Reimagining the Future of Reproduction from a Black Queer Lens: An Art-Based Approach to the Study of Reproductive Health Care.

Abstract

Black Queer people's reproductive experiences are largely under-documented and under-reported in health communication research, despite the omnipresence of their storytelling within humanities-based literature. Drawing from a larger health study using Black feminist perspectives and centering Black Queer people's lived experiences with reproduction, previous health research, and Black Queer poetics, this study uses an art-based research approach to create erasure poems that detail how Black Queer birthing people resist and survive reproductive-based injustices. Specifically, through this innovative approach, I construct eight erasure poems developed from the previous insights of Black Queer people's answer to "What is the future of reproduction?" These poems detail unparalleled truths about the needs and strategies that necessitate efforts to improve reproductive justice for my community. The poems detail Black Queer people's discussions of the importance of community networks along our reproductive health journeys, creating new conceptualizations of motherhood and parenthood, new understandings of reproductive-based stigma and oppression, and our use of spirituality as a tool for reclaiming reproductive autonomy.