Category: Black Excellence

Ahead of election, Louisiana activists know abortion ban is staying; but they’re still fighting

A group of four phone-bankers sat around a conference table at the offices of Women With A Vision in New Orleans, a group that advocates for abortion rights, about a month before the midterm elections, dialing up voters across Louisiana to ask them about reproductive rights.

They didn’t use the word abortion — it tends to make people hang up on them. Instead, they said they were calling about “Louisiana’s statewide decision in regards to family planning” and “women’s reproductive rights,” euphemisms for Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Then they asked whether the voter wanted more information about family planning. Oftentimes, the answer was “yes.” In that case, they took down an email address to add to Women With A Vision listserv.

The group’s phone banking efforts are part of a push to send out 100 phone bankers and canvassers ahead of the election, organized by the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, a group dedicated to increasing voter turnout especially among Black people and people of color in Louisiana. It’s also one way abortion rights groups are trying to raise awareness about the impact of Louisiana’s abortion bans and mobilize voters across the state.

Nationally, the midterms are set to be a referendum on abortion rights — and a chance in some states to protect abortion rights at the state level.

But that’s not on the table in Louisiana, where the anti-abortion movement holds a political monopoly. And that leaves abortion rights supporters faced with the question of how to fight back when they’ve already lost so much.

“We’re not going to get Roe back right away,” said Deon Haywood, the executive director of Women With A Vision.

But when Women With A Vision volunteers knock on doors ahead of November, Haywood hopes the conversation will move beyond the need to vote. She wants people to start seeing abortion rights as deeply entwined with every other issue that might motivate them to get to the polls — and she sees an opportunity to galvanize Louisianans who did not want Roe v. Wade overturned.

“[Abortion] has to be a part of the larger narrative,” Haywood said. “It can no longer be in a silo over there called ‘abortion land.’ It has to be included in every oppression that people are feeling.”

For Haywood and Erenberg, the strategy is to make abortion part of a larger political agenda for a more equal society, from housing and education to policing. It’s a framework developed by Black women called reproductive justice — a way of combining reproductive rights with the conditions that actually help families thrive.

“It is the right to have children, the right to not have children. It is the right to raise our children and our families, both chosen and biological, in communities that are safe,” Haywood said, “And I should have a job that allows me to afford to give my family what they need, right? We should have education.”

Both Women With A Vision and Lift Louisiana, a group that lobbies and litigates for abortion rights, are building partnerships with progressive groups that might not have seen a need to join forces around reproductive rights in the past, including groups that advocate for better housing and criminal justice reforms.

Haywood believes that reproductive justice is the framework needed to get more people who support abortion rights in Louisiana to vote like it.

The state’s abortion rights supporters have long believed more people in Louisiana agree with them than the Capitol’s politics would suggest.

The Republican Party controls the state house; a number of prominent Democrats oppose abortion rights, including Gov. John Bel Edwards, who signed Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban into law, and State Sen. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe), who wrote it. The ban passed with the bipartisan support of more than 70% of the legislature.

Then there’s the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2020 which declares that there can be no right to an abortion found within the Louisiana Constitution. Roughly 62% of voters supported the amendment and 38% voted against it. (The amendment is similar in language to the Kansas abortion amendment voted down over the summer, though Louisiana’s vote occurred when many believed Roe v. Wade was safe, and even Louisiana Right to Life, which helped author the amendment, argued the vote wouldn’t ban abortion in Louisiana.)

But more recent polling paints a more divided state. An LSU survey released in April — as speculation was growing that the U.S. Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade — found support for abortion rights has grown in the last six years in Louisiana; the public is now split 46% in support of legal abortion in all or most cases, compared to 49% against legal abortion in all or most cases.

For Haywood and Erenberg, tying abortion rights to other urgent problems could turn some of those 46% who support legal abortion into abortion-rights voters.

Erenberg will also be watching to see if the elections show evidence of opposition to the ban that abortion-rights groups can build upon.

“I’m definitely going to be looking at voter turnout — I think that that will be a big indicator,” Erenberg said.

Democrats who support abortion rights are running for a number of seats on the state and national level, and they’re making abortion a key issue in their campaigns. Those races could be a barometer for how Louisianans feel about banning nearly all abortions.

But it likely won’t be because pro-choice candidates upset the well-funded, anti-abortion Republican incumbents, such as Sen. John Kennedy and House Whip Steve Scalise.

Instead, John Couvillon, founder of JMC Analytics and Polling, said the question will be just how much of the vote Democratic candidates manage to win in those races, especially in parishes with high percentages of white-collar and professional women.

