23. doulas of the revolution
thinking about transitions and the new year
Hi there! 👋 I’m Ida, and this is tiny driver, a newsletter about research, pedagogy, culture and their intersections. Thank you for being here. Reply anytime, I love hearing from you.
Is it just me, or was last week very tiring? With all the items that I'm trying to accomplish before the year's end, my energy just got tapped out. I spent most of the weekend taking time to mentally recuperate from all the time staring at screens during zoom workshops and meetings. Next week will be a lot less virtually hectic for me, so I'm looking forward to taking the time to work on my own projects and plan for the year ahead.
Also I’ve just been thinking about this meme a lot:
What I consume.
In the Bookshop:
Currently Reading: Tomboyland: Essays by Melissa Faliveno
On Deck: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
On Friday, I had the chance to virtually attend a webinar hosted by the Asia Society called "Hacking the Syllabus: Critical Solidarities with Scott Kurashige and adrienne maree brown." I've previously mentioned brown's work in the newsletter, as her organizing frameworks have been so inspiring and useful. I'm also in great admiration of Kurashige—I first read The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles when I was studying for my qualifying exams in grad school, and I remember thinking, "This is how I want to write a book."
Needless to say, when I saw this event being promoted, I registered immediately.
While brown and Kurashige discussed many different topics that are critical to the way that we form solidarity in the current moment—the attention economy, having a low barrier to enter a conversation, speaking accessibly—one of the most valuable ideas I got from this conversation was the idea of being a "doula."
Here's the thing: when I first read brown's author bio in Emergent Strategy, I didn't realize what the word "doula" could mean. Her bio is one that is simple: "adrienne maree brown is a social justice facilitator, healer, and doula living in Detroit." I thought to myself, "Wow, she does all this and she also works in spaces of (literal) birth?" But this conversation on Friday made me realize that I had misunderstood a critical part of her work.
The precise moment I realized that I had misunderstood this notion of "doula" was when Kurashige said to brown, "You were my doula." Wait, what? Obviously, I didn't realize that there were multiple ways of being a doula. Luckily, they went on to explain what they meant by this term.
[Edit: Thank you to both adrienne & Scott for clarifying that the former WAS, IN FACT, the doula for Scott & his partners’ youngest child! See tweets below.]
This is how Merriam Webster defines doula: "a person trained to provide advice, information, emotional support, and physical comfort to a mother before, during, and just after childbirth." And while brown may not be a doula for childbirth, as this definition states, she considers herself a doula for revolutionary movement. Perhaps that is the way in which Kurashige first encountered her work—by helping him realize his own place in building solidarity among movements. In her words, "We need people to see themselves as midwives and doulas of revolution." By uplifting voices, providing support and nurturing the conditions for growth, we are able to build better futures. We are, for all intents and purposes, birthing the systems and world order that we hope to live in. And we need to consider the capacity we have to support the emergence of these systems.
In reflecting on the term "doula," I see it having such an expansive use, and not only being used in times of birth but also those of transition. I now remember that I've heard of people being trained as "death doulas," or those who provide support, education and advocacy for individuals and families learning how to cope with the end of life. And while death can be seen as a beginning or birth in itself, I also think that it also gives us a sense of how we can understand support in all periods of transition.
What are your thoughts on the concept of "doula?" Feel free to let me know!
Item(s) of note.
I spent part of the weekend working on Susannah Conway's "Unravel Your Year 2021" workbook. I highly recommend it if you need some guidance for reflecting on this year of craziness.
A piece on the possibilities of approaching U.S. foreign policy through women of color feminisms.
A new book that I really want to read on the Aesthetics of Excess.
I’m going to try this method of tracking my writing with Google Forms, and I’ll let you know how it goes!
A pup-date.
Higgins is the perfect companion at bedtime. He is the best book holder I've ever come across. (Don’t worry, the fur is manageable.)
As always, thanks so much for reading through, and I'll see you in the next one!
Warmly,
Ida
Hi Ida! I was struck by your newsletter about doulas today because I just began my doula training in Jan. 2020 and have been struggling to explain to my colleagues what this has to do with my work on social justice and museums. Your newsletter brought me energy and strength in that conversation. Ever since I learned the details of the structural racism inside the American system of healthcare, and the care of pregnant and postpartum people of color in particular, I have seen birth work as an extension of my social justice work. I'm so excited to see this idea percolate in so many allied fields as well. Thank you! Elena (@curatoriologist)