Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody still in the Brooklyn Bunker, Folks,
Speaker 1: I am really excited to bring to you this Friday
Speaker 1: a really great conversation on as it happens to be
Speaker 1: Black Maternal Health Week. What is Black Maternal Health Week? Well, folks,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember, but a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, when tennis superstar Serena Williams gave birth to
Speaker 1: her daughter, she had a harrowing, harrowing experience in the
Speaker 1: hospital that almost cost her her life. And why was that?
Speaker 1: It was because Serena, who very much knew her body
Speaker 1: and knew that something was wrong as she was in
Speaker 1: the birthing problem, says, asked the doctors and the nurses
Speaker 1: present to give her the care and medicine that she
Speaker 1: needed because she suffers from a condition where she has
Speaker 1: a series of blood clots which are can be life threatening,
Speaker 1: and she was ignored and it took multiple ass to
Speaker 1: get her the care that she needed. Thank god, obviously
Speaker 1: she did. But too many, too many Black women who
Speaker 1: don't have the wealth, don't have the fame, are ignored
Speaker 1: and because of that, they die. Three hundred black babies
Speaker 1: die every year in the wealthiest country, one of supposedly
Speaker 1: the wealthiest countries in the industrialized world. How is that?
Speaker 1: How is that not a national alarm that is set
Speaker 1: off to talk about this very preventable pandemic that is
Speaker 1: experienced in the black community. And so today I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to have a conversation on both ends, both a
Speaker 1: woman who is creating a birthing center in eastern Massachusetts
Speaker 1: that is dedicated to the health and well being of
Speaker 1: black and brown women, and moving outside of upstetrics and
Speaker 1: back into the tradition of midwiffery and dulas. We love
Speaker 1: to believe nowadays that that is considered alternative medicine. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you'll hear in the interview that I have with Nishira that, oh, well,
Speaker 1: that is how my mother was born, my aunts, my
Speaker 1: uncle's all at the hands of my great grandmother in Jamaica.
Speaker 1: And many of us have that story right with our family,
Speaker 1: with our grandmothers and our great grandmothers. And yet by
Speaker 1: virtue of capitalism and white supremacy and the pharmaceutical industry
Speaker 1: and all of these things, we've allowed them to move
Speaker 1: us away from what was, as Nashira will say, a
Speaker 1: very safe and sacred practice. And so what does it
Speaker 1: mean then to find a way to return to what
Speaker 1: we know is time and test it right. Later then
Speaker 1: I will have a conversation with doctor Mkiba McCreary, who
Speaker 1: is the new president of a fund that was put
Speaker 1: together by black executives in Massachusetts to lead on issues
Speaker 1: such as black maternity health and to look at the
Speaker 1: capital that they have built in their own careers and
Speaker 1: come together as a collective to take on issues and
Speaker 1: areas that white fillianthropy has failed right or neglected to address. So, folks,
Speaker 1: I hope that you enjoy these two in depth interviews
Speaker 1: on this feel good Friday after a long and arduous week,
Speaker 1: I wanted to end with some hopefulness, some realness right
Speaker 1: in terms of what black women and women of color
Speaker 1: face in this country who are on a birthing journey
Speaker 1: and what they are up against, but also what is
Speaker 1: being done right solution oriented in thinking about here's the problem,
Speaker 1: but here are people that are working to alleviate that issue.
Speaker 1: So I hope that you enjoy the upcoming interviews. Drop
Speaker 1: me a note and the comment section and let me
Speaker 1: know how this landed for you. If you are a
Speaker 1: person that has their own birthing story, have you shared
Speaker 1: it right? Was it something that you felt like you
Speaker 1: could share that there was safe space to do so?
Speaker 1: Please do share with us in the comments section. Folks.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to welcome to wok a F for
Speaker 1: the very first time, Nashira Barrell, who is a director
Speaker 1: of Boston's Neighborhood Birth Center. And you know, I think
Speaker 1: that during Black Women's Maternity Week, right, it's always an
Speaker 1: opportunity to one, I think, talk about the healing side
Speaker 1: and the transition that black women and women of color
Speaker 1: have made from your traditional birthing inside hospitals and what
Speaker 1: have you, but also to talk about the fact that
Speaker 1: black women still die right in giving birth more so
Speaker 1: than any other any other demographic. It doesn't matter that
Speaker 1: you know, the United States is quote unquote one of
Speaker 1: the wealthiest nations, that this is still a major issue.
