Black life at the intersection of birth and death

I'm sure with the publication of my TED Talk, people will be wanting to know what happened and why I chose to "call out" the conference in my talk. This is the truth of my experience; it is a piece I published following TEDWomen because people kept asking how it went and all I could say was ... "it was complicated." I made a decision the night of my talk to take my own call to action to not remain silent, and I wanted people to know it was not a decision I made lightly, but one I would choose to make again and again should I ever be put in a similar situation.

A book of poetry I published exploring the process of coming into Blackness as a political identity after immigrating to the United States. The poem from the TEDWomen talk, "The Joys of Motherhood," can be found in this publication.

In order for Black lives to truly matter, we must value and demand justice for Black people when they are still alive. The Reproductive Justice framework demands we value Black life from womb to tomb and all that lies in between. This is the story of Rodneka S, a Black woman in New Orleans who was criminalized and charged with assaulting an officer (despite never touching him) after witnessing a police officer assault a woman and a baby one fateful night in April 2017.

Sometimes referred to as the "Reproductive Justice Bible," this book by Dorothy Roberts is a must-read for anyone looking to understand the complexities and history of Reproductive oppression for Black women in the United States.

Forty years after the publication of the canonical Black Feminist text, "The Combahee River Collective Statement," Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor interviews and edits interviews with three of its writers, as well as Alicia Garza of the #BlackLivesMatter network, with a speech by Barbara Ransby.

A book by Melissa Harris-Perry that explores stereotypes and the notion of citizenship for Black women in the United States with a good historical context for present day stereotypes that make it difficult for people to #TrustBlackWomen