“I’m thinking about East Baton Rouge, St Tammany, Jefferson, places like that,” Couvillion said.

National polls show women of reproductive age in particular are motivated to vote in the midterms because of the Supreme Court decision.

Couvillon said one race to watch is the Sixth Congressional District, to see if there’s an “abnormally high” vote for Libertarian Rufus Craig, who’s running against incumbent Garret Graves in one of two congressional seats where the Democrats didn’t field a candidate this election cycle.

And Couvillon said to look for whether Katie Darling gets a higher-than-expected share of the vote against Scalise, who won with 72% of the vote in 2020.

Darling, a mother of two, went viral last week with an abortion rights campaign ad featuring video footage of her giving birth to her new son, part of a trend of abortion rights campaign ads released in recent months by Louisiana Democrats, including Gary Chambers, Luke Mixon and State Rep. Royce Duplessis.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Republicans — like many in the GOP across the country — have been relatively quiet on abortion since the Dobbs decision. Scalise has focused on the economy; Kennedy released his own viral ad on crime, telling critics of police brutality to “call a crackhead” next time they need help; and Congressman Clay Higgins has touted his support for the oil and gas industry.

That could leave a void for Democrats to speak to voters who think Louisiana’s abortion ban, which has no exceptions for rape or incest, goes too far.

“The lane is open” for Democrats, Couvillon said. “The key is, what else can you present to the voters to show that, ‘Hey, I have a coherent alternative platform relative to what the other guys are proposing, which is burying this issue in the sand.’”

Despite the political landscape that makes abortion rights all but impossible to win back anytime soon, Erenberg said voters who support abortion rights still need to show up to every election.

“Every election should be considered the most important election to restore abortion access,” Erenberg said.

“And if we don’t start voting like that, if we don’t start voting on this issue, and really scrutinizing the candidates on this issue,” she added, “then we really don’t have any chance of restoring access in Louisiana ever.”

Beyond the midterm elections, Erenberg sees one opportunity to make substantial, immediate changes to what awaits pregnant women in Louisiana: the upcoming legislative session.

There might be a slim chance to enhance abortion access at the margins, she said, by adding an exception to the near-total ban for survivors of rape and incest.

Louisiana Right to Life, which helped draft the law, opposes exceptions for rape or incest. But polling suggests those exceptions are likely supported by a majority of people in Louisiana.

A 2022 national survey by the Pew Research Center found that among those who oppose legal abortion in all or most cases nationally, over half support some kind of exception for rape, and a poll released this week by the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies and SurveyMonkey found that 76% of Republicans support rape and incest exceptions.

But Erenberg said the biggest avenue for change could come in the areas around abortion.

There could be a chance to expand comprehensive sex education in schools, she said. Louisiana doesn’t require sex education in schools, and when sex is addressed, schools must emphasize abstinence.

Lift Louisiana also wants to increase access to reproductive health care services, including expanding access to contraception, investing more in family planning services and prenatal care, and focusing on addressing the maternal mortality crisis in Louisiana, where Black women who give birth are more likely than White women.

The impact of Louisiana’s near-total ban could aid these efforts. Between 8,000 and 10,000 abortions a year took place in Louisiana in recent years. With most abortions now banned, the state is potentially facing many more babies born each year, more women needing prenatal and postnatal care and more families needing support.

“If people are going to be forced to carry pregnancies to term in Louisiana,” Erenberg said, “then we really need to be pushing to make the conditions better for them so that they can actually take care of those children and have fulfilling lives.”

https://www.wwno.org/public-health/2022-10-27/ahead-of-election-louisiana-activists-know-abortion-ban-is-staying-but-theyre-still-fighting

Tara Roberts is a National Geographic Storytelling Fellow and the host and executive producer of the “Into the Depths” podcast. She spent the last few years following, diving with and telling stories about Black scuba divers as they search for and help document slave shipwrecks around the world. Her goal is to reimagine and reframe the origin story of Africans in the Americas and to tell stories that humanize and bring empathy, nuance and complexity to their human journey.

Tara was a Fellow at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab. She has also worked as an editor for CosmoGirl, Essence, AOL, EBONY and Heart & Soul and edited several books for girls. She founded her own magazine for women ‘too bold for boundaries.’ And she spent an amazing and fulfilling year backpacking around the world to find and tell stories about women social entrepreneurs. This journey led to the creation of a social enterprise that supported and funded the big ideas of those female change agents, a stint running communications for Ashoka and time coaching social entrepreneurs for Red Bull’s Amaphiko Academy. 

https://www.tararoberts.me/about

In her role as Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Beckwith oversees collections, exhibitions, publications, and curatorial programs and archives at the Guggenheim Museum, and provides strategic direction within the international network of affiliate museums for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Beckwith works closely with the Director, Trustees, and staff on planning and implementing strategy across the museum and on its global initiatives and plays an instrumental role in shaping the museum’s vision.