Speaker 1: And I remember, right as I'm certain you did, listening
Speaker 1: to Serena Williams's story a couple of years ago. This
Speaker 1: amazing world renowned athlete, wealthiest woman, all of these things,
Speaker 1: and she's in pain during labor and being ignored tell
Speaker 1: having being told that what she's feeling, she doesn't know
Speaker 1: what she needs. It's normal. And I think to myself,
Speaker 1: my God, if she hadn't been Serena Williams, she would
Speaker 1: have ended up as a statistic. Can you talk to
Speaker 1: us about why we still need to have these conversations
Speaker 1: and then the work that you do to make birthing
Speaker 1: safe and not only safe but like the miracle, and
Speaker 1: then the enjoyment and the connection and the alignment that
Speaker 1: it should really be m Thanks Daniel, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for having me. Yeah, not only safe but sacred is
Speaker 1: is our goal? Right, And one of the guiding questions
Speaker 1: for us here at Neighborhood Birth Center is like, what's
Speaker 1: possible for us collectively, not just like the family, the community,
Speaker 1: but but the big we, all of us, our planet
Speaker 1: when we get birthright, when we really invest in UM,
Speaker 1: in all systems, in particular in the healthcare and maternal
Speaker 1: healthcare system UM and get birthright. And I'm one to
Speaker 1: say I think that we can correct for public health outcomes,
Speaker 1: the economy and climate change, So I just like I
Speaker 1: want to start there. I think we want to work
Speaker 1: birth to be safe and sacred. Um. Yeah, and thanks
Speaker 1: for you know, I mean, I think that the the
Speaker 1: there's this tension, right that we want to both like um,
Speaker 1: explicitly name the way that the the crisis of maternal
Speaker 1: health in this country is not working well for anyone
Speaker 1: and is in bar is down the worst on black
Speaker 1: birthing folks and black women in particular, and that has,
Speaker 1: you know, so much to do with the healthcare system
Speaker 1: and the ways that you know, healthcare system is rooted
Speaker 1: in inequity and white supremacy culture and racism, and also
Speaker 1: the intersection of all the other systems, right, so the
Speaker 1: ways that it is inherently kind of like unhealthy to
Speaker 1: be black and female in this country, and that that
Speaker 1: bears on our reproductive systems and ways that result in
Speaker 1: bad outcomes. And but I want to go back to
Speaker 1: one thing you said though at the beginning, which is
Speaker 1: like kind of the traditional I think you said about
Speaker 1: the traditional ways of birthing, and I actually just call
Speaker 1: us into like what is traditional traditional birthing particular Black
Speaker 1: traditions is midwifery and humber right, right, And so in
Speaker 1: some ways, as somebody who identify as a black woman,
Speaker 1: I've given birth at home twice with midwives, and I
Speaker 1: hear all the time, oh, you have the most you know, alternative,
Speaker 1: the most non traditional birth, and you know, like, actually,
Speaker 1: let's pause there and think about what is maybe the
Speaker 1: most traditional way to give birth. And so, in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, what we're doing to bring community based
Speaker 1: Midwiffree back into our neighborhood and into our community is
Speaker 1: a reclaiming of Midwiffree and a remembering of what it
Speaker 1: is that our ancestors knew so well before Midwiffree became
Speaker 1: racially redlined and the growth of obstetrics and that became
Speaker 1: you know, dominated by white supremacy culture and white men
Speaker 1: and big institutions and payers like, we have known how
Speaker 1: to how to catch babies and how to birth babies forever,
Speaker 1: and so I think just kind of them. A big
Speaker 1: part of our work is around that narrative shift and
Speaker 1: that remembering, because as we work to open the first
Speaker 1: birth center here in Boston, and to do so, you know,
Speaker 1: led by black folks and in a in a in
Speaker 1: a black neighborhood in Boston, we want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you know, in part of what we're doing is
Speaker 1: like bringing folks along to say this is not white
Speaker 1: women's stuff, and we're trying to you know, do an
Speaker 1: autom hospital birth and a crunchy birth center like this
Speaker 1: is you know, this belongs to all of our ancestors,
Speaker 1: and so that remembering is an important piece of our work,
Speaker 1: is to reframe. You know. I love that you call
Speaker 1: it a remembering because as you're as you were speaking,
Speaker 1: I was reminded of the fact that my great grandmother,
Speaker 1: my family is from Jamaica, my great grandmother birth all
Speaker 1: of my aunts and uncles and my mother. Um uh.
Speaker 1: And what I learned as I as I got, as
Speaker 1: I was older and you know, able to ask a
Speaker 1: lot more questions, was she was the midwife for her town. Yes,
Speaker 1: and knew how to turn babies, um and you know,
Speaker 1: an aid women who were in need, and that that
Speaker 1: was just a part of life. And I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, as I was listening to you, that a part,
Speaker 1: you know, not one, not a small part, but one
Speaker 1: of the major parts of white supremacy is a detaching
Speaker 1: from your story and a detaching from your lineage in
Speaker 1: a way that juxtaposes it against whiteness and Eurocentric values
Speaker 1: and anything that is that falls outside of that framework.
Speaker 1: Then somehow is less then, so we move from this
Speaker 1: space as you're as you're saying from you know what, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's so alternative. No, the actual Actually, to your point,
Speaker 1: the alternative was obstetrics. The alternative was hospitals. The alternative
Speaker 1: was presenting a capitalist industry around something that should be sacred.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. How do you go about your
Speaker 1: work in trying to reattach our original narrative? How do
Speaker 1: you bring this story of our ancestry and our history
Speaker 1: two people who have been robbed of it? Thank you
Speaker 1: for that question. It is central to our work. We're
Speaker 1: working to open a birth center, and I often say
Speaker 1: that as much as we are working on a business
Speaker 1: plan and a nonprofit structure and real estate acquisition, the
Speaker 1: third leg of our school is narrative and community engagement
Speaker 1: and really community organizing around this. And I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that has been really key for us
Speaker 1: is a commitment to intergenerational healing, right that like, because
Speaker 1: so it's the remembering, as you said, like we like
Speaker 1: I said a thing and then you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: my grandmother in Jamaica, Right, So there's that, and it
Speaker 1: happens like that, and we're just like, you know, everybody
Speaker 1: great grandmother was born at home, and everyone's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. But then the other thing is like, I
Speaker 1: have friends who are you know, my age, who have
Speaker 1: come to me interested in out of hospital birth. We
Speaker 1: have no birth centers in eastern Massachusetts, so they're often
