Stitch n Bitch (Crown) created a Birthing Justice Cunt Quilt to build solidarity with the procreative community and awareness of the crowning crisis during the Corona pandemic. Following the Corona virus outbreak, pregnant people of color are at increased risk of pre and post-natal complications while birthing at home or in hospitals where traditional support structures such as life saving doulas are forbidden from the delivery room. Celebrating Spring and International Worker’s Day, we created an image honoring the pregnant people and their allies who are laboring on the procreative front lines. Virtual quilters democratically created a crowd-sourced image addressing questions on birthing justice as well as infant and maternal health with doula and birth justice advocate Nicky Dawkins. Artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer hosted a discussion lead by Doula Nicky about bearing the reproductive healthcare burden from gowning to crowning while exploring ways to improve infant and maternal health conditions for our most vulnerable community. Cohost and Branding Director Kevin Kedroe lead a discussion about image ideation to strengthen the visual power of the discussion. Participants shared questions and ideas in a casual atmosphere while creating a protest flag for our intersectional, feminist movement.
Co-hosted online by artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer, doula Nicky Dawkins and Branding expert Kevin Kedroe in their separate Miami salons, Stitch n Bitch (Crown) was an interactive online event. Adapting to a digital quarantine, Stitch n Bitch is now a 2 hour online event instead of a 4 hour IRL gathering. The first hour was a conversation with Doula Nicky, including audience questions, stories, and concerns about reproductive health and the birthing community. The second hour was spent brainstorming, sharing ideas, critiquing and discussing images of the birthing justice movement to create our own symbol in a crowd-sourced democratic fashion. We shared inspirational, significant images that voice our concerns in the chatroom. We imagined, debated and sketched an image together while Coralina assembled and sewed the worn-out women’s underwear collected through the US Postal service, onto a Queen size bedsheet.
Nicky Dawkins is a Full Spectrum Doula, Journalist and Activist based in Miami, FL. Hailing from Jamaican roots, Nicky’s passion for feminine health developed after a career in music marketing at Def Jam and Universal Music, when she gave birth to her Leo son Nasir. Earning a BA in Communications FIU and MS in Entertainment Business at Full Sail University, Nicky built her expertise in pregnancy, postpartum and infant loss Doula services after training with Latham Thomas and delivering hundreds of humans. Her feminine health, wellness, and natural beauty blog Werk it Moms is a resource for pregnant and postpartum mothers to improve vaginal health, self-care and DIY beauty remedies. Nicky is also the founder of Period Miami, an educational workshop in schools to destigmatize periods for children and teens. Nicky and Coralina met in January at the Women’s March Miami 2020 when Nicky’s impassioned speech about periods galvanized the audience. IG @thankyounicky
Kevin Kedroe is a senior art director for branding at Saatchi & Saatchi and founder of Knead Creative. After receiving his B.F.A. in 2005 from Cooper Union the Jamaican born, Miami and NYC based multimedia artist founded Knead Creative: a design agency that nurtures the artistic community and social entrepreneurship. His work as a Production Designer for short films and theatrical features has received awards from HBO, BET and Sundance. Kevin and Coralina spent more than half their lives as friends in NYC and Miami after growing up in the tropics together. Kevin is weathering Covid19 in Miami and will lead the image making discussion for the Stitch n Bitch.
Femme AF Spotify Playlist
Lambastic 