Beckwith comes to the Guggenheim from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, where she has held curatorial posts since 2011 and served as Manilow Senior Curator since 2018. During her tenure at the MCA, her exhibitions and publications have centered on the impact of identity and the resonance of Black culture on multidisciplinary practices within global contemporary art. She organized and co-organized acclaimed exhibitions such as Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen, the first survey of the artist, and whose catalogue received the George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award. Beckwith also developed The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now and Homebodies, as well as solo shows on The Propeller Group, Keren Cytter, Leslie Hewitt, William J. O’Brien, and Jimmy Robert; and a project with Yinka Shonibare CBE. Before joining the MCA, Beckwith was Associate Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she organized exhibitions such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Any Number of Preoccupations (2011) and 30 Seconds off an Inch (2009–10).

Beckwith is a member of the curatorial team realizing Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, an exhibition conceived by the late curator Okwui Enwezor for the New Museum. Other recent shows include The Long Dream, a presentation of 70 Chicago artists organized in response to the pandemic and social unrest; Prisoner of Love, centered around Arthur Jafa’s video phenomenon Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death; and Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera, a retrospective that traveled from the Museum of Modern Art Fort Worth.

Beckwith serves on the boards of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Laundromat Project, and chaired the inaugural Curatorial Leadership Summit at the Armory Show in 2018.

She has received fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the Center for Curatorial Leadership, and other institutions. Beckwith holds an MA, with Distinction, from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and a BA in history from Northwestern University in Chicago.

https://www.guggenheim.org/staff/naomi-beckwith

Latonia Moore remembers clearly the moment she fell in love with opera. She entered the University of North Texas as a jazz performance major, but a classical music requirement led her to sing in the chorus for Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (“Clowns”).

“I was just in the chorus, lowly little chorus girl, but I fell in love with being someone else,” Moore said in an interview with Leila Fadel of NPR’s Morning Edition. “Like me, Latonia from Houston, Texas, could be an Italian villager watching this comedia dell’arte troop come through town. I felt just so alive and at home.”

Moore says she didn’t grow up watching or performing opera — “my family’s not into opera, that’s not their thing” — but other types of music were a big part of her childhood. She sang gospel music — including in her pastor grandfather’s own church — R&B and jazz. Her older sister Yolanda introduced her to art songs, and she joined a choir.

Today, Moore has graced opera stages around the world, with the title role in Verdi’s Aida being her most performed and recognized one. But it’s also one that comes with its fair share of controversy, since non-Black singers often perform in blackface or have their bodies painted to portray the enslaved Ethiopian princess, long after such practices have been shunned in other performing arts.

Moore says she’s fine with the practice for the sake of art, so long as it doesn’t go “over the line for most people.” She herself has been painted darker in some cases for the role.

“When I started into opera, I didn’t really think about the fact that I was black. … It didn’t matter what my skin was, because this is an art form that’s based on suspension of disbelief,” Moore said. “Anyone should be able to go up in any brand of skin and be able to convince you that they’re an Ethiopian princess. So the makeup is not necessary … but if most people are offended, then drop it. You don’t need to do it.

“Convince them with your acting, with your voice. That’s our job.”

Moore pointed to other Black divas as sources of inspiration, including Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett and Marian Anderson. “Being a Black opera singer, not a challenge — not really,” Moore said. “I have no obstacles.”

Singing her star-crossed character into existence

She spoke with NPR as she readied her performance as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The Washington National Opera season opener runs through November 7.

Moore says the multifaceted nature of her character Leonora is “reflected in the staging and the costuming and definitely in the way I sing it.”

Moore is quick to admit the notoriously difficult role was one she long avoided. “Vocally, whew baby, this is a big mama to sing!” she said. But as the soprano studied for the role, she uncovered more layers about the character, who with Manrico (played by Gwyn Hughes Jones) forms a pair of star-crossed lovers.

“This is a chick that’s kind of more like Juliet than people give her credit for. … She sees this guy, she falls for him immediately, and she’s like, ‘I don’t care about anything else in the world,’ ” Moore explained. “So she gets to be young and youthful, but at the same time, kind of like this strong warrior-like chick, which you’re going to see reflected in the staging and the costuming and definitely in the way I sing it.”

