Category: HealthAllReligion1On Black Death and grieving modalitiesOctober 20, 2020Our deaths, even in private, are suggestions of what we deserve. And they are always in relationship with the state.What we can learn from the history of HIV surveillance during the era of COVID-19April 24, 2020The percolating crises of mass incarceration, nutrition apartheid and environmental racism makes the possibility of overcoming a pandemic another fight for our lives.There is a COVID-19 conspiracy. Scaring Black people away from healthcare & vaccination is part of itApril 17, 2020While Black people are vulnerable to targeting when medical treatments are being developed, we are also among the last to benefit. That is the conspiracy.Social distancing is just part of the problem if we don’t account for anti-BlacknessApril 8, 2020Social distancing is a privilege that the well-to-do have already been practicing for centuries to keep their resources away from marginalized people.It’s not Black people’s responsibility to end anti-Asian racismMarch 20, 2020Where was all this concern about not referencing a group of people or a place when talking about a disease, when Ebola was named after a river in the Congo?Yes, I was suicidal. But living for other people is what almost killed meFebruary 27, 2020Like most Black folks, the intentional and subliminal external messaging I received growing up were variations of me being unlovable, inadequate, and too much.Ayanna Pressley sees power in being a sexual violence survivor, & there’s science to thatFebruary 25, 2020For those of us survivors whose bodies revolt, it’s not just that we are experiencing random medicalized dysfunctions. We are reacting to the toxicity surrounding us.Summer Walker and how the pressure to perform wellness is killing Black womenDecember 24, 2019   Content Warning: This essay contains a suicide mention. When video of R & B singer Summer Walker shakily accepting her medal for Best New Artist at the Soul Train Awards was posted online, people were quick to criticize her appearance. Some called her social anxiety an “act” while others said that she “wasn’t…This ‘Raising Dion’ story-line is a powerful lesson on consent, disability and possessionDecember 11, 2019The relationship between Esperanza and Dion can be viewed to challenge the typical representation of disability while also encouraging nuance, accountability and change.Why we need Black doulas to build Black futuresDecember 3, 2019Because doulas as a whole, are not part of the healthcare system, we are the most unbiased birth experts in the labor room.Dead Black Boy Magic: How mental health stigmas compound with anti-queerness to kill our childrenNovember 12, 2019I carry a combination of marginal identities that hold an enduring need for self-sufficiency and suffering.I am a Black queer woman with HIV and I am cleanNovember 7, 2019I think that when we begin to open up about harm, cleanliness, criminalization and stigma, we get better at loving each other. And when we listen, we build up sustainable, community driven responses to diagnosis and harm.I thought Crohn’s was why I hated my body. Instead, it showed me how liberating loving Black bodies can beOctober 9, 2019Escape is little more than retreat, but Liberation is the creation of something you don’t need to escape from.Any conversation about disability justice must wrestle with Black traumaSeptember 12, 2019Without intending to, I subconsciously isolated Blackness from disability as if our history and our present doesn’t reflect that—as if the term “disabled†is not perpetually expanding and contracting to accommodate a plethora of other experiences. Why Black people need to explore intimacy within our friendships & non-sexual relationshipsMay 22, 2019White supremacy and cis-heteropatriarchy encourage us to have selective distributions of intimacy, touch and care that are reserved specifically for our sexual partners and family members.“I am committed to reclaiming God”: An interview with curators of the HIV archival exhibit ‘Metanoia’April 25, 2019I want visitors to the exhibit to understand that humans who are the most impacted by crisis, in its many forms (prison, racism, HIV, sexism, poverty, educational scarcity), have the capacity to change their own circumstances and those of others, through art-making, community, activism, and collaboration: metanoia!“Children do not deserve privacy,” and other abusive myths masked as good parentingApril 9, 2019Children who are taught that they don’t deserve privacy are in a perpetual cycle of apologizing for receiving it and/or being fearful that it will be rescinded.The other side of Seasonal Affective Disorder: For the people whose social anxiety spikes when everyone’s back outsideMarch 14, 2019No matter how much therapy, I am never really ready for what the sun demands this time of year. The brunches, the day parties, the summer park nights fueled on laughter and liquor. Like this:Like Loading...
