outcomes, change if we center the experiences of Black women and Black birthing people?
- What are the ways that routines can cause harm?
- What have medical institutions and policymakers named as values that could use more/additional resources?
Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Introducing the Black Women's Dept. of Labor
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
04/01/22 • 3 min
Welcome to the Black Women's Dept. of Labor - a project and podcast by Taja Lindley about race, gender, and the double entendre of labor: to work and to give birth.
The first episode premieres Wednesday April 13th, 2022 during Black Maternal Health week! Tune in every other Wednesday for dynamic stories, conversations and analysis.
Visit www.BlackWomensLabor.com to learn more.
Follow @BlackWomensLabor on Instagram!
Sign up for our newsletter!
And support our work on Patreon where you will have exclusive access to full length interviews with each of our guests featured this season.
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
Support the show
BJP NYC 10: How the Child Welfare System Undermines Pregnant People and Families with Erin Miles Cloud
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
09/09/20 • 96 min
Season 1 Episode 10 features an interview with Erin Miles Cloud: a lawyer and a mother, as well as the Co-Director and Co-Founder of Movement for Family Power. In this week’s episode we do a deep dive into the womb to foster care pipeline and the ways in which hospitals and social workers are complicit in criminalizing poor parents and people who use drugs. We get into the relationship between the police department and child welfare services, and how the child welfare system incentivizes the separation of families.
Announcement:
Share your story on the Birth Justice Podcast NYC! Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch to learn more about you and your experience(s).
Erin Miles Cloud’s Bio:
Erin Miles Cloud is the co-director/co-founder of Movement for Family Power, and a former family defense public defender. She is Baltimore born, and Bronx living. She is Black mother of two beautiful children.
References During the Episode:
- Movement for Family Power’s Ground Zero Report
- Follow Movement for Family Power on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
- BBC documentary “Guinea Pig Kids: ARV Babies in New York City”
Questions to Consider After the Episode:
- How can we better support pregnant people and parents who are poor? Who use drugs and substances?
- When we consider abolition of police, we need to also consider all of the ways that police are embedded in social welfare programs. And how social welfare programs mimic the values and behaviors of police.
Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

BJP NYC 09: A Sisterly Approach to Doula Care in NYC with Nicole Jean Baptiste
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
09/02/20 • 106 min
Season 1 Episode 9 features an interview with Nicole Jean Baptiste: a mother of two, a full spectrum community based doula, lactation counselor, yoga instructor, and oral historian. In this week’s episode we discuss Nicole’s journey into birthwork (which includes a bit about her own birth story) as well as the birth injustice she has witnessed in New York City as a doula and as an advocate. We also dive into doula work: from the importance of compensating doulas to valuing doulas as autonomous birthworkers. Nicole offers some sound suggestions and advice for what our City can do to better serve pregnant and parenting people, and folks of reproductive age.
Nicole Jean Baptiste’s Bio:
Of Southern American and Caribbean ancestry and based in the Bronx, New York, Nicole Jean Baptiste strives to center the borough and the Black experience in the birth and social justice activism in which she engages. Nicole is currently a Community Doula Consultant for the New York City Health Department’s COVID-19 Perinatal Taskforce. She is the founder of Sésé Doula Services and co-founder of the Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective.
References During the Episode:
- Donate to Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective via PayPal and through their registry on Target
- Follow Nicole and Bx (Re)Birth and Progress on Instagram
- Birth Centers in NYC: Brooklyn Birthing Center, Jazz Birthing Center (sister center of the Brooklyn Birthing Center), and the Birthing Center of New York
- To learn more about Amber Rose Isaac and her death, you can read this article in The Guardian
Questions to Consider After the Episode:
- How can our City make doulas more accessible to people who want them and need them?
- How can healthcare institutions and healthcare providers follow the lead of their patients and clients?
Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

BJP NYC 11: Pregnancy and Substance Use in NYC: An Introduction to Harm Reduction
Black Women's Dept. of Labor
09/16/20 • 97 min
Season 1 Episode 11 features an interview with Nathalia Gibbs and Dana Kurzer-Yashin from the National Harm Reduction Coalition. In this week’s episode we dive into a harm reduction 101 crash course where we get into the definition, history and current landscape of harm reduction policies and practices. We then apply this information to better understand how pregnant people who use drugs are navigating prenatal care, childbirth, and the child welfare system; and how New York City and State can better support people who use drugs. This episode is a follow up to Season 1 Episode 10 where we discussed how the war on drugs fuels the child welfare system’s presence in the lives of pregnant and parenting New Yorkers.
About this week’s guests:
Nathalia Gibbs (They/She) is a queer black doula, organizer and passionate believer in harm reduction serving as LGBTQ and Harm Reduction Coordinator where she is currently working on building the Lighthouse Learning Collective.
Dana Kurzer-Yashin (she/her) is the Overdose and Harm Reduction Trainer developing and administering trainings on harm reduction, safer drug use, trauma informed care and de-escalation and more.
National Harm Reduction Coalition is a national advocacy and capacity-building organization that promotes the wellbeing and dignity of people and communities affected by drug use. Their efforts advance harm reduction policies, practices, and programs that address the adverse effects of drug use including overdose, HIV, hepatitis C, addiction, and incarceration. Recognizing that social inequality and injustice magnify drug related harm and limit the voice of our most vulnerable communities, they work to uphold every individual’s right to health and their competence to participate in the public policy dialogue.
References During the Episode:
- Pregnancy and Substance: A Harm Reduction Toolkit
- The National Harm Reduction Coalition’s podcast The Gold Standard
- More info about Dr. Miska Terplan
- Orgs:
- Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (VOCAL-NY)
- National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW)
- AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power ACT UP
- Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center
Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.
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