Erhard Rom’s spare sets of stairs, grids and drapes sharpen the psychological drama that unfolds on stage, with stark shadow projections by S. Katy Tucker bringing to life the traumatic past of Azucena the gypsy (played by an electrifying Raehann Bryce-Davis) and Manrico’s tragic end. The lavish costumes designed by Martin Pakledinaz are richly detailed, from the soldiers’ shining armor to bright, multilayered dresses.

On stage, Moore inhabits her character with joy, lifting her voice to the rafters, and with despair, convulsing it as she pleads for Manrico’s life to the controlling and obsessive Count di Luna (played by Christopher Maltman).

Opera is an art form based on the “suspension of disbelief,” Moore says.

“Our job as opera singers is to sing the character into existence, and the way to do that starts with the words and being able to speak them like a normal human being,” she said. “It’s way more important to have a pulse than to just be perfect and only do what’s on the page.” As part of her preparation, Moore painstakingly spoke her parts and those of the other characters in English in order to help her “get it all sung into my voice.”

Thriving where jazz and opera meet

She demonstrated similar vocal agility in a production of Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terence Blanchard that opened the Metropolitan Opera’s last season — the first time the Met staged an opera by a Black composer. The two had met when Moore was still in high school. She described it as “a full circle moment.”

“I was a jazz singer and, of course, he’s a jazz trumpeter,” Moore recalled. “It was such a beautiful coming together of opera and jazz and gospel and church and all of the things that I’ve known.”

She noted that Black opera singers often are told to avoid getting “stuck” performing in Black operas or productions like George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess — in which Moore has performed many times.

“See, I’m that one opera singer that was totally cool with being stuck, because I didn’t view it as stuck at all,” Moore says. “For me, opera in jazz, jazz opera is the best of both worlds. … There’s something about these operas where I feel like I was put here for them.”

Moore recalled Blanchard’s simple guidance to the cast simply to be “real” on stage — a real person with real feelings, and just let the music sing itself. As a result, she says, the singers bared themselves emotionally. “I remember at opening night I could barely even sing my lines. I was already crying so badly. It just it hit home so deeply,” Moore said.

The story, inspired by Charles M. Blow’s memoir, recounts the poverty-stricken childhood of a man who as an adult ultimately decides not to take revenge against a cousin who sexually abused him.

Moore is keen on making opera more accessible. Eschewing a highfalutin attitude over the rich, complex nature of an art form that involves so many different dimensions — from the human voice and orchestral music to visual arts and drama — she notes that opera in its most basic form involves people telling stories about other people.

“What’s more human that that?” she asks. “It should have never gotten to the point to where it was this hoity-toity, sort of snobby art form,” she added. “Your mind expands when you listen to this kind of music. Yes, it’s high art, but it’s for everybody. Opera for all.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1129630509/from-gospel-to-opera-soprano-latonia-moore-makes-the-world-her-stage

Why are you dressed like that? A question posed to those who dress with creativity, vision, individuality – from those who just may not totally get it. For Pratt fashion student Sabrina Brokenborough, she’s adopted the phrase to create a visual diary of her looks, a mix of vintage petticoats and bonnets with heavy Japanese street fashion influence, self described as “very girly. I like big skirts with lots of ruffles and lace. I’m really into florals right now and dusty pinks too.”

On style evolution.

I’ve been playing with fashion since middle school, but high school was really when I was able to use the internet to buy clothes that weren’t accessible to me otherwise. I think I saw a Fruits snapshot on Tumblr of some girls wearing Lolita and Gunne sax dresses and it just clicked. I wanted to dress just like them.

I’ve noticed a switch in my fashion style recently. I used to wear a lot of primary colors and short skirts, but now I mostly lean into softer pinks and florals. I wear a lot of long skirts now. I don’t know,  I appreciate the way the fabric moves around my ankles when I walk.

Right now there’s a little bit of a divide between myself as a person and myself as a designer.

I think going into fashion design I like to explore a lot of unusual fabric combinations and textures while in my usual style is pretty predictable – peter pan collar, ruffle, florals, petticoat, big skirt, and plaids for the fall. Maybe in the future my designs will reflect more of my personal style, but for the moment I’m happy to play with fabrics and textures.

The fashion industry can be a little intimidating to break into, especially now since the world has been turned upside down. Best case is to get an assistant design position at a brand I love. I don’t think I’d go head first into creating my own brand.

I think it’s important to remember that life is really really short and you don’t want to waste time being uncomfortable while trying to fit in.

I feel like especially in the age of the internet it’s easy to find a group of people with similar interests experimenting with fashion. Before it was easy to think that no one dressed outside of the norm, but now  the world is really your oyster. Basically, look up alternative fashion tags on instagram and connect with people online with fashion styles you admire. Really focus on buying clothes you feel drawn to. Don’t buy anything that you don’t 100% love.

Inspiration lives everywhere.

I have a collection of old fashion books that I like to flip through. I really liked how frivolous and over the top clothes used to be.I think we lost a bit of that to the practicality of modern life. I like to watch 1950s movies for the costumes especially if they were designed by Edith Head, but sometimes the racism and sexism from those movies make me cringe.

From the shows. 

Gucci Fall/Winter 2020. So many dresses with lace and ruffles and beautiful collars. I like how they paired the ornate skirts with soft sweaters and I appreciate how the dressing room was clear so you could get an idea of the amount of work that goes into making a fashion show. I think it’s important to highlight the work goes into making clothes and these presentations, it makes you appreciate the art.

The fashion decade.

The 1830s! Love the big sleeves and bonnets.

On icons.

From real life it’s Misako Aoki, from fiction literally any “girly girl” character in a movie or TV show.

Elements of an outfit.

A cohesive theme and matching colors and textures. There needs to be a good color balance throughout, really honing in on the core colors and working around that.

To jolt creativity in the city, a visit to the garment district will do.

Just walking around and looking at the different fabrics gets the gears going. I always just walk around and think “Oh wouldn’t it be cool if that fabric was used for this or could be made into that?”.

Always berets.

I have a stack of berets on the top shelf of my closet and I just pick whichever color goes best with the outfit. I love berets. I’m getting pretty close to owning one in every color.

Places to find vintage.

I like to lurk around on eBay and instagram for nice dresses. The best deals are from clueless sellers trying to get rid of their grandma’s old clothes, that’s where you can find gold. In New York I usually scout around the usual places like L Train, Buffalo Exchange, and Goodwill. However, my favorite thrift store is the Philly Aid’s thrift store in Philadelphia. I’ve found the best stuff there and it’s always worth the trip – t’s a really nice place that benefits AIDS/HIV treatment and research programs.

The perfect day.

–Breakfast and tea at Ladurée, they have yummy french toast!

–Walk around the MET (especially if the fashion exhibit is up)

–Drink a bubble tea and walk around the Upper East Side window shopping

–Afternoon tea at Lady Mendl’s

–Buy a bouquet of flowers to bring home 🙂

https://www.catbirdnyc.com/blog/photo-journal-sabrina.html

How Louisiana’s only Black-owned winery was created by Kim Lewis

Kim Lewis isn’t one to shy away from a challenge. In fact, the 37-year-old single mother of three teenagers leans into the unknown, always one to ask “why not?” instead of “why?” when facing a challenge.

That’s exactly how she ended up starting Ole’ Orleans Wines in 2018. Lewis, a New Orleans native, describes herself as a serial entrepreneur. Her background in psychology landed her in healthcare, managing behavioral health clinics and working in high school special education. She’s also had a trucking company that specialized in demolition.

“I’m always up for a challenge, for learning something new,” said Lewis, who lives in Algiers on the west bank of the Mississippi, minutes from downtown New Orleans.

Wine wasn’t on her radar until she spent some time traveling to the islands and around the U.S. in 2016. “That’s when my eyes opened to the power of wine,” she explained. “I started tasting and trying everything. It became a hobby for me, a passion.”

Feeling restless in her work life, Lewis remembers one day joking with a friend, putting out the idea to start her own wine company. “I was already running my own business, so why not?” Lewis recalled.

As a Black woman, this put her in an infinitesimal market share. According to Wine and Spirits Magazine, winemaking is one area where African Americans are significantly underrepresented compared to their white counterparts. In fact, less than one percent of U.S. wineries are Black-owned or have Black winemakers – a statistic that parallels the number of Black U.S. farmers.

“I really didn’t think too much about that,” she said. “I don’t ignore my skin color but it’s not a huge selling point. The product has to sell itself,” she says.

Lewis has a dedicated team of employees, including Steve Wade from day one, her Director of Operations, and Joe Donnow, a winemaker with 30 years of experience who joined the company in 2020. She started slowly, buying other makers’ wine to fill her private label that she planned to sell only online.

That quickly grew into actually making her own wine in five 3,200-gallon stainless steel tanks in the warehouse space she leased on Oretha Castle Haley, a boulevard in Central City named for the notable civil rights pioneer. A tasting room has been shuttered since the pandemic, but she has plans to open again in the spring as business continues to boom.

