Who Gets To Parent?

Who Gets To Parent? is a series of short digital stories, a cross between documentary and vlog, that looks at the experiences of Queer, Trans and BIPOC people navigating pregnancy and birthing within a medical system that presents many systemic barriers that are racist, classist, xenophobic, sexuality and sexist based. The first ten episodes laid bare the barriers and systemic inequities Queer, trans and racialized people face during pregnancy (the problem). The coming four episodes seek to provide stories of the resilience and innovation of Queer, trans and racialized birth workers (part of the solution), providing hope and highlighting how we can move forward. These four episodes, unlike the first ten, involve shadowing people who are not also making the films, calling for heightened attention to social justice oral storytelling, and will benefit significantly from the resources provided by Stories for All.

Partner Details

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  Contact

  pere.timmia@gmail.com

  Pere DeRoy

  Doctoral Candidate, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Kansas

  Bio

  Pere DeRoy is a doctoral candidate in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program at the University of Kansas with a specialization in transnational Public Policy & Administration in North America and the English-speaking Caribbean.

  Pere’s current research explores the impact that uncertainty around formal state-sanctioned medicalized health, and popular yet stigmatized traditional healthcare systems, have on reproductive pregnancy-related healthcare and outcomes for Queer and Trans BIPOC. Her work frames current patterns of “maternal” mortality ratio as a health disparity problem that requires the Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework as an apt problem-solving tool of analysis and planning. As a theorist of Transnational and Decolonial feminisms, she aims to excavate stories of causations that shape healthcare policies and practices in ways that allows the marginalized to chip away at the relegating margins of their realities. Pere has 10+ years of experience working with development-oriented organizations ranging from community-based organizations, state agencies and international organizations in areas of program management, community consultation and resource mobilization focused on education, sexual and reproductive health and rights women’s and youth’s advocacy, and sexual orientation and the law, and critical examination of dominant human trafficking discourses. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, and post-graduate Diploma in International Studies from the University of Guyana, a MA in International Development from York University in Canada, and a MA in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies with a specialization in Public Policies & Administration.

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  Timmia Hearn DeRoy

  Assistant Professor, Directing and Social Justice Theatre, University of California, Berkeley

  Bio

  Timmia Hearn DeRoy is a practitioner and scholar of social justice-based theatre and film. She directs, writes, produces, draturgs, and teaches. She is an assistant professor of Directing and Social Justice Theatre at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from KU. She was a founding member of the Trinidad and Tobago PRIDE Arts Festival, former Director of the School for the Arts at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, the Caribbean’s oldest theatre company, and former Marketing Manager at the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival. She works in areas of post-colonial theater practice, transnational feminist praxis, and Disability Justice, and engages in community-oriented and social change focused theater across the Diasporas to which she belongs. Timmia’s directing credits include 10,000: A One-Woman New Play Development by Victoria Taurean (2020) at the Lawrence Arts Center, In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks (2019) at the KU University Theatre, an original I Am One musical comedy called Buss de Mark (2016) which premiered at the PRIDE Arts Festival in Trinidad, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (2013/4), Two Can Play by Trevor Rhone (2013/4), and An Echo in the Bone by Dennis Scott (2012) at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. Timmia has worked teaching both acting and playwriting in Trinidad and Tobago as well as the United States and Nepal. She additionally has worked as a new script development consultant in both theatre and film, and provides dramaturgical frameworks that decolonize scripts and directing practice.