Revolutionary Mothering & Birth Work as Care Work: Montreal Events Featuring Mai’a Williams & Alana Apfel

BOTH Thursday May 26 5pm & Saturday May 28 11am-5pm

Thursday May 26, 5pm
1500 de Maisonneuve W, Unit 404
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1018511934863025/

Join us on Thursday for the presentation of two new books: Revolutionary Mothering and Birth Work as Care Work. We’ll be joined by two guests: co-editor Mai’a Williams and author Alana Apfel. Both books will be on sale on site.

Inspired by the legacy of radical and queer black feminists of the 1970s and ’80s, Revolutionary Mothering places marginalized mothers of color at the center of a world of necessary transformation. The challenges we face as movements working for racial, economic, reproductive, gender, and food justice, as well as anti-violence, anti-imperialist, and queer liberation are the same challenges that many mothers face every day. Oppressed mothers create a generous space for life in the face of life-threatening limits, activate a powerful vision of the future while navigating tangible concerns in the present, move beyond individual narratives of choice toward collective solutions, live for more than ourselves, and remain accountable to a future that we cannot always see. Revolutionary Mothering is a movement-shifting anthology committed to birthing new worlds, full of faith and hope for what we can raise up together.

Birth Work as Care Work presents a vibrant collection of stories and insights from the front lines of birth activist communities. The personal has once more become political, and birth workers, supporters, and doulas now find themselves at the fore of collective struggles for freedom and dignity. Alana Apfel draws connections between birth, reproductive labor, and the struggles of caregiving communities today. Articulating a politics of care work in and through the reproductive process, the book brings diverse voices into conversation to explore multiple possibilities and avenues for change.

For accessibility info for the Thursday event visit: http://genderadvocacy.org/accessibility/

Childcare at the Thursday event available upon request with 48 hours notice. To request, email action@genderadvocacy.org or call 514-937-2110.

Thursday event sponsored by Centre for Gender Advocacy, Kersplebedeb, and PM Press.

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 11am-5pm
Theme Room at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair: KIDS, CAREGIVERS & COMRADES
Room 125 at the CEDA (2515 rue Delisle)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/870518823077531/

In addition to Kids Zone, this year the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair will also have a “Kids, Caregivers, and Comrades” theme room on Saturday featuring Mai’a Williams, co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines, and Alana Apfel, author of Birth Work as Care Work: Stories from Activist Birth Communities. The Kids, Caregivers & Comrades Theme Room takes place with the support of QPIRG Concordia, the Center for Gender Advocacy and the Montreal Childcare Collective.

wheelchair accessible / free / whisper translation (English/French)

11am: Revolutionary Mothering: Co-creating Radical Communities in Times of War (EN)
Saturday, May 28 – Room 125, CEDA (2515 rue Delisle)

Inspired by the legacy of radical and queer black feminists of the 1970s and ’80s, Revolutionary Mothering places marginalized mothers of color at the center of a world of necessary transformation. The challenges we face as movements working for racial, economic, reproductive, gender, and food justice, as well as anti-violence, anti-imperialist, and queer liberation are the same challenges that many mothers face every day. Oppressed mothers create a generous space for life in the face of life-threatening limits, activate a powerful vision of the future while navigating tangible concerns in the present, move beyond individual narratives of choice toward collective solutions, live for more than ourselves, and remain accountable to a future that we cannot always see. This Paper Quilt workshop is an interactive space in which a group of people will quilt together a motherful publication in 2 hours or less! The workshop is a great way to make your insights shareable and is part of our mission to expand the idea of what stories about mothering circulate in our society.

Facilitated by Mai’a Williams, a writer and artist who has worked and lived in resistance communities in Palestine, Congo, Jordan, Egypt, Mexico and Ecuador. Mai’a is the co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines (PM Press).
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1pm: Parents and Caregivers Caucus (BILINGUAL)
Saturday, May 28 – Room 125, CEDA (2515 rue Delisle)

This caucus is open to all parents and caregivers who would like to discuss issues of concern, share frustrations, tips, and strategies, as well as network with other parents and caregivers. There will be a facilitator present, but the content of the discussion will be determined by those who attend.
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3pm: Birth Work as Care Work: Birth, Reproduction and Liberation Politics (EN)
Saturday, May 28 – Room 125, CEDA (2515 rue Delisle)

Birth Justice is about much more than birth, it is above all an autonomy-building activity directed towards co-creating an alternative society founded in autonomy and self-determination beyond the state. Through sharing first hand stories of birth work from Birth Work as Care Work: Stories from Activist Birth Communities (PM Press, 2016) this workshop seeks to unpack intersections of birth work and the political, demonstrating connections between birth work as activist practice, radical and prefigurative politics, intersectionality and post-capitalism.

Facilitated by Alana Apfel. Alana is a radical doula, future student midwife, writer, apprentice herbalist, community gardener and birth justice organiser. Alana is the author of Birth Work as Care Work: Stories from Activist Birth Communities.