“In 2019, when our first wine was ready to bottle, we sold about 200 cases,” she said. In 2019, that grew to 500 cases. In 2020, with the pandemic raging and drinking at home one of America’s favorite pastimes, she sold 4,000 cases. As of October 2021, that number is 7,500.

“Being a native of New Orleans, it is important to me that I highlight my heritage, my family and where I grew up,” she said. “A lot of locals love remembering old New Orleans, places like Pontchartrain Beach and the things that are special about our city, like St. Charles Avenue and Carnival.”

Her portfolio of 750 ml. bottles, priced between $18.99 and $28.99, have distinctive labels with local ties, including Saint Charles Ave. Chardonnay, Vieux Carre Rose and Tchoupitoulas Blanc de Bois. BKK is a rich cabernet sauvignon with the initials of her three children: Brandon Jr., Kailynn and Khari.

“I wanted people to remember good times while they were creating new memories drinking my wine,” she explained.

Working with national distributors, Lewis’s Ole’ Orleans Wines are carried in locations including Whole Foods, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target and Total Wine. Her wine is already being sold – or about to be – in most Southern states, along with New York, Colorado and Florida. Always forward-thinking, Lewis and Donnow are working with Living Wine to create the kind of AR (augmented reality) wine labels that appear on the 19 Crimes brand.

By the end of this year, she’ll be in the distilling business too, expanding her brand with Blueprint vodka.

“We’re still growing and have a long way to go,” she said. “But I’m so happy to have the opportunity to be the only winery in New Orleans.”

https://www.10best.com/interests/drinks/louisiana-only-black-owned-winery-created-by-woman-kim-lewis/

Eager to encourage greater equality for African Americans and women, Mary Eliza Mahoney pursued a nursing career which supported these aims. She is noted for becoming the first African American licensed nurse.

Mary Eliza Mahoney was born in the spring of 1845 in Boston, Massachusetts. The exact date of her birth is unknown. Born to freed slaves who had moved to Boston from North Carolina, Mahoney learned from an early age the importance of racial equality. She was educated at Phillips School in Boston, which after 1855, became one of the first integrated schools in the country.

When she was in her teens, Mahoney knew that she wanted to become a nurse, so she began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. The hospital was dedicated to providing healthcare only to women and their children. It was also exceptional because it had an all-women staff of physicians. Here Mahoney worked for 15 years in a variety of roles. She acted as janitor, cook, and washer women. She also had the opportunity to work as a nurse’s aide, enabling her to learn a great deal about the nursing profession.

The New England Hospital for Women and Children operated one of the first nursing schools in the United States. In 1878, at the age of 33, Mahoney was admitted to the hospital’s professional graduate school for nursing. The program, which ran for 16 months, was intensive. Students attended lectures and gained first-hand experience in the hospital. Many students were not able to complete the program because of its many requirements. Of the 42 students that entered the program in 1878, only four completed it in 1879. Mahoney was one of the women who finished the program, making her the first African American in the US to earn a professional nursing license.

After she finished her training, Mahoney decided not to follow a career in public nursing due to the overwhelming discrimination often encountered there. Instead, she pursued a career as a private nurse to focus on the care needs of individual clients. Her patients were mostly from wealthy white families, who lived up and down the east coast. She was known for her efficiency, patience, and caring bedside manner.

Mahoney was an active participant in the nursing profession. In 1896, she joined the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (NAAUSC), which later became known as the American Nurses Association (ANA). The NAAUSC consisted mainly of white members, which were not always welcoming to black nurses. Mahoney felt that a group was needed which advocated for the equality of African American nurses. In 1908, she co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN). In the following year, at the NACGN’s first national convention, she gave the opening speech. At the convention, the organization’s members elected Mahoney to be the national chaplain and gave her a life membership.  

After decades as a private nurse, Mahoney became the director of the Howard Orphanage Asylum for black children in Kings Park, Long Island in New York City. She served as the director from 1911 until 1912.

She finally retired from nursing after 40 years in the profession. However, she continued to champion women’s rights. After the 19^th Amendment was ratified in August 1920, Mahoney was among the first women who registered to vote in Boston.

Mahoney lived until she was 80. After three years of battling breast cancer, she died on January 4, 1926. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.

Mahoney’s pioneering spirit has been recognized with numerous awards and memorials. In 1936, the National Association for Colored Graduate Nurses founded the Mary Mahoney Award in honor of her achievements. This award is given to nurses or groups of nurses who promote integration within their field. The award continues to be awarded today by the American Nurses Association. The AHA further honored Mahoney in 1976 by inducting her into their Hall of Fame. Mahoney joined another esteemed group of women in 1993, when she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

Mahoney’s grave in Everett, Massachusetts has also become a memorial site. In 1973, Helen S. Miller, winner of the Mahoney Award in 1968, led a fundraising drive to erect a monument to Mahoney at the gravesite. Her efforts were supported by the national sorority for professional and student nurses, Chi Eta Phi, and the ANA. The memorial was completed in 1973, and stands as a testament to Mahoney’s legacy.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mahoney

Kari Njiiri is a senior reporter and longtime host and producer of Jazz Safari, a musical journey through the jazz world and beyond, broadcast Saturday nights on NEPM Radio. Born in New York City, and raised in both Kenya and the U.S., Kari first arrived at NEPM as a UMass Amherst student fascinated by radio’s ability to cross geographic and cultural boundaries. Since then, he has worked in several capacities at the station, from board operator and book-keeper, to production assistant and local host of NPR’s All Things Considered.

https://www.nepm.org/people/kari-njiiri

Kari is also a host of many arts events in the region, including introducing musical acts at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA.

Sheyann Webb-Christburg was born on February 17, 1956, in Selma, Alabama.  A voice for justice, equality, and self-achievement, Webb-Christburg is a humanitarian, civil rights activist, mentor, and youth advocate.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. named her the “Smallest Freedom Fighter”.  She is the co-author of Selma, Lord, Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil Rights Days.  In 2000, the NAACP Image Awards nominated Selma, Lord, Selma, the 1999 Disney TV Movie based on her book, for Best Television Mini Series.  The movie depicts her childhood experiences as one of the youngest activists during the civil rights movement in 1960s Selma and her interactions with civil rights leaders.

At age eight, Webb-Christburg would sneak out of her house to attend meetings and often led the congregation in singing freedom songs.  She was the youngest participant to take part in the historic first-attempted march from Selma to Montgomery known as “Bloody Sunday”.

Webb-Christburg attended a segregated public school in Dallas County, Alabama until junior high when she became one of the first African Americans to integrate an all-white school. Her junior high years were among her most horrific. She was pushed down stairs, called bad names, suspended from school, and spat on, while school administrators took no action.

Because of Webb-Christburg’s numerous encounters with racism and poverty, she has dedicated her life to assisting American youth in building self-esteem and confidence, overcoming adversity, and finding real purpose in their lives.  Her commitment to these goals began in 1980 when she founded KEEP Productions Youth Development Mentoring and Modeling Program. This program is designed for youth ages two through eighteen to enhance their personal growth and develop leadership skills and individual talents.  She has helped many youth gain the confidence to break out of non-productive patterns and reach for success.  She also works with adult models ages 19 and up.

Webb-Christburg speaks to various groups, organizations, and particularly youth across the country.  She serves as a beauty pageant, fashion, and wedding consultant. She has worked as Minuet and Waltz Choreographer for Debutante Cotillions in Alabama and Georgia for over twenty-eight years.

Webb-Christburg has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and other major media Radio and T. V. Talk Shows.  She is also featured in the PBS documentary, “Eyes on the Prize”.  She has received numerous civic and community service awards in the State of Alabama and abroad.  Webb-Christburg is a 1979 graduate of Tuskegee University.

Sheyann Webb-Christburg

Miami’s Little Haiti joins global effort to end cervical cancer

More than 300,000 women around the world die from cervical cancer each year. In the U.S., women of Haitian descent are diagnosed with it at higher rates than the general population.

The disease is preventable, though, thanks to vaccines and effective treatments for conditions that can precede the cancer. That’s why health care workers and even the World Health Organization are focusing on Miami’s Little Haiti to try to save lives.

The rate of cervical cancer in Little Haiti is 38 per 100,000 people — more than four times Florida’s overall rate of 8 per 100,000, according to a study published in Cancer Causes and Control in July 2018.

One of the authors, Erin Kobetz, the associate director for population sciences and cancer disparity at the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, came up with the idea of bringing HPV testing to areas of Miami-Dade County where women are less likely to get regular screenings for cervical cancer at a gynecologist’s office. Human papillomavirus is thought to be responsible for about 50% of cervical cancers.

Kobetz’s work and that of her colleagues, using a recreational vehicle dubbed the Game Changer, grabbed the attention of the WHO. The international health organization announced a lofty goal in August 2020: Eliminate cervical cancer by encouraging countries to get 90% of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by age 15; have 70% of women screened for HPV by age 35 and again by age 45; and treat 90% of women who have pre-cancerous conditions. The WHO believes cervical cancer can be eliminated within the next century if countries meet those targets by 2030.