Speaker 1: asked for asking about home birth, and um, I'll talk
Speaker 1: to him about home birth and they say, you know, Nash,
Speaker 1: I'm down. It's just that she's not she's scared, she's
Speaker 1: not going to support me, she's you know. And so
Speaker 1: I think that the conversations that need to happen where
Speaker 1: the grandmother is done childbearing but is the matriarch of
Speaker 1: the family and has experienced her own trauma and lost
Speaker 1: right that the data that you started the conversation with
Speaker 1: like that is that's not our people. So when we
Speaker 1: talk about the health outcomes, we can't do it in
Speaker 1: a way that's detached from saying everybody knows somebody who
Speaker 1: has had, you know, a bad outcome, which is how
Speaker 1: we talk about in public health, right, and so an
Speaker 1: infant who has you know, diet, been born prematurely, or
Speaker 1: you know, or or any other outcome an emergency C section,
Speaker 1: you know, some blood loss like something that so that
Speaker 1: so the trauma is very real. And so I think
Speaker 1: in our work to bring people along, and I you know,
Speaker 1: I don't always like try to try to correct everyone
Speaker 1: when they say it's alternative, but they're like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: really alternative. Yeah, So let's talk about one how it
Speaker 1: got that way. Ye talk about the history of how
Speaker 1: midwood Free got so white. It wasn't right, and it
Speaker 1: was it was legislated that way, it was made that
Speaker 1: way through policy. And too, let's have an intergenerational conversation
Speaker 1: because again, the childbearing age folks might be like knocking
Speaker 1: at our door when the birth center opens next year,
Speaker 1: but it's their mother and their grandmother and the other
Speaker 1: elders in their lives or their do you know their
Speaker 1: peers who have had bad outcomes or known somebody who
Speaker 1: has who says I don't know, right, And so I
Speaker 1: think it's like, um, part of our work is not
Speaker 1: just about the people who will you know, be o
Speaker 1: our clients at the birth center who will give birth there,
Speaker 1: but it's our whole community has to heal. We are
Speaker 1: carrying the trauma of generations of bad outcomes and so
Speaker 1: having a space to talk about that, and like I
Speaker 1: did when we were doing some early kind of needs
Speaker 1: assessment around the birth center. We did some key informant
Speaker 1: interviews and stakeholder circles, and I remember asking these questions
Speaker 1: about people's birth story and this several I mean, they
Speaker 1: were very emotionally charged. And somebody who said, you know,
Speaker 1: my kid is seventeen years old, and nobody has ever
Speaker 1: asked me about my birth experience. She said, this is
Speaker 1: the first place where I am because you get home
Speaker 1: and you have a healthy baby, and all the focuses
Speaker 1: at least you know, like that's like the bars, like
Speaker 1: you survived right, the lower right, and that's why you
Speaker 1: can't You don't get to complain about anything. And whether
Speaker 1: you had you know, a hard time the postpartum period
Speaker 1: or any or lactation breastfeeding was hard, but she said
Speaker 1: she wept. She said, to gosh, nobody's ever asked me
Speaker 1: about that. And so we're holding and then asked we
Speaker 1: talked about it? She said, oh, I can remember not
Speaker 1: feeling listened too. I can remember telling them I head pain.
Speaker 1: I can remember asking if it was normal to be
Speaker 1: bleeding night. This I can remember, right, And so I
Speaker 1: think that part of it is, I think the remembering
Speaker 1: of that but in a container that is held. You know,
Speaker 1: we are not trying to like take anybody out by
Speaker 1: having them relive their trauma, but to tend to those
Speaker 1: wounds because they're with us, and they can be the
Speaker 1: thing where that auntie who has a seventy year old
Speaker 1: now is going to say to the they're nibbling their
Speaker 1: you know, whoever's pregnant in their life. Oh, I don't
Speaker 1: know about that midwifferything. Because so if we can like
Speaker 1: bring them into a loving container to kind of heal
Speaker 1: from the stuff that we hold collectively and the stuff
Speaker 1: that we've taken from media, all the stuff we've downloaded.
Speaker 1: I mean, have you ever seen a rom com with
Speaker 1: an orgasmic birth or a home birth? No, we see
Speaker 1: all these like harrowing, you know, screaming images. And so
Speaker 1: I think we've got collectively, like a lot of healing
Speaker 1: and reconciling to do. And I think that that happens
Speaker 1: through you know, kitchen table conversations and story story circles
Speaker 1: and when we can gather safely again. We cannot wait
Speaker 1: to do some open mic nights and just invite people
Speaker 1: to heal kind of collectively through storytelling. You know, part
Speaker 1: of this too outside of and not as if we
Speaker 1: can actually move outside of the white supremacis lens. But
Speaker 1: part of this too is the fact that birthing people
Speaker 1: keep their cold, their trauma to themselves. I have so
Speaker 1: many friends who have given birth, probably in the last
Speaker 1: five years, and their stories vary, but not in their
Speaker 1: degree of trauma. Right so, and and they have expressed
Speaker 1: to me as a as a person who does not
Speaker 1: have children, because they feel like they can share and
Speaker 1: not be judged and and and not feel like a failure,
Speaker 1: feel like their bodies didn't do something right. I had
Speaker 1: a friend who was um struggling with breastfeeding and of course, uh,
Speaker 1: you know is feeling like my body is letting me down,
Speaker 1: you know type of thing, and again feeling that you
Speaker 1: can confide in me because I'm not going to then
Speaker 1: offer my you know, like a whole weighted opinion. I'm
Speaker 1: just there, like you said, as a container to to
Speaker 1: hold to hold her feelings. And so how do you
Speaker 1: speak to that about breaking down this kind of the silence,
Speaker 1: the silence on part of the struggle, right that everyone
Speaker 1: doesn't get the lush, glowing, growing hair and fingernails. That
Speaker 1: people lose their hair and you know, and and have
Speaker 1: terrible acne and are in excruciating pain, and it isn't
Speaker 1: this glorious thing. So that does that mean that they
Speaker 1: are less, you know, less then for that? Or should
Speaker 1: they be made to feel alone? So how do you
Speaker 1: how do you go about, you know, in the creation
Speaker 1: of this of this sacred space, breaking down that silence
Speaker 1: and that j and that judgment. Yeah, well, one, I
Speaker 1: thank you for being that friend. We all need to
Speaker 1: have that friend that we can go to. And I
Speaker 1: think I want to add another place where the silence
Speaker 1: comes into, which is around loss. There's a cultural thing
Speaker 1: where we don't tell anyone we're pregnant until we pass
Speaker 1: the first trimester because because if we're more likely to
Speaker 1: lose the pregnancy in the first trimester, and then it's
Speaker 1: as if it didn't happen. I'm like, oh no, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you the minute I find out, so that if
Speaker 1: I have a loss, you can hold that with me.
Speaker 1: That is Yeah, it's not a deeply rooted practice of
Speaker 1: like silencing our trauma and our loss. Right then it's
Speaker 1: totally normal. I've had a couple of miscarriages. We don't
Speaker 1: talk about it. I might talk about all the time
Speaker 1: because it's part of saying like, you know, this whole
Speaker 1: idea that we wait to tell is it? Just like
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring that in as another way that
Speaker 1: we kind of like silence it a abortion, Like God,
Speaker 1: we don't want to talk about that, right, We've had
Speaker 1: a couple of those two like, we just don't talk
Speaker 1: about that. And so I think that um to the
Speaker 1: to the how we break that I think is is
Speaker 1: is the vulnerability you know is and doing so um,
Speaker 1: you know, in small experiments with people, I think it's
Speaker 1: one thing to like, you know, be out on Instagram
Speaker 1: talking about it. And blessed are those who are like
Speaker 1: kind of telling the deal story out there, um and
Speaker 1: also just experimenting because the minute we say it to
Speaker 1: somebody else, they're like, oh, I had a miscarriage too,
Speaker 1: Oh I had you know, a hard time breasting too.
Speaker 1: And so I think that, um, it is a cold
Speaker 1: clatural thing, the silence thing and the kind of perfectionism
Speaker 1: around it and the shaming that we do, you know,
Speaker 1: in the community of people who birth to others about
Speaker 1: you know, did you have a c section, like there
Speaker 1: is no right or wrong way to birth a baby,
Speaker 1: and reproductive justice is choosing when and if and where
Speaker 1: and how you to if you do. And so I think, um,
Speaker 1: I would just say, it's kind of like experimenting with
Speaker 1: you know, small tribes of folks that we feel like
Speaker 1: we can get get real and get raw with, and
Speaker 1: then having you know, the small is all right, and
Speaker 1: then letting those those little cultural patterns between you and
Speaker 1: two friends reverberate out. And I think the other thing
Speaker 1: and one of the things that I think about a lot.
Speaker 1: I was just saying this to a local artist who
Speaker 1: I'm hoping to work with on like a series of
Speaker 1: like you know, I'll call them greeting cards because I
Speaker 1: cannot stand going to the pharmacy to buy a card
Speaker 1: for a baby shower, but they are because I don't
Speaker 1: like those cards either. But there's certainly no cards for loss.
Speaker 1: There's certainly no cards. Yeah, you know, if you're an abortion,
Speaker 1: whether it was one you chose or one you had
Speaker 1: to have, what, there's certain there's no cards for you know,
Speaker 1: like the realness all of the pregnant. Yeah, Like like
Speaker 1: when you go into labor, may you feel you know
Speaker 1: the power and so I just like I I have
Speaker 1: a dream of, like, you know, creating a line of
Speaker 1: cards like that because I love that. We also have
Speaker 1: to do culturally is like be saying to you, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you got this right and we got you
Speaker 1: and I think that you know all of that. In
Speaker 1: some ways the silence is replicated by by the greeting
Speaker 1: card aisle because the things that we're supposed to applaud
Speaker 1: you for and cheers it's boy, are there and the
Speaker 1: other things are not there. So even if you wanted
Speaker 1: to send a card when somebody had a loss a
Speaker 1: culturally they're not even out there. No, And I think
Speaker 1: that that's so right, and I you know, again it
Speaker 1: is really around the silence around it all that then
Speaker 1: produces the shame which has us, you know, passing on
Speaker 1: generations of trauma as opposed to being able to be
Speaker 1: in a place you know, we we you know, in
Speaker 1: our lexicon now we say normalize this and normalize that,
Speaker 1: But I don't actually think that we put the activity
Speaker 1: behind the normalize that we are saying, right, because part
Speaker 1: of normalization means continued discussion. It isn't just something that
Speaker 1: is one and done and you know, to your point
Speaker 1: about folks on social media, I will say, you know,
Speaker 1: celebrity is can be a great thing and a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Chrissy Teagan who you know, wife of John Legend, you know, supermodel, chef,
Speaker 1: all of those things. She had announced her third pregnancy,
Speaker 1: you know every you know, it was covered in like
Speaker 1: People magazine and then traumatically, uh loses the baby and
Speaker 1: instead and then you had then and she was very
Speaker 1: public and as a remain public about that loss and
Speaker 1: mourning that loss and having a funeral for that baby,
Speaker 1: and like having you know, her kids understanding the in
Speaker 1: the spiritual tradition that she was raised in, you know,
Speaker 1: what it means to honor the dead. And you know,
Speaker 1: there were people who came out because people love to hate,
Speaker 1: and they came out They're just like, why can't you
Speaker 1: just mourn in private? Like why is she looking for attention?
Speaker 1: And you know, and so I want to ask you, like,
Speaker 1: do you feel by virtue of like doing an open
Speaker 1: mic or doing these things that people are gonna be
Speaker 1: like this is supposed to be private and why why
Speaker 1: does everything have to be public? Like what is your
Speaker 1: pushback to that? I'm like, y'all have to come because
Speaker 1: I think that the right right, right, right, you know.
Speaker 1: But but I think that it will be more impactful
Speaker 1: and healing. It'll be impactful and healing to more people
Speaker 1: than it will to those one or two who are
Speaker 1: who you know, have not yet seen how their liberation
Speaker 1: is bound to the storytelling and the liberation of that
Speaker 1: person who's speaking. Right, Maybe you've never been pregnant, don't
Speaker 1: intend to be, never had a loss, never, But if
Speaker 1: you can't kind of see your humanity reflected in that person,
Speaker 1: then you know, um, love and light. But like, what
Speaker 1: we're trying to do is really for for the collective,
Speaker 1: and so I think that, um, I really haven't thought
Speaker 1: about my pushback to those particular nisayers. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that we we get a lot of I get
Speaker 1: a lot of pushback already right in the communities of
Speaker 1: color that are like, well, you know, is it safe
Speaker 1: and you know, what about when something goes wrong and
Speaker 1: what and so we we have so much work to
Speaker 1: do that I think I'm excited to take I'll call
Speaker 1: it take the risk of doing that storytelling and that
Speaker 1: open mic to bring to bring you know, ninety son
Speaker 1: of people along, even if a few people say, you
Speaker 1: know that that shouldn't happen because this is at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, and yelle, this is about our
Speaker 1: our our bound liberation and and like generations ahead and
Speaker 1: so UM, you know, I just know that like at
Speaker 1: the root of this, I'm trying to get free. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get my people free. And UM, I guess
Speaker 1: if people you know feel like that should happen in
Speaker 1: in uh in quiet, they're not trying to get free
Speaker 1: yet and they're not ready and that's okay, But we're not,
Speaker 1: you know, free in a way that is absolutely okay.
Speaker 1: Tell folks, UM how if they want to support the
Speaker 1: development of UM your the birthing center, they want to
Speaker 1: get involved, they want more information. Please tell the woke
Speaker 1: Apple audience how they can participate and learn more. Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you. So UM we are online at um Neighborhood
Speaker 1: birth Center dot org. We're also on social media at
Speaker 1: Neighborhood Birth Center. And we are at a point right
Speaker 1: now where we are in a capital campaign. We're raising
Speaker 1: three million dollars to open the city's first birth center
Speaker 1: and as I said, the only one in eastern Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: And on some days it feels like a huge raise
Speaker 1: right every because every ten dollar donation makes me still
Speaker 1: feel like, oh my gosh, people are really supporting this
Speaker 1: and really it's our community that's building it. And then
Speaker 1: the flip side, Danielle, if I could just call in
Speaker 1: kind of like philanthropy and and the racialization of the
Speaker 1: distribution of wealth in this country and stolen wealth, is like,
Speaker 1: why am I having house parties to raise three million
Speaker 1: dollars to open of our centers that's actually going to
Speaker 1: save lives and save money. So there's a way that
Speaker 1: like also the three million that we're trying to raise
Speaker 1: through house parties as a rounding error. So I do
Speaker 1: this like, you know, a little bit of a feeling
Speaker 1: between like incredibly profound gratitude that our community is stepping
Speaker 1: in UM to open this first center in the absence
Speaker 1: of systems UM that really should be funding UM and
Speaker 1: supporting the the the financing and the opening of a
Speaker 1: key part of our healthcare infrastructure UM. But but so, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a call to like, you know, so, but but
Speaker 1: you know what, in the absence of anybody ever doing it,
Speaker 1: community is here and we're opening as first first center,
Speaker 1: and so we welcome you know, donations and support and
Speaker 1: every dollar at this point because we've we've raised our
Speaker 1: operating funds for the year. Every dollar at this point
Speaker 1: goes to the purchase and renovation of our space and
Speaker 1: we hope to open in twenty twenty three. Well, I
Speaker 1: hope to have you back to discuss the excitement around
Speaker 1: the opening. UM folks, if you are looking to contribute,
Speaker 1: please do so, UM, because we need we need more,
Speaker 1: we need we need more UM involvement and more community,
Speaker 1: more community care and healing this year. Can yeah please? Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just want to say because you were saying we
Speaker 1: need more and I was like, yeah, we need more
Speaker 1: birth centers and what we know. The other part of
Speaker 1: my work is like codirect birth Center Equity, which is
Speaker 1: a national strategy to redirect full spectrum capital to birth
Speaker 1: centers led by people of color. Most birth centers are
Speaker 1: for profits that are started by midwives using their personal
Speaker 1: savings and lines of credit, and it means that most
Speaker 1: midwives of color and communities of color are left without
Speaker 1: birth centers. And so we have a cohort of thirty
Speaker 1: birth centers that we support through technical assistance and grants
Speaker 1: and funds, and so there, you know, I would just say,
Speaker 1: also find a birth center in your community and go
Speaker 1: to birth Center Equity dot org because we're out here
Speaker 1: and we're all everyone has a business plan, a legal structure,
Speaker 1: you know, a building in space, in mind, and it's
Speaker 1: all about just moving capital that this country absolutely has
Speaker 1: too and we need to redirect that to birth centers
Speaker 1: a hundred. Thank you so much for making the time
Speaker 1: to join WOKEAF. Appreciate you, appreciate you. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: Danielle Folks. I am very excited to be welcoming to
Speaker 1: woke F daily for the first time. Doctor mckeba McCreary,
Speaker 1: who serves as president of the New Commonwealth Racial Equity
Speaker 1: and Social Justice Fund and NCF, is a coalition founded
Speaker 1: of black and brown executives from Massachusetts leading corporations united
Speaker 1: to support black and brown communities amid COVID in the
Speaker 1: wake of George Floyd and just roughly a whole lot
Speaker 1: of things that we need economic support and power around.
Speaker 1: Doctor McCreary, talk to us about why this fund, why
Speaker 1: this came about in I believe it is twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and you know you've already raised an extraordinary amount thirty
Speaker 1: million towards or maybe it's more than that at this point.
Speaker 1: But what I have is thirty million towards your one
Speaker 1: hundred million dollar goals. So talk to us about the
Speaker 1: why behind this. Sure, thank you first of all for
Speaker 1: having me, and also I know you hosted Nashira are
Speaker 1: Real earlier and she's an incredible partner for NCF, particularly
Speaker 1: in this partnership with mass General Brigham and our focus
Speaker 1: on maternal health equity, especially for black women. And here
Speaker 1: we are. We were founded about two years ago, and
Speaker 1: I have to say that I wasn't a part of
Speaker 1: the initial beginning of the organization, but I am really
Speaker 1: really thrilled to have joined. And I remember the moment
Speaker 1: it was announced, and I remember being really proud that
Speaker 1: nineteen colleagues across the city really put themselves their own
Speaker 1: positionality in a slightly precarious place because they stepped in
Speaker 1: front of their corporations and said, we're going to leave this,
Speaker 1: and you're going to support it financially, but we're going
Speaker 1: to leave this. And so fast forward, we have about
Speaker 1: a little over three million dollars worth of investments into
Speaker 1: black and brown leaders across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and
Speaker 1: we are about fifty nine strong in terms of those organizations,
Speaker 1: and we anticipate getting to one hundred millions so that
Speaker 1: we can push out ten to fifteen percent of our
Speaker 1: corpus annually, not that three to five percent that typically
Speaker 1: philanthropy moves out of the door. Why is it important
Speaker 1: for this to be led by black executives? You know,
Speaker 1: oftentimes within the black community, we hear we need to
Speaker 1: help each other more, we need to be lifting each
Speaker 1: other up. And you know, personally, as somebody that has
Speaker 1: been on the ground in activism in movement UM for
Speaker 1: a majority of my career, I've always seen Black people
Speaker 1: working in solidarity with each other and with you know,
Speaker 1: with other allies and communities. And so what is it
Speaker 1: about the funding side of this and the coming together
Speaker 1: on UM on the resources side that is so important?
Speaker 1: You know, typically you think of philanthropy and you think
Speaker 1: of protecting wealth UM. You don't think of right like that.
Speaker 1: That's sort of the structure, that's the way it was,
Speaker 1: it's been set up, and that's the way that we
Speaker 1: operate UM. But when I say we, I don't mean
Speaker 1: collective we people of color because frankly, we have been
Speaker 1: redlined out of that that process. We receive. You know,
Speaker 1: less than ten percent of philanthropic dollars go to our
Speaker 1: black and brown leaders UM nationally, and it's just as
Speaker 1: um Stark in Massachusetts. I can tell you that having
Speaker 1: spoken to the folks, we've invested in these these leaders
Speaker 1: for them to know that they have been respected in
Speaker 1: such a way that these dollars are unrestricted, that they
Speaker 1: are going to them because we firmly believe that they
Speaker 1: are closest to the solutions, and therefore they don't need
Speaker 1: a philanthropic entity a fund to tell them what to
Speaker 1: do with these dollars. They need us to get more
Speaker 1: resources out the door to them so that they can
Speaker 1: continue to interrupt these cycles of racist policies, practices, programs
Speaker 1: so important that the founders of NCF came together and
Speaker 1: the way they did because it was unapologetic. It was saying, look,
Speaker 1: you know, it hasn't worked so far. Whatever is, whatever
Speaker 1: we think is supposed to be, you know, effective, it's
Speaker 1: not been effective, and we're still suffering. As amplified during
Speaker 1: the period of time when NCF was launched, you know,
Speaker 1: you you'd mentioned at the top that black executives put
Speaker 1: themselves in a precarious situation. Can you speak you know,
Speaker 1: with with wanting to be out front um in this space,
Speaker 1: can you just speak to I guess the balance right,
Speaker 1: that that black executives that gathered with the intentionality around
Speaker 1: a redistribution of wealth, the balance that they have to
Speaker 1: have within their own corporations, but then the internalized responsibility
Speaker 1: and accountability that they want to have to black and
Speaker 1: brown communities that they are a part of, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: so there's there's not one specific incident that I would
Speaker 1: point to, but I would say what we all know
Speaker 1: very very well is that you don't get into the
Speaker 1: c suite of a corporation of fortune five hundred as
Speaker 1: a person of color without a lot of blood, sweat,
Speaker 1: tears and compromise. Um and UM. So these folks, needless
Speaker 1: to say, have earned. Right, there's their spots um in
Speaker 1: these companies. And that's sometimes even for the most fear
Speaker 1: usum individual. You know, there's a lot to lose, right.
Speaker 1: They have families there, Um, most of them are our
Speaker 1: mid mid career. But you know, um have really really
Speaker 1: fought hard to get where they are. And so to
Speaker 1: turn around and say you know what, I'm actually I'm
Speaker 1: actually strong enough and I am secure enough to UM
Speaker 1: require that this company respects that I absolutely need to
Speaker 1: be a part of the solution. And our CSR motivation
Speaker 1: is not what I'm about. This is about us galvanizing
Speaker 1: together with our own our own influence also UM and
Speaker 1: and saying, look, we're gonna we're gonna turn this model
Speaker 1: on its head. We're gonna we're gonna do it a
Speaker 1: different way. We're going to do it a way that
Speaker 1: I guess I really do want to come back to
Speaker 1: that word respect. UM is filled with respect for UM, us,
Speaker 1: for for us, you know, And I think when I
Speaker 1: when I was speaking UM earlier with Norisha, we're talking
Speaker 1: about making as it pertains to Black women and maternity
Speaker 1: and mortality and turning what has become one of the
Speaker 1: leading ways that black women die right in this wealthy,
Speaker 1: wealthy nation that we live in. We're talking about what
Speaker 1: three hundred or so Black babies dying every year in
Speaker 1: this industrialized nation. And so why was you know, and
Speaker 1: I give that those stats to underscore for my listeners
Speaker 1: the seriousness behind this issue that isn't addressed on a
Speaker 1: regular basis. That is, you know, by virtue of Serena
Speaker 1: Williams being very outspoken a couple of years ago about
Speaker 1: her own birthing experience. Outside of that, if you weren't
Speaker 1: in this space, in the medical space, in the in
Speaker 1: the wellness space, you wouldn't really know right about this.
Speaker 1: And so why for this group and the partnership that
Speaker 1: you have was this so important? I think first about
Speaker 1: my own birthing experience, and Nishia loves to say that
Speaker 1: everybody has a birthing story. Men have a birthding story,
Speaker 1: grandmothers have a birthding story. You know. My birthing story
Speaker 1: is that I never would have entertained a dula or midwife.
Speaker 1: I hate hospitals. It was still to this day remember
Speaker 1: walking in to give birth and cringing at the fact
Speaker 1: that I knew I had to be there for you know,
Speaker 1: the remainder of the day, but I didn't know I
Speaker 1: had another option, another choice. And one of the things
Speaker 1: I've learned from Nishia, which is so true, is that
Speaker 1: we entertain the concept that dula's and midwife free are
Speaker 1: non traditional but right yeah, she says, it's the most
Speaker 1: tradult way to bring a life into this world. So
Speaker 1: the partnership is super important to me. I should say
Speaker 1: this also became as mgb Entrusted UM New Commonwealth Fund UM.
Speaker 1: So Mass General Brigham um Entrusted New Commonwealth Fund. With
Speaker 1: this two point five million dollar investment that we are
Speaker 1: making taking a position and saying it's not just in
Speaker 1: the health equity space that we need to move these funds.
Speaker 1: We actually need to be educating folks in the policing
Speaker 1: and criminal justice reform space, folks in the youth development
Speaker 1: space UM, organizations that are doing work around economic empowerment,
Speaker 1: you know, housing UM. These are all factors that play
Speaker 1: into the black maternal experience and the maternal experience period.
Speaker 1: We need to be talking to men about how to
Speaker 1: support you know, their partners or or their their daughters UM.
Speaker 1: And that education is where the Birthing Center is pushing
Speaker 1: in with us UM. And so we are thinking about
Speaker 1: this as a wraparound UM. We're thinking about this as
Speaker 1: a community based effort. So we really want to work
Speaker 1: with the folks who are trusted in different communities by
Speaker 1: those residents, not US, not you know, not some random
Speaker 1: organization coming in and that might take place in a church,
Speaker 1: That conversation might take place in a gym, or in
Speaker 1: a food pantry or a school gymnasium. That's that's what
Speaker 1: this partnership is going to look like. We're still designing it,
Speaker 1: but it's really exciting and I honestly think it's it's
Speaker 1: a model. What do you think that philanthropy needs to
Speaker 1: understand about how they can be partners? Right? Because I have,
Speaker 1: by virtue of the work that I've been in in
Speaker 1: politics and in policy, have dealt with many different philanthropic organizations,
Speaker 1: individual donors, larger foundations and what have you. And you know,
Speaker 1: most of the folks that are wielding the pen or
Speaker 1: those that are white, right, and and to your earlier point,
Speaker 1: UM less than ten percent, and I would probably argue
Speaker 1: that it's in single digits, you know, like like low, low,
Speaker 1: low single digits. Uh, the amount of money that is
Speaker 1: given to UM, to black and brown people, but black
Speaker 1: people specifically UM. And what I've heard from you know,
Speaker 1: from from philanthropy, from philanthropists is UM is that, well,
Speaker 1: we just don't know where to put our money. We
Speaker 1: don't know where, you know, where the need is. It
Speaker 1: always seems to be some type of excuse. And so
Speaker 1: what conversation do you think should be had UM with
Speaker 1: these large, large entities that I'm talking, you know, are
Speaker 1: holding hundreds of millions of dollars um, but remain gate
Speaker 1: gatekeepers right in in a in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: to social ills and issues that they could readily have
Speaker 1: serious impact act on. I have had this conversation, right,
Speaker 1: I've been approached by large corporations that are foundations, and
Speaker 1: they have said, how do you find these people? How
Speaker 1: do you find these organizations? We just paid the consulting firm,
Speaker 1: you know, oodles of money that help us figure out
Speaker 1: who's out there doing this work. I mean, Danielle, it's
Speaker 1: about relationships. I mean, it's I mean, I hate to
Speaker 1: oversimplify it, but I don't have that problem, right, Like
Speaker 1: you know, the Commonwealth Fund has not had that problem.
Speaker 1: We the minute that we are talking to somebody who's
Speaker 1: doing the work. And that's the other thing I would say.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have so many conversations. I try really
Speaker 1: hard to have every conversation and to meet folks that
Speaker 1: are doing work, not just as potential singular investments, but
Speaker 1: actually so that I can keep track of who is
Speaker 1: doing what in what spaces and needs to be doing
Speaker 1: it together or talking to each other or learning from
Speaker 1: one another. And I just think fundamentally, like that's a
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out to limitay, that's a black experience, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's about your network that's on around your community,
Speaker 1: the person you can pick up the phone and call.
