Today's episode is one we've been holding for you all with great anticipation. As listeners will hopefully remember from our first episode this season, we spoke with Alexandra Carter, an artist whose work delves into themes of femininity, transformation, and the embodiment of the monstrous as a source of power and creativity. At that time, we discussed her artwork and how she encounters this monstrous feminine. She was also about to give birth in that episode.

Alexandra was just weeks from her due range, as those in the birth world like to say; we had talked about getting together again and discussing the birth after the fact, and she was really excited about and willing to do it. So in this episode, get ready to encounter that monstrous feminine yourself.

Just weeks after the birth of her second child, Alexandra sat down with us to talk about this birth. We are so grateful, as we’re sure you will be too, that she sat with us literally in her body, which was healing from that birth and early postpartum. This is definitely one of those, “you need to hear it to believe it” stories, and it feels like the perfect companion to her episode and like the artist that she is. She somehow magically wove these themes of the anticipated birth and the actual birth here—you're really in for a treat.

More about Alexandra:

• Website: https://www.alexandra-carter.com/
• Instagram alexandracarterstudio

Mentioned in the podcast:

• Annie Ernaux's "A Frozen Woman": A literary work offering a stark and poignant portrayal of childbirth and womanhood.

We invite listeners to share their thoughts and reflections on this episode. How do Alexandra's experiences resonate with your own understandings of birth and creativity? Connect with us on social media or leave a comment to share.

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

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Eleanor Stanford is the author of four books of poetry, all from Carnegie Mellon University Press. Her most recent, Blue Yodel, is forthcoming this fall. Eleanor’s interest in birth- not just in a personal context but through a global lens, through the ways that people and other cultures experience it- brought her to Brazil, where she was a Fulbright fellow. Here, she researched and wrote about traditional midwifery in rural Bahia. She was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Cape Verde, an experience which also impacted her poetry and life trajectory.

In today’s conversation, recorded in-person together in Philadelphia, Kaitlin and Eleanor read poetry from Eleanor’s recent works and discuss:

1. Writing as a way to connect to other people and explore the world
2. Her experience as a Fulbright fellow in Brazil, in a community with an interesting convergence of both highly medicalized birth experiences with a strong tradition of midwifery
3. How Eleanor approached writing and sharing the stories of local Brazilian midwives, given her status as an “outsider” to the Brazilian culture and community.
4. The ways in which the lived bodily experience of motherhood and birth translates to her writing

Find more of Eleanor’s work here:

• Bartram’s Garden
• The Book of Sleep
• The Imaginal Marriage

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

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“Companies oftentimes see dancers, especially women, "unable" to have a career, a professional career after they're becoming mothers. And that's also part of the patriarchy because this is not how it works. Having a child and coming back to work, it can potentialize your work in so many ways. It can bring a broader vision for yourself and for others around you. It can change everything.” - Ingrid Silva

Ingrid Silva was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she began classical ballet training at age eight in the Dançando Para Não Dançar, a program that provided training to young people who could not otherwise afford dance classes.

Throughout her childhood, Silva was inspired by Brazilian ballet dancers, Mercedes Baptista and Ana Botafogo. Outside of Baptista, however, she had very few black Brazilian ballet dancers to idolize. Silva's passion for increased Afro Brazilian visibility in ballet, combined with her mother's unwavering support, inspired Silva to be her own role model at a young age.

By the young age of 17, Silva was an apprentice at Grupo Corpo, one of the most prestigious dance companies in Brazil. And in 2017, she was accepted into the Dance Theater of Harlem Summer Intensive Program in New York on a full scholarship. The following year, she joined the company's community engagement project, Dancing Through Barriers. In 2013, Silva joined the company full time, where she remains today. She felt affirmed by the Dance Theater of Harlem's celebration of African American culture through performance, community engagement, and arts education programs. Silva has held principal and soloist roles for renowned choreographers, including Arthur Mitchell, Donald Bird, Francesca Harper, and many others.

Speaking with Silva at her home in New York, it was a delight to be able to hear her own perspective on this incredible personal journey and how it has intersected with pregnancy and motherhood. We know that you all will really appreciate this conversation today.

Follow Ingrid's journey at:

• @IngridSilva
• http://www.ingridsilvaballet.com/

And discover her recent book A bailarina que pintava suas sapatilhas (currently available in Portuguese, and English soon!) here: http://www.ingridsilvaballet.com/booklivro

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

This episode of Postpartum Production was recorded live at Blackbird Books Bookstore and Cafe in San Francisco, on a warm Spring day in the shop's back garden. This beautiful event was co-hosted by Recess Collective, a local San Francisco organization that builds inclusive community-centered spaces for families, particularly in the early years of parenting. A heartfelt thank you to both organizations for their efforts in uniting our community on that day, and every day.

That day, Kaitlin joined author Nicole Haroutunian at Blackbird for a reading of her novel Choose This Now, published by Noemi Press this year, with conversation and questions from the audience about her process and inspiration for the book. In the audience were young children and parents wandering in and out; a mother nursing her child for most of the event sitting in the audience. We hope these kinds of readings and author events become more common ways that we can incorporate those whose schedules don't accommodate evening or late night events, but can fold into days when caregiving can, as we know, often feel like the only task.

In addition to readings from Choose This Now, Kaitlin and Nicole discuss:

1. How Nicole has chosen to navigate talking about experiences of early caregiving, friendship, and all the layers that she manages in the book, in a realistic way
2. The experience of having given birth; what shifted in Nicoles life in terms of how she now creates literary works
3. How Nicole relates to her work, and how that fed her characters experiences themselves as well

A special shout out to Artist Residency in Motherhood (ARiM), mentioned in this episode, and Cut + Paste, for bringing Kaitlin and Nicole- and so many other artist mothers- together.

