by Lauryn Bray

In honor of Seattle Black Maternal Health Week 2023, Black Liberated Kin Mobilizing Access for Maternal Autonomy & Solidarity (BLK MAMAS) Collective hosted an event at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute on April 14. Their fourth annual celebration, “Our Joy Be Full: Black Kin Healing the Collective Body,” and the event created space for conversations about self-responsibility and rest, reclaiming bodily autonomy, and embodied practices of joy. In accordance with Black Mamas Matter Alliance’s (BMMA) official 2023 programming theme, “Our Bodies Belong to Us: Restoring Black Autonomy and Joy, Our Joy Be Full” was an event designed to build community among Black birth workers and Black birthing people while celebrating and bringing awareness to Black maternal health in order to promote and facilitate collective healing.