Post Roe: What We Can Learn from Oral History

Charis welcomes Ashby Combahee, Dartricia Rollins, Sukari Olawumi, Kwajelyn Jackson, Khye Tyson for a panel discussion, Post Roe: What We Can Learn from Oral History and Archives. This panel is presented by Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history project connecting the intersections of Black movement and cultural work in Atlanta, Georgia, across generations. This event is co-hosted by the Feminist Women's Health Center and Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center. Feminist Women's Health Center is a reproductive health, rights, and justice organization. They provide direct services, including abortion care, and they provide education, advocacy, and leadership development opportunities. The mission of Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center is to bridge reproductive justice and reproductive health through resources, education, and support in order to strengthen the abilities of Black women, femmes, nonbinary folx, and girls to make informed and liberating decisions about their bodies, families, and lives.

Following the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe V. Wade, leaving it to states to decide whether people have access to reproductive health care. Post Roe is a discussion on what would have been the 50th anniversary of the landmark decision, Roe V. Wade, and its impact on birth workers, abortion care providers, and organizers. Drawing on personal narratives and community histories, how do we as a movement embody the four tenets of reproductive justice: the right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities to achieve reproductive liberation. 

Georgia Dusk, which spans across movements and cultural workers, currently focuses on the history of and current Reproductive Justice movement. Georgia Dusk sees the South broadly and Atlanta/Georgia as an important site of reproductive health, rights, and justice work. Following the overturn of Roe, it is even more important to document where we were, are, and are going in the fight for reproductive liberation.

Ashby Combahee is a Black queer memory worker from the South. She is a full-time librarian, archivist, and popular educator at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Ashby is an advisor and interviewer for the Georgia Transgender Oral History Project. Ashby is co-founder of Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history. 

Dartricia Rollins is a Queer, Black, Southern organizer, memory worker, and cultural worker. Dartricia is the Assistant Director of Charis Circle and a bookseller at Charis Books and More. She serves on the Board of Directors at Access Reproductive Care-Southeast, a member of the Black Alliance for Peace and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Dartricia is co-founder of Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history. 

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. She has previously served as a board member of Access Reproductive Care-Southeast (ARC-SE), a member of the Organizing Committee of Amplify GA, a member of Movement Markers 2 cohort, and helped start a food pantry Beyond the Four Walls in Hampton, Georgia, in 2022.

Kwajelyn Jackson currently serves as Executive Director at Feminist Women's Health Center (FWHC) in Atlanta, GA. She has the optimistic vision and pragmatism needed to lead an independent, non-profit, Feminist, multi-generational, multi-racial reproductive health, rights, and justice organization, providing compassionate abortion care in the South. Since 2013, she has led the expansion of FWHC’s statewide and national impact and deepened its community partnerships, leading the organization’s civic engagement, advocacy, education, and outreach teams, before becoming the organization’s first Black woman Executive Director in 2018. She sits on the board of directors for All-Options, Abortion Care Network, the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, and the Lola. Kwajelyn has been named as one of the 500 Most Powerful Leaders in Atlanta by Atlanta Magazine in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Khye Tyson (they/them) is an unapologetic southern queer Black femme who enjoys yoga, building community, laughing, subverting the gender binary, and reminding people that they can fire their doctors. Khye is a sacred transition guide, entrepreneur, healer, consultant, and educator. As the founder of Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center (founded in 2018), Khye is working toward a world in which Black women and femmes can live, thrive, and raise healthy families freely within a healthy community. Khye loves to hike, sew, thrift, create art, sing, and dream of a world in which education is intuitive and culturally responsive. They are originally from Nashville, TN, and currently reside in Atlanta.

Reproductive Justice/Abortion Booklist

This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage