Our Lives, Our Movements: Reproductive Justice
In 2021 Ashby Combahee and Dartricia Rollins founded Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history project connecting the intersections of Black movement and cultural work in Atlanta, Georgia across generations.
They recorded their first oral history on September 23, 2022, with Kwajelyn Jackson in her office at the Feminist Women’s Health Center and their last oral history on February 23, 2023, with Kwajelyn’s mother, Charisse Jackson-Youngblood at yes, please a bookhouse and carespace. With a total of eleven full-life oral histories, they recorded activists, abortion providers, birthworkers, doulas, and reproductive justice practitioners about their upbringing, political consciousness, community building, and organizing/cultural work.
Participants include: Kwajelyn Jackson, Executive Director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center; Khye Tyson, Founder of Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center; Sukari Olawumi, Ultrasound Technician, Summit Medical; Tamika Middleton, an organizer, doula, midwifery apprentice, and Managing Director of Women's March; B Carrie-Yvonne, founder of Somatic Birthing Studio; Quita Tinsley, consultant and former Executive Co-Director of Access Reproductive Care-Southeast; zahra alabanza, doula and principal consultant at Blue In Green Consulting; Mama Sarahn Henderson, midwife, educator, founder of Birth in the Tradition; Yemisi Combahee, doula, and organizer at Black Feminist Future; Bianca Campbell, doula and Movement Building Senior Manager at Forward Together; and Charisse Jackson-Youngblood, Director of Culture at the Feminist Women’s Health Center.
Charisse Jackson Youngblood
Charisse Jackson Youngblood serves as the Director of People and Organizational Culture for Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) in Atlanta, GA where she, in close partnership with the Executive Director and staff, helps to lead FWHC in building out the strategy, infrastructure, culture, and systems to accommodate recent and anticipated changes in strategic direction and FWHC’s continued commitment to racial equity and reproductive justice. She provides clarity and accountability for organizational, departmental, programmatic, and individual work planning. Establishes a robust internal onboarding, development, and support plan for staff. She also encourages employee wellness, retention, and ensures that FWHC is living up to our values throughout the organization. Charisse leads the investment in people, practice, and culture as FWHC grows and evolves; ensures effective organization-wide planning, decision-making, and change management processes; support organizational growth, planning, and capacity building and serve in a senior leadership role. She has served in numerous roles at FWHC since 2015.
Bianca Campbell
Bianca Campbell is a doula and worker with the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) and Forward Together. They create learning and community spaces for those who want to build alternatives to policy-focused activism and the world we currently live in. Bianca’s current work involves thinking expansively about family outside of an assimilationist framework, but towards reproductive justice centered in queer and trans liberation. They have assisted in 5 births and an estimated 300 abortions.
Yemisi Combahee
Yemi Combahee (she/her) is a Fat Black Queer Femme liberation strategist, full-spectrum doula, and reproductive justice organizer. Yemi is currently the Constellation Hive organizer at Black Feminist Future and she has a background in abortion advocacy, abortion clinic administration, and intimate partner violence legal advocacy. Yemi is also currently a co-facilitator of the queer pregnancy support groups at MAIA Midwifery. Yemi began her interest in liberation work as a Comparative Women’s Studies major at Spelman College where she began organizing and developing her radical worldview. Her work was also shaped by her time as a radical feminist bookseller at Charis Books. Yemi remains rooted in care work through her full-spectrum doula practice, Freedom Births, where she supports marginalized folks in Georgia through their reproductive journeys
Mama Sarahn Henderson
Sarahn Henderson is the principal midwife of Birth in the Tradition. Since 1980 and to her credit, Sarahn has assisted and midwifed over a thousand families into parenthood. She is also a founding member of the Community Midwives National Alliance and the Georgia Midwifery Association.
zahra alabanza
zahra conjures enthusiasm for life by practicing pleasure and play, living simply and working hard via labor and manifestation. Being a parent, organizer, creator and adventurer are a few roles that allow her to explore the depths of life and community. As a visionary, project starting, community weaving, overloving outdoor junkie, she utilizes experience and space curation, outdoor adventure, land base work , wellness rituals as the root of her community organizing efforts to enhance the quality of life among Black folk. Her work centers Black women, children and queer folks and meets at the intersection of justice, healing, quality of life and Black liberation.
Quita Tinsley
Founder and principal of iola strategies, Quita Tinsley Peterson (they/them) is an organizational consultant, facilitator, and coach, specializing in sustainability and culture shift. They were politicized by the reproductive justice movement over a decade ago and their holistic approach is deeply rooted in the framework. They are committed to building rigor and joy into the fabric of Black, Indigenous, Trans, Queer, and People of Color-led organizations.
Quita holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology.
Certifications & Fellowships include: Rockwood Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Fellow, CoreAlign Generative Fellow, SPIN Academy Alum, Blooming Willow Coaching Certified Healing Centered Coach, Echoing Ida Alum.
Tamika Middleton
Tamika Middleton is an organizer, doula, midwifery apprentice, abolitionist, writer, and unschooling mama who is passionate about and active in struggles that affect Black women’s lives.
Sukari “Suki” Olawumi
Sukari “Suki” Olawumi is an ultrasound specialist with 18 years of experience in the field. Suki has been working in abortion clinics for 13 years.
Khye Tyson
Khye Tyson is a sacred transition guide, entrepreneur, healer, consultant, and educator. They are also the founder of Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center.
Kwajelyn Jackson
Kwajelyn Jackson currently serves as Executive Director at Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) in Atlanta , GA