PUSH actor addresses the audience

PUSH: Black Mamas Changing the Culture of Birth opened at CoHo Theatre April 25-27!

Directed by Jamie Rea and Bobby Bermea and produced by Roberta Hunte and Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project, PUSH is an invitation to come laugh, shed a tear, and open your heart to the beautiful storytelling of mamas changing the culture of birth.

The current facts are staggering. 

  • 80% of maternal deaths are preventable 
  • Black birthing people face 3.5x higher risk in pregnancy 
  • In Oregon, the highest population at the risk of eviction is birth to one years of age

We invite you to stay engaged with this ongoing work by:

  • Supporting Momnibus SB 692
  • Continue conversations about perinatal health that is culturally responsive and regionally specific 
  • Elevate the approaches we know are working 
  • Invest in PUSH and Black Futures Initiative 
    Thank you to everyone who joined us for the SOLD OUT opening night to celebrate the work of Dr. Roberta Hunte and Black Futures Initiative For Perinatal Health

A special note of gratitude to Candice R. Vickers Executive Director of Family Forward Oregon, Senator Lisa Reynolds, and Dana Hepper Policy Director at The Children's Institute for joining us and supporting this vital work.

We also extend gratitude to Marilyn Keller, jazz hall of fame musician for bringing us the gift of music to open this special night.

This was CWLs first engaged scholarship project and we are honored to have sponsored four PSU student interns to work on furthering the work of Black Futures Initiative and improving policies impacting the first year of life in