On Black Death and grieving modalitiesOctober 20, 2020Our deaths, even in private, are suggestions of what we deserve. And they are always in relationship with the state.
What we can learn from the history of HIV surveillance during the era of COVID-19April 24, 2020The percolating crises of mass incarceration, nutrition apartheid and environmental racism makes the possibility of overcoming a pandemic another fight for our lives.
There is a COVID-19 conspiracy. Scaring Black people away from healthcare & vaccination is part of itApril 17, 2020While Black people are vulnerable to targeting when medical treatments are being developed, we are also among the last to benefit. That is the conspiracy.
Social distancing is just part of the problem if we don’t account for anti-BlacknessApril 8, 2020Social distancing is a privilege that the well-to-do have already been practicing for centuries to keep their resources away from marginalized people.
It’s not Black people’s responsibility to end anti-Asian racismMarch 20, 2020Where was all this concern about not referencing a group of people or a place when talking about a disease, when Ebola was named after a river in the Congo?
Yes, I was suicidal. But living for other people is what almost killed meFebruary 27, 2020Like most Black folks, the intentional and subliminal external messaging I received growing up were variations of me being unlovable, inadequate, and too much.
Ayanna Pressley sees power in being a sexual violence survivor, & there’s science to thatFebruary 25, 2020For those of us survivors whose bodies revolt, it’s not just that we are experiencing random medicalized dysfunctions. We are reacting to the toxicity surrounding us.
Summer Walker and how the pressure to perform wellness is killing Black womenDecember 24, 2019   Content Warning: This essay contains a suicide mention. When video of R & B singer Summer Walker shakily accepting her medal for Best New Artist at the Soul Train Awards was posted online, people were quick to criticize her appearance. Some called her social anxiety an “act” while others said that she “wasn’t…
This ‘Raising Dion’ story-line is a powerful lesson on consent, disability and possessionDecember 11, 2019The relationship between Esperanza and Dion can be viewed to challenge the typical representation of disability while also encouraging nuance, accountability and change.
Why we need Black doulas to build Black futuresDecember 3, 2019Because doulas as a whole, are not part of the healthcare system, we are the most unbiased birth experts in the labor room.
Dead Black Boy Magic: How mental health stigmas compound with anti-queerness to kill our childrenNovember 12, 2019I carry a combination of marginal identities that hold an enduring need for self-sufficiency and suffering.
I am a Black queer woman with HIV and I am cleanNovember 7, 2019I think that when we begin to open up about harm, cleanliness, criminalization and stigma, we get better at loving each other. And when we listen, we build up sustainable, community driven responses to diagnosis and harm.
I thought Crohn’s was why I hated my body. Instead, it showed me how liberating loving Black bodies can beOctober 9, 2019Escape is little more than retreat, but Liberation is the creation of something you don’t need to escape from.
Any conversation about disability justice must wrestle with Black traumaSeptember 12, 2019Without intending to, I subconsciously isolated Blackness from disability as if our history and our present doesn’t reflect that—as if the term “disabled†is not perpetually expanding and contracting to accommodate a plethora of other experiences.
Why Black people need to explore intimacy within our friendships & non-sexual relationshipsMay 22, 2019White supremacy and cis-heteropatriarchy encourage us to have selective distributions of intimacy, touch and care that are reserved specifically for our sexual partners and family members.
“I am committed to reclaiming God”: An interview with curators of the HIV archival exhibit ‘Metanoia’April 25, 2019I want visitors to the exhibit to understand that humans who are the most impacted by crisis, in its many forms (prison, racism, HIV, sexism, poverty, educational scarcity), have the capacity to change their own circumstances and those of others, through art-making, community, activism, and collaboration: metanoia!
“Children do not deserve privacy,” and other abusive myths masked as good parentingApril 9, 2019Children who are taught that they don’t deserve privacy are in a perpetual cycle of apologizing for receiving it and/or being fearful that it will be rescinded.
The other side of Seasonal Affective Disorder: For the people whose social anxiety spikes when everyone’s back outsideMarch 14, 2019No matter how much therapy, I am never really ready for what the sun demands this time of year. The brunches, the day parties, the summer park nights fueled on laughter and liquor.
