A Note on Black August

Ancient teachings reveal that the start of a new year is rightfully in the spring season, when new life is emerging. Summer is when life is settling into its new formation, expanding into the reaches of its new self, its new body, its new stems. This summer, we at RJ Squared, LLC are expanding into the reaches of our rebirth. We are filling out our limbs, and feeling the expanse of our power within our sociopolitical landscape. There is no better time to do this than Black August.

What is Black August? Black August is a time for critical confabulations, learning from the history that informs our current moment. Since our spring newsletter, we have seen the promises of Project 2025 threaten the lives of our kinfolk who are dependent upon the lakes, which flow from the Groundwater. Our 2-day workshop, Critical Foundations of Reproductive Justice 101 builds on The Groundwater Approach to Racial Equity, by emphasizing that:

• Racial inequity looks the same across systems,

• Socio-economic difference does not explain the racial inequity; and,

• Inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior.

However, we understand that the implications for marginally racialized birthing people are particularly fraught. The prescient, definitive call for Reproductive Justice, “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities” requires our unwavering commitment. We see mass racial profiling resulting in deportation, frozen funds that support public education and health systems committed to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Our history informs our current moment by offering evidence that we have been here before. But what are we imagining for ourselves? Our offspring? The seven generations yet born and their offspring? RJ Squared is imagining communities that reflect who we are as Reproductive Justice advocates, mobilizers, and conductors. So, this Black August, We are leaning into Black feminist cosmologies as ways of living, learning, and being. Here, we root ourselves among the stars and turn to this collective to [en]vision a true democratic society that upholds our reproductive justice, through and after our reproductive years. Continue to absorb this season’s newsletter. Share RJ Squared among your network. Invite your network to engage in our Critical Foundations workshop.

Key Questions for Continued Learning:

• How do current political initiatives (e.g., Project 2025) threaten the principles of Reproductive Justice?

• What historical moments or movements can we learn from to resist these threats today?

• How can Black feminist cosmologies guide us in building communities of care and resistance?

• What are your hopes for the next seven generations? What seeds are you planting today to nurture those futures?