‘Center for Haitian Studies’ brings health care to the people

In Miami, the WHO is relying in large part on public health infrastructure already in place, including the effort initiated by Kobetz. In Little Haiti, this work is happening at a medical clinic called the Center for Haitian Studies, located on a commercial street in the rapidly gentrifying immigrant neighborhood.

On the outside of the building, “CHS-Health” is written in big blue letters. A few small convenience stores and a tax service business are nearby, but most surrounding shops are clothing boutiques and hip cafes or restaurants.

On a weekday morning, the clinic’s street-facing windows filled the waiting area with sunlight, and community health worker Valentine Cesar struck up friendly conversations in Haitian Creole with patients as they waited.

The patients have an easy rapport with Cesar, who works for the University of Miami’s Sylvester center. At the Center for Haitian Studies, she teaches people about preventing cervical cancer by focusing on HPV. Specifically, Cesar shows women how to test themselves using a kit she hands out at the clinic. “We have a little jar, and this is a cotton swab,” she said.

‘The fact that you’re HPV-positive doesn’t mean you have cancer’

The process isn’t much different from using a tampon and is certainly easier than getting a pelvic exam, which is the other way to test for HPV. Self-collected samples are sent to a lab. If the results are positive, Cesar deploys her considerable people skills as she delivers the news.

She acknowledged the panic that comes when she tells people they have HPV. “We explain to them that the fact that you’re HPV-positive, that doesn’t mean that you have cancer,” she said.

It does mean that a woman needs to be vigilant about her health, though, and needs to be monitored for cancer, pre-cancerous conditions, and other problems that can be caused by HPV. Cesar and her colleagues will encourage HPV-positive patients to get care at the Center for Haitian Studies or other federally qualified health centers. The clinic is the Sylvester center’s primary referral partner in Little Haiti because of the cultural and linguistic competence of the staff.

The Sylvester center’s Game Changer vehicle supports the Little Haiti clinic’s education efforts and parks behind it on scheduled days. On other days, the vehicle brings a similar message to different communities in Miami.

“We’re able to promote our services through our various community health workers that go out and talk about what we do, hand out flyers and have educational materials,” said Dinah Trevil, the former director of the Sylvester center’s Office of Outreach and Engagement. “All of that helps us to bring about knowledge and awareness about our services and what we do.”

On a tour of the Game Changer vehicle, Trevil pointed out the video on HPV that was playing and pamphlets that people can use to learn about the virus. The vehicle has a main area with space for sitting, as well as areas for private exams or consultations.

Culturally competent staffers help dispel fear

Trevil understands why Haitian women sometimes avoid seeing a doctor. As she explains it, “They have the belief, ‘If I’m going to the physician’s, I’m going to find out some bad news. I would rather not go.’ “

As health educators, Trevil and Cesar try to talk people out of this avoidance motivated by fear.

Research shows the self-tests for HPV can help more women accept other tests that benefit their reproductive health, Trevil said. “So we started to use this test as a way to address some of the sensitivities and some of the reluctance in women to actually have a Pap test done.”

Patient Nicole Daceus took a self-test for HPV this year after noticing the Game Changer vehicle and the Sylvester center’s name on it. Health fears are not the only hurdle, Daceus said, noting that “people avoid the doctor if they don’t have health insurance or their immigration papers.”

No one at the clinic will ask patients about their immigration status, though — that’s something Cesar and Trevil try to make sure patients know.

How to reach the next generation

Staffers from the Sylvester center explain the issues to mothers, as they encourage them to get their young teenagers vaccinated against HPV. The vaccines for children are given inside another RV, parked a few feet from the Game Changer — the University of Miami’s pediatric mobile clinic. It focuses on care for uninsured children and sets up near public schools, houses of worship and community centers.

“We work in tandem with one another because the mobile clinic is able to provide vaccines, and this way we can make HPV prevention a family affair,” Kobetz said. “Age-eligible boys and girls can get vaccinated.”

Richard Freeman, who works in the WHO’s office of the director-general, visited the vehicles behind the Center for Haitian Studies earlier this year. Freeman said this team’s work is vital to the WHO’s global effort to end cervical cancer. No one, Freeman added, should die from a disease that tests and vaccines can prevent.

“Cervical cancer is the one cancer that we can actually eliminate,” Freeman said. “We have the tools, and all it is a choice of whether or not we’re going to put those tools into use. If we catch this cancer early and we detect it on time, it’s curable. And so we want to see all of these interventions coming — not just here in Miami. We want to see the supply of HPV vaccines also made available and also affordable in countries that have a higher burden of cervical cancer.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/11/1127261639/hpv-cervical-cancer-miami-little-haiti