View additional resources on this topic via the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
This event looks at the profound health inequities around giving birth, further laid bare by the COVID pandemic. Discussions with experts will include how slavery and the history of reproductive medicine intersect, the impact that medical racism has on Black birthing people from slavery to freedom, engagement in the national reproductive justice movement, and recent efforts to address racial inequities in maternal mortality and morbidity in NYC.
Featured presentations are by historian Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology, and public health activist and scholar Dr. Lynn Roberts, co-editor and contributing author of the anthology, Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique.
Our moderator will be Chanel L. Porchia-Albert, Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Ancient Song Doula Services. Singer/songwriter, actress, poet, educator, and writer Lacresha Berry will provide an artistic performance at the start of the event.
This event is part of the Race & Health series at The New York Academy of Medicine. The Race & Health series is about envisioning a more just society. We examine the big social, economic and systemic issues that keep people of all races from enjoying a healthy life. We’ll shed light on the historical legacy of these issues and their modern-day challenges and determine how we can, together, create a more equitable and healthy future for all.
We are pleased to partner with the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine in presenting this event, as part of its program Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Issues. This program pairs historians with scientists, researchers and policy makers for mutual investigation of a topic through presentation and discussion, with the results shared online and supplemented by additional commentary.
About the Speakers
Deidre Cooper Owens, PhD, is the Linda and Charles Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and Director of the Humanities in Medicine program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer, a past American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Research Fellow, and has won a number of prestigious honors for her scholarly and advocacy work in reproductive and birthing justice. A popular public speaker, Dr. Cooper Owens has spoken widely across the U.S. and Europe. She has published articles, essays, book chapters, and think pieces on a number of issues that concern African American experiences and reproductive justice. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2017) won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the Organization of American Historians as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history.
Lynn Roberts, PhD, earned a BS in human development from Howard University (1984) and a PhD in Human Services Studies from Cornell University (1991). She is the Associate Dean of Student Affairs & Alumni Relations and a tenured faculty member in the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. Prior to CUNY, she oversaw the development, implementation and evaluation of several programs for women and youth in NYC. She is an emeritus board member of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and co-edited and contributed to the anthology, Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique (Feminist Press, November 2017).
About the Moderator
Chanel L. Porchia-Albert, CD, CPD, CLC is the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Ancient Song Doula Services; a reproductive health organization of over 70 full-spectrum community-based doulas focused on providing resources and full-spectrum doula services to women of color and marginalized communities throughout New York City and Northern New Jersey. She is a certified lactation counselor, midwifery assistant, and vegan chef who has served on various advisory boards throughout the country. When she is not working on legislative policy or facilitating workshops, you can find her spending time with her six children.
About the Performer
Lacresha Berry, better known as Berry, is a singer/songwriter, actress, poet, educator, and writer from Queens by way of Lexington, Kentucky. She received her BA in Theatre from the University of Kentucky. She honed her playwriting skills there and went on to produce three one woman shows since 2002. Her last one woman show, Browngirl. Bluegrass. documented her life as a brown girl coming of age in the bluegrass state of Kentucky. She's performed all over the country with the show as well as singing and hosting all over NYC. Her latest one woman show TUBMAN, a reimagining of Harriet Tubman’s life as a young girl in Harlem, debuted to packed audiences in her hometown of Lexington, KY, and NYC, with additional performances in San Diego, Rikers Island, New Bedford (MA), Sacramento and Tubman's birthplace in Cambridge, MD. When she's not performing, she's teaching spoken word to middle and high school students in the Bronx, conducting educational workshops, and writing curriculum. She is currently writing her debut YA novel, Seeing Janelle.
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