5 on Friday

I've lost count so if I remember I'll check and update it, but if you're reading this I forgot and I'll post the number in a comment lollll

I’m letting my freak flag fly today! woo!

Hello friends, it’s been a minute and honestly there’s so much to share… in my next post. On Fridays, I like to share 5 things that have been occupying space in my mind rent free:

1. This post by Walidah Imarisha - To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It First. If you ever find yourself losing hope about the future talk to abolitionists, science fiction writers (Black and Queer ones especially) and small children. They’ll get you straight.
   

2. I read this Black women offer lawmakers a policy guide on reproductive justice and honestly just felt weary. Like, we really have to do everything, huh? Sigh. Good thing we’re effective and relentless then, I guess. We’ve got too much skin in the game not to fight to the very end, I guess. If you want to learn more about the folks involved and read the guide itself, you can do so here.
   

3. I had this incredible birthworker mentoring session today and one of the things that really stood our was a discussion about imposter syndrome. I have a workshop about it and love to run it because for Black and Brown folks, and caregivers especially it just hits different. Especially because so much of the time we’re not imagining it - we really aren’t wanted in many the spaces we choose to be in! And yet, we have a right to take up space there. Navigating that can be challenging.
   

4. This joint letter to the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights from Human Rights Watch sent back in November 2022 talking about the connections between environmental pollution, climate change and reproductive justice. I’m always grateful to witness folks upholding the pillars of reproductive justice - because we all deserve a safe space to live and raise our children in.

5. Tori Bowie, may she rest in power, died of preventable complications from respiratory distress and eclampsia at 8 months pregnant. She was 32, an Olympic gold medalist and not too long ago held the title of fastest woman in the world. She was also a Black woman in the United States, where Black birthing people die at 3-5 times the rate of their White counterparts. Racism killed her, plain and simple. Despite what many suggest or believe, success will not protect any of us from it. Tori deserved better. We all do.

   

   Tori Bowie, who captured gold as a sprinter in the Olympics and the world championships, died at age 32 from complications of childbirth, according to an autopsy report.

   Matthias Hangst/Getty Images