How Labor Pains is Adapting, Listening, and Meeting the Moment
We are in a moment. America is collectively experiencing a moment. And I am using my art to help myself and others thrive through.
An artistic project is not a static object; it’s a living organism. It breathes, responds, and evolves. Over the past few weeks, my project Labor Pains—an artistic response to America 250 and an inquiry into Black women’s freedom—has been doing just that. As I navigate the complex terrain of building an oral history archive that will become a live performance, the project itself has been teaching me, sharpening my focus, and revealing its true form.
I want to share this evolution. This is not just a project update; it’s a look into a responsive and innovative practice designed to meet the urgency of our current political and economic moment.
If it helps you or your organization meet this moment, please 🙏🏾 meet this moment! (And hit me up, I’d love to know how it goes!)
Finding the Flow: From Events to Encounters 💬
Initially, I envisioned the heart of my story collection to be a series of “Map & Meet” events. The vision was beautiful, but the reality has been even more profound. I found myself hearing Labor Pains stories everywhere—in conversations with potential collaborators, in quiet moments with elders, in the daily cadence of life. The work was already happening, organically and powerfully.
This realization prompted a crucial shift in methodology. While the community workshops remain a vital component, I will take more care in my documentation and collection of stories through other interviews. I am re-integrating the intimate and powerful model of one-on-one interviews. “Map & Meets” will still serve as the primary mode of story collection. This ensures I capture as many contemporary voices as possible.
My pilot workshops in Albany this summer taught me a foundational lesson: comfort is king. For the deep reflection required by our prompts and body-mapping activities to truly flourish, a foundation of trust and safety is paramount. By adapting my approach, I am prioritizing the integrity of the story and the well-being of the storyteller, ensuring the archive we build is one of authenticity and care. This is adaptability in action—allowing the needs of the community to shape the research, not the other way around.
The Thesis Sharpened: Our Two Core Arguments 🎯
This period of reflection and adaptation has sharpened the project’s core arguments into a two-pronged thesis that now drives every aspect of the work:
- Economic Foundation: The paid and unpaid labor of Black women has always subsidized American capitalism and culture. Our project asserts this not as a theory, but as a demonstrable, lived reality.
- Healing Modality: Body-mapping, as a practice, is a uniquely effective methodology for addressing the complex nexus of trauma that Black American women face as a result of this systemic economic and social reality.
This is what Labor Pains is working to prove. It’s an innovative approach that marries economic theory with somatic practice, historical analysis with personal testimony. We are creating a new kind of archive—one that not only documents the “what” but also explores the “how”: how this history lives in our bodies and how we can begin to map our way toward freedom.
The Archive and The Body: Measuring the Work 🏛️
To test these arguments, I have set a clear and ambitious metric: to collect 150 narratives from Black women. This number is not arbitrary. It represents a body of evidence substantial enough to demonstrate patterns, validate my thesis, and honor a diversity of experiences.
This work is unfolding on two parallel tracks:
- Contemporary Narratives: Through interviews and story submissions, we will listen for evidence of this economic “subsidy.” More importantly, we will ask the participants themselves if the body-mapping process helps them reflect on their experiences and, crucially, embody what freedom feels like to them.
- Archival Research: I am digging deep into the records of Black women’s clubs in Albany, NY and Oakland, CA. By studying the records of the Phyllis Wheatley Club of East Bay, the Mother’s Charity Club, and the Empire State Women’s Club umbrella organization, I am building a historical bridge. This archival work helps us understand the long, organized history of Black women doing essential community work on a local level, often in direct response to national economic crises and governmental neglect.
Art as Intervention: Meeting the Current Crisis 📈
Let’s be clear: this project is not happening in a vacuum. We are in the midst of a Black women’s unemployment crisis, where decades of progress are being systematically rolled back. The stories we are collecting are not just history; they are urgent, present-day data.
Labor Pains is an artistic intervention. It takes the cold, hard statistics of unemployment and economic disparity and clothes them in flesh, bone, and spirit. The 150 narratives will form a powerful qualitative dataset that humanizes the headlines and challenges a national culture that is, as I’ve noted before, “contentious with historical fact, cultural precedent, government responsibility, or corporate accountability.”
The final performance, to be staged in Albany and Oakland in 2026, will be more than a play; it will be a living testament to this research, a communal space for recognition, and my artistic answer to the question: how can we embody freedom from white and male supremacy?
This is the work of Labor Pains. It is rigorous, it is responsive, and it is relevant. It is a project designed for this moment, built on a legacy of resilience, and aimed squarely at a more liberated future.
If this mission resonates with you, I invite you to become a weaver. Help us grow this tapestry by sharing this update with someone who needs to see it. If you carry a story of your own labor that you are ready to share, please reach out to contribute to our oral history collection. And if you see a vision for collaboration, my door is always open. Let’s continue this vital work, together.
Leave a comment