[29] Okionu Birth Foundation: Free Postpartum Care

03/25/22 • 61 min

Okionu Birth Foundation offers free personalized meals and group mental health support for low-income BIPOC families during the first six weeks after their baby is born. They collaborate with chefs and the Therapist of Color Collective to provide care in Colorado, Maryland, and Texas. While their free services are currently limited, they are developing an app for a nationwide support network.

In this episode I speak with founder Jacquelyn Clemmons about how they are prioritizing the mental health and overall wellbeing of BIPOC newborns and their parents. She shares their offerings for holistic and culturally relevant care, food as the foundation for wellbeing, Black maternal health disparities and how they are combating that through their partnership with Irth app (honors the voices of Black and brown woman giving them a platform to review prenatal, birthing, postpartum and pediatric care received from doctors and hospitals), negative effects lack of care has on child development, and stay tuned until the end to go on a multisensory journey into the future of Okionu birth centers.

Okionu Birth Foundation Website

Okionu Instagram

Irth App

Support Okionu on Open Collective Foundation

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

Share your gifts with us on Open Collective Foundation

Okionu Birth Foundation Website

Okionu Instagram

Irth App

Support Okionu on Open Collective Foundation

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

Share your gifts with us on Open Collective Foundation

Previous Episode

[28] A.I.R: Artist-Run Cooperative Gallery

Established in 1972, A.I.R is the first artist cooperative gallery for women in the United States. They maintain an exhibition space in Brooklyn, NY and showcase the work of hundreds of women artists each year. They also offer ways for members to build a support network and engage with the community through public open calls, fellowships, workshops, lectures on feminism, and discussion groups. Their multi-media exhibitions have explored themes of identity politics, historical archives, fractals, the symbiotic relationship between our body and environment, and so much more.

In this episode I speak with member Susan Stainman about how A.I.R has cultivated a space for women artists to be fully autonomous and given a platform in a male dominated industry. We speak about the history of female oppression in the United States, the lack of representation of women in the art world, benefits of membership like retaining majority of sales and camaraderie, how artist cooperatives can shift the centralization of wealth in the art industry that’s worth more than transportation and agriculture, and more wisdom.

A.I.R Website

A.I.R Instagram

A.I.R Facebook

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

Share your gifts with us on Open Collective Foundation

Next Episode

[30] Mumbet's Freedom Farm: Black/Brown Led Cooperative Farm

Mumbet’s Freedom Farm is a Black and Brown-led cooperative farm located at the base of a mountain in Sheffield, Massachusetts. It is a community sanctuary for connection, creativity, education, and wellness. The name is in reverence to Elizabeth ‘Mumbet’ Freeman, who was an enslaved African nurse, midwife, and herbalist who sued for her freedom in Sheffield and won. The land is abundant with a flowing brook, natural spring, waterfalls, forest trails, and a diversity of natural life.

In this episode I speak with worker-owner DeeArah Wright about their journey from the city towards collective rural land stewardship. We talk about the power of the land to heal trauma associated with Black land history, barriers they experienced when trying to purchase land, how they got into a mutual benefit, non-extractive land agreement, food and land as a source of liberation, benefits and challenges of cooperative farming, establishing local relationships to build financial security and community, holding space on the land for art, education, and play, their plans to create an ecosystem of homesteads and sanctuaries cooperatively owned, managed by Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color.