What We Water, A Love Letter

To you, whoever you are─

Black women have been my protectors in this lifetime, certainly the last and prayerfully the next. I have known no stronger love than that I have received from Black women一my mother, my grandmothers, my aunties, my cousins, my best friends, the kind, soulful Black women I have met in my community, outside of my community and in the sweetest of moments. I have never received a better love.

For this love I am eternally grateful. This love has taught me to fully embrace and respect my identity as a Black woman, as a complex being with complex thoughts and feelings. I was raised in a multicultural community, in which my mother insisted I learn Spanish. In this community, I have learned to express myself in a non-native tongue. 

I have always felt supported in exploring who I am and doing what I love, and this context is important for what I’m about to tell you. What I’m about to show you.

I came across the definition of reproductive justice towards the end of one of the most painful periods of my life. I had spent about a year struggling to control and manage my mental health disorder, and in a way my suffering proved to be cathartic. I was not the same person I was before; I had spent a lot of time in cognitive behavioral therapy, I had tried several treatment methods, and I found a combination that worked. I was feeling balanced, and was optimistic about the future of my mental health. I felt good.

These words couldn’t have come at a more divine time. They appeared in a reading for class, defining reproductive justice as:

“‘the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, economic, and social well-being of women and girls, and will be achieved when women and girls have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality and reproduction for ourselves, our families and our communities in all areas of our lives.’”

This definition of reproductive justice was written by a Black woman, Kimala Price, who has done a lot of work in the reproductive justice movement. At the time I was also reading brilliant texts like Killing the Black Body by Dorothy E. Roberts and articles written by intersectional scholars Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw  and bell hooks. In combination with what I had experienced with my own mental health and what I learned about my spiritual health as a result, it became clear to me that reproductive justice advocacy would play a significant role in my work during this lifetime. And just as Black women have protected me physically, emotionally, and socially, I had decided through reproductive justice and wellness that this is how I was going to protect them.

What We Water is a digital space dedicated to the sexual, emotional and mental wellness of Black and brown women and reproductive justice advocacy. A seed planted in early 2021, this project is set to be launched January 1st, 2022. The name comes from the idea that what we pour into ourselves will evolve─what we water will grow. As I tirelessly navigated my mental illness, I realized that prioritizing my mental health was no longer an option, but instead a requirement for my well being. I reached out to my good friend Sofia Dean, whose own interests include racialized health disparities and criminal justice (among others), and who agreed that there is an underrepresentation of spaces that address wellness and justice, and how they are related. Thus, we birthed an organization.

As written in the mission statement, our goal above all is to support our communities by providing accessible resources for sexual, mental, spiritual and emotional health, in addition to supporting safe, independent choices in reproductive care. What We Water is our contribution to Black and brown women’s health and wellness, in which we provide essays, content, resources, media, and more about the importance of investing in all aspects of ourselves. 

What We Water was created with love for Black and brown women. I cannot truly express how excited I am to launch this project and watch it bloom. This is for you, for them, for her─and I hope you know this is the beginning for us. 

With love,

Makenna Lindsay

Executive Director and Founder of What We Water