Book Talk: A Conversation About Black Feminist Resistance in Trying Times
- Friday, April 17, 11am-1pm
- Kuumba Juice & Coffee, 274 E. Keefe Ave., Milwaukee
- Free & open to the public; RSVP Requested
Overview
We welcome Dr. Stacie McCormick and Dr. Nessette Falu to a conversation around Black Feminist Resistance and the power of storytelling.
In conjunction with Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17), UWM’s C21 Reproductive Justice Collaboratory and La Revo Books are pleased to cohost this community conversation around the role of stories in our esteemed authors’ own work. The authors will join us virtually, and we invite the community to come in to the space at Kuumba to share in this important conversation.
Please RSVP by Monday, March 30th. Refreshments from Kuumba will be provided.
Books
You don’t need to read the books in order to participate in this event, but both are available through our partners at La Revo.
Purchase Unseen Flesh: Gynecology and Black Queer Worth-Making in Brazil by Nessette Falu.
Purchase We Are Pregnant with Freedom: Black Feminist Storytelling for Reproductive Justice by Stacie McCormick.
About
Nessette Falu, Ph.D. is a Black queer feminist and cultural anthropologist with sub-disciplinary specializations in medical anthropology, Black queer studies, Black feminist studies, and reproductive justice studies. Her intellectual work analyzes the intersections of anti-Blackness, heteronormativity, medicine, trauma, resistance, and freedom. She intervenes, broadly, to understand forms of hidden, silenced power and the abuse of power in gynecology and medicine. Her past clinical practice of seventeen years as a Physician Assistant (neurosurgery, internal medicine, HIV care, hematology/oncology, and pain management) critically informs her research, publications, collaborations, and public phasing, and design work. The convergence of her clinical expertise with a social science, humanistic scholarly endeavors is an invaluable, unique asset for intellectual and public impact into the Austin community as well as with international and transnational far-reaching outcomes. Her research and professional trajectories inform her public engagement and creative work, which is steered toward social justice in medicine and raising public awareness. At UT Austin, she developed Gxnecologx Justice Lab (https://www.gxnecologx.org), a Black feminist laboratory for research and design, publicly launched in December 2023.
Dr. Stacie McCormick is a Mississippi-raised Black feminist scholar and writer. She is an Associate Professor of English, Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies and Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University (TCU). Her work takes up a number of subjects such as: representations of the body, land, sexuality, and the ongoing resonance of slavery in contemporary Black writing and performance. She is the author of Staging Black Fugitivity and co-Editor of the Special Issue of College Literature, Toni Morrison and Adaptation. Central to her work is community. Whether it is in the classroom, in the organizing space, or in her scholarly work, McCormick sees community building as a key form of resistance and liberation.
Operating since 2022, Reproductive Justice works to create a space where researchers at UWM and reproductive justice community advocates in Milwaukee can work together to address systemic injustices disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, and other women and trans people of color. As a collective, we have held a variety of events in both academic and community spaces, and seek to continue this important work in the face of uncertainty in the reproductive justice space. We work across various aspects of reproductive injustices, including issues of access across zip codes, early childhood education, birth justice, and physical environment — to name just a few. We have learned alongside our community partners how important it is to not silo this work, and aim to continue bringing attention to reproductive injustices in Milwaukee and act as a resource for making substantial changes to improve the conditions within which individuals can exercise their “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities” (SisterSong).
La Revo Books offers new and used books for and by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and Latinx readers.
April 17 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm