"Our ancestors did not come to the water alone... we truly need each other" -Sydney A. Foster

In this episode, I sit down with visual artist and director Sydney A. Foster to talk about growing up Black and queer in the South, finding liberation through art, and honoring ancestry through spiritual practice. We explore queerness as a politic, what family means, and how reproductive justice is about so much more than abortion access.

Sydney reflects on their healing journey and creative process, and we shout out powerful thinkers like Audre Lorde, Loretta Ross, Dorothy Roberts (Killing the Black Body), and June Jordan—whose work continues to shape how we imagine freedom, care, and community.

Connect with Sydney: @sydney.a.foster   and/or [email protected].

In this talk, we dig into the ways stigma doesn't just shape policy—it shapes culture. It shapes how we treat each other. And we also talk about what it might look like to break that cycle—to name what’s happening, reclaim our autonomy, and build radically honest collective strategies rooted in love, care, and liberation. As always, thanks for being here and I hope this episode encourages you to think more intentionally about your relationship to stigma.

In this episode of Southern Synergy, host Duke Virginia sits down with Alexia Rice Henry Co-Executive Director at ARC-Southeast to explore her journey with IUI and what it means to build Black queer family in a medical system not designed for us.

Alexia speaks openly about the emotional, physical, and political dynamics of fertility treatment, and how her experience as a Black queer woman navigating IUI intersects with reproductive justice, systemic inequity, and the fight for self-determination in family building.

Some Highlights:

The realities of IUI and fertility treatment for Black queer people

Medical trauma and access barriers in reproductive care

The emotional toll and radical hope needed behind building family especially as a queer Black person

Reproductive justice as a liberatory framework

Resources & Mentions:

ARC-Southeast – Abortion and reproductive care support across the South

SisterSong’s Reproductive Justice Framework

Connect with us!

https://arc-southeast.org https://www.instagram.com/arc_southeast/ 

Duke shares their personal grounding in the reproductive justice framework, introduces the kinds of deep, intimate conversations to expect this season—from IVF and chosen family to art, spirituality, and destigmatization—and asks the guiding question: Can I live? Both a reflection and a call to action, this episode invites listeners into a space where culture, politics, and collective power through storytelling meet.