More on Nicole: Nicole is also the author of Speed Dreaming, which was published by Little A in 2015. Her work has appeared in the Georgia Review, Story, the Bennington Review, Joyland, Post Road, and Tin House's Open Bar, as well as many others. She lives with her family in Woodside, Queens in New York City. You can find more of her work at:

• http://nicoleharoutunian.com/
• @nicoleharoutunianwriter

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

"It's about history, it's about family lineage, and it's about what we bring into the world." - Remica Bingham-Risher

We continue our exploration of birth and creativity with Remica Bingham-Risher. Remica is the author of Conversion, which was winner of the Naomi Long Magit Poetry Award, What We Ask of Flesh, which was shortlisted for the Hurston Wright Award, and Starlight & Error, winner of the Diode Editions Book Award. Her first book of prose, Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books, and Questions that Grew Me Up was published by Beacon Press in 2022.

Her next book of poems, Room Swept Home, was published by Wesleyan in February 2024, which we spoke about in the podcast. This beautiful collection examines the murky waters of race, lineage, faith, mental health, women's rights, and the reckoning that inhabits the discrepancy between lived versus textbook history. She's currently the Director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives at Old Dominion University, and she currently lives in Norfolk, Virginia with her husband and children.

In today’s conversation, Kaitlin and Remica discuss:

1. Room Swept Home and the research Remica conducted to build this work of archival research, as well as personal memoir and communal history that is infused in the book and her research
2. The ways in which she encountered birth in this collection of poetry
3. How the narratives of childbirth through her own personal history have become such a compelling and fruitful space for her own exploration as a person, as a mother and as an artist

Discover Remica’s work here:

• https://www.remicabinghamrisher.com/
• @remicawriter

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

Lauren Lapkus is an American actress and comedian known for portraying Susan Fisher in the Netflix comedy drama series Orange is the New Black. She played Jess in the HBO comedy drama series Crashing, she's appeared in the television series Are You There, Chelsea?, Hot in Cleveland, Clipped, The Big Bang Theory, and Good Girls, the films Jurassic World, The Unicorn, The Wrong Missy, and she played the voice of Lada in the animated comedy series, Harvey Girls Forever! She also plays Joanna in the film Another Happy Day, a “postpartum depression comedy” directed by Nora Fiffer, a guest of the Postpartum Production Podcast back in Season 1. You can listen to that conversation here.

Lauren is also a prolific podcaster: she has appeared on the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast, Improv4Humans, and her own podcast With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, LAPTIME with Lauren Lapkus, Threedom, Raised by TV, and Newcomers.

In today’s laughter-filled conversation, Kaitlin and Lauren discuss:

1. The physical challenges of pregnancy and postpartum as an active comedian and actor
2. How experiencing motherhood firsthand influenced her acting, particularly her portrayal of Joanna in Another Happy Day
3. How film sets and the industry at large have (and have not) shifted to provide healthier working conditions and schedules, particularly for parents

Discover more of Lauren’s work here:

• @laurenlapkus
• http://www.laurenlapkus.com/

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

We’re so excited to introduce listeners today to Amy Bornman: a poet, textile artist, and parent living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as the author of two books of poetry, There is a Future (Paraclete Press Poetry, 2020), Broken Waters (out now!), and co-author of How to Sew Clothes (Abrams Books, 2023). Amy has literally made creative pieces out of the experiences of the births of her two children, and she's even birthed the small press Imaginary Lake, which supports her creative production.

Amy's work focuses on themes of domesticity, caregiving, confession, and spirituality. In this conversation, we deeply appreciated Amy's perspective on art making and the domestic space, and how art making can be a radical act, especially when it sits outside the capitalist context.

In today’s conversation, Kaitlin and Amy discuss:

1. The importance of sharing diverse birth stories, including those that are not safe, supported, or desired, to provide a full range of human experience
2. Art making in the domestic space, finding success with small press and zine publishing, and writing without traditional publishing barriers
3. Amy’s two birth experiences, and how the the experience of birthing her first child helped her step into power as a mother with her second

More of Amy’s work:

• amybornman.com
• amybornman.substack.com
• @amybornman / @allwellworkshop / @imaginary_lake

Referenced in the Podcast:

• Louise Erdrich’s The Blue Jay’s Dance
• Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born
• Amelia Greenhall Anemone

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack:

In this episode, we sit with contemporary artist Ashley January to discuss her powerful paintings inspired by maternal experiences. Ashley delves into themes of preeclampsia, premature birth, and birth trauma, shining a spotlight on the Black maternal mortality and morbidity crisis in America. Her art is not just a reflection of her personal journey but also an act of activism, aiming to bring awareness and change to the maternal health landscape.

In this episode, Kaitlin and Ashley discuss:

1. Art and Maternal Experience: Ashley shares how her journey through motherhood, including facing preeclampsia and premature birth, has profoundly influenced her artwork.
2. The Black Maternal Health Crisis: We explore the critical issues of Black maternal mortality and morbidity in America, and how Ashley's art addresses and brings visibility to these challenges.
3. Art in Clinical Spaces: The impact of Ashley’s work being featured in clinical settings like Tufts University's Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice and Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago.

More about Ashley:

• Ashley's Website - Explore Ashley’s portfolio and learn more about her upcoming exhibitions.
• Instagram: @ashleyjanart
• Intrauterine Growth Restriction: The painting of Ashley's Kaitlin has in her home
• Women's Caucus for Art - Learn about the organization that awarded Ashley the Emerging Artist Award.
• Tufts University's Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice - Discover the initiatives and Ashley's contributions to this center
• Expo Chicago - Find out more about the art expo where Ashley showcased her new series.
• Cynthia Corbett Gallery - Check out the gallery representing Ashley’s work

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com