Speaker 1: That's my black experience here is you know, I know
Speaker 1: if I don't know the answer, I know I have
Speaker 1: somebody to call who can tell me the answer. And
Speaker 1: I don't mind asking. Right, That's the other thing I
Speaker 1: think that there's there's got to be you asked. What
Speaker 1: does philanthropy need to do? Differently, I think humility, I
Speaker 1: think respect back to respect to him, and um, I
Speaker 1: think being honest about like are you holding onto this
Speaker 1: forever and ever or did you actually want to put
Speaker 1: it to work so that our children and our grandchildren
Speaker 1: have a better world because you can't, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think that a part of that when you say
Speaker 1: you know, the respect piece is also respecting it is
Speaker 1: it is deeply about respect because for people who haven't
Speaker 1: dealt in and around philanthropy, there are strengths, lots of
Speaker 1: strings that are attached to then dictate to those that
Speaker 1: are on the ground doing the work how the work
Speaker 1: should be done or how their money should be spent
Speaker 1: and so how you know that that in and of
Speaker 1: itself is paternalistic, right, And as I was saying, you
Speaker 1: know with Narisia earlier, stems from white supremacy, and so
Speaker 1: it's so it's like, how you know the conversation with
Speaker 1: philanthropy isn't also about you know where you got that
Speaker 1: money that you're spending in the first place, UM, and
Speaker 1: how it was extracted, but also how you know how
Speaker 1: you build the trust with the communities that you say
Speaker 1: that you want to help UM. And I think that that,
Speaker 1: to me is what's so critical about your fund is
Speaker 1: that I mean, well, you you tell us how how
Speaker 1: is this fund for those that are seeking resources different
Speaker 1: than where where else they could potentially go? Right? And
Speaker 1: I hope to firmly influence the other places that they
Speaker 1: could go when they start to understand that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of knowledge, a lot of talent, a lot of
Speaker 1: capability in these leaders across at least the Commonalth of Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: which is where we're focused. And the way that I've
Speaker 1: been approaching it, and again I've just started in September,
Speaker 1: but I know a lot of these organizations from having
Speaker 1: worked across different fields and you know, there's there's a
Speaker 1: difference between not holding somebody accountable and this sort of
Speaker 1: the strings and the requirements. I mean, we want to
Speaker 1: be accountable, and CEF wants to be accountable, but also
Speaker 1: the leaders of these nonprofits want to be accountable to
Speaker 1: the work that they're doing, not to the funder that
Speaker 1: is that you know, they jump through these six hoops,
Speaker 1: then they might be eligible for the next round. And
Speaker 1: by the way, design something that I'm going to have
Speaker 1: some influence in telling you what it should look like
Speaker 1: when I don't even do this work, I'm not even
Speaker 1: close to it. I have no idea what it means
Speaker 1: right to run an after school program or to you know,
Speaker 1: have a COVID clinic set up on the corner of
Speaker 1: Blue Hill Ab and Quincy Street, because that's where people
Speaker 1: walk by every day and they will accept support from
Speaker 1: a young black doctor whom you know takes the time
Speaker 1: to stand there and do some education so you know,
Speaker 1: get out of the way a little bit, but also
Speaker 1: help not out of the way, like hands off, out
Speaker 1: of the way, like what what else do you need
Speaker 1: from us? And that's one thing that I think is
Speaker 1: um not necessarily unique, but I'm very proud of is
Speaker 1: we are building out a capacity to technical assistance and
Speaker 1: capacity building structure that would allow all of the folks
Speaker 1: that we've invested in anyone else to come to sessions
Speaker 1: to learn about fundamental things like how to read a
Speaker 1: P and L what does lobbying mean? How close can
Speaker 1: you get to that line? A lot closer than a
Speaker 1: lot of nonprofits realize. Advocacy is real. It's important. What
Speaker 1: you know? You do you need to create another five
Speaker 1: or one C three or is there a way for
Speaker 1: you to bring in a fiscal sponsor so that you're
Speaker 1: not paying that overhead? All of those things all the
Speaker 1: way up to like what's a collective impact model and
Speaker 1: how might these five organizations come together? We're not only
Speaker 1: asking for for what those needs are, you know, how
Speaker 1: to build a marketing plan, But we're responding right away.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you that all of the leaders
Speaker 1: we're working with are like, wait a minute, are you serious?
Speaker 1: Like you're you're just going to offer this our workshop.
Speaker 1: We've even gotten the simple requests of actually, could we
Speaker 1: just be in a room together for thirty minutes like
Speaker 1: a zoo in person whom like I don't get to
Speaker 1: see other black and brown women who are leading organizations
Speaker 1: because I'm so blinders on, you know, running hard getting
Speaker 1: this yep done, and I'm really just trying to do
Speaker 1: the work yep. So those are the ways that I
Speaker 1: feel like we will differentiate ourselves. But also, like I said,
Speaker 1: I want to make sure we're influencing the philanthropic sector
Speaker 1: as well, so that they start to emulate some of
Speaker 1: the things that we hope to do that will work.
Speaker 1: Last question for you, um, doctor McCary, is what what
Speaker 1: are your hopes for ANDCF and where do you see
Speaker 1: the fun going? Um? You know, and then in the
Speaker 1: next year, and then and the and the years after that. Right,
Speaker 1: So we're going to take the next two years and
Speaker 1: we're gonna test in a few different ways. We're going
Speaker 1: to test a larger grants in fewer geographic areas. We're
Speaker 1: going to test that still having that five, ten, fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars opportunity because sometimes that's what's needed right away
Speaker 1: without a huge process and a long way. We are
Speaker 1: going to partner with some other foundations to do um
Speaker 1: uh sort of an um commitment that's more significant in
Speaker 1: a place based model approach to see does that move
Speaker 1: the needle? Because to be honest with you, you know,
Speaker 1: we need to figure out, like what is the best
Speaker 1: use of our energy and our focus. And it's probably
Speaker 1: not m you know, spread across the entire Commonwealth and
Speaker 1: you know, five different pillars at four hundred grants a year, right,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's probably that we need to decide this
Speaker 1: is where we're going to move the needle, and we're
Speaker 1: going to get somebody else to be influenced to come
Speaker 1: in and support moving the needle somewhere else. So is
Speaker 1: it policy? Is it you know, um? Organizational development? Is
Speaker 1: it economic empowerment? Um? These are the things that we're
Speaker 1: gonna spend some time testing out. We've made a commitment
Speaker 1: to three million dollars grant making budget for the next
Speaker 1: two years. We're s team and we're going to keep
Speaker 1: taking those meetings and keep having those conversations. And for
Speaker 1: those people who want to find out more information and
Speaker 1: understand more get connected, please sure share with the folks
Speaker 1: how they can. Yeah, go right to our website. It's
Speaker 1: www dot Newcommonwealth Fund dot org. As soon as you
Speaker 1: get there, there should be a pop up that allows
Speaker 1: you to say you want to sign up to be
Speaker 1: on our newsletter and do that because you will get
Speaker 1: every piece of information, whether you're a grant seeker, or
Speaker 1: you're a funder, or you are just really interested in
Speaker 1: how we're evolving. Doctor McCoury, thank you so much from
Speaker 1: making the time for wok F and for the work
Speaker 1: that you're doing. I'm excited about it. Thank you, and
Speaker 1: hope that what you're doing in Massachusetts will be a
Speaker 1: seed for what can be done around the country. Thank you.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Friends, on this Woke
Speaker 1: a F daily as always, Power to the people and
Speaker 1: to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke
Speaker 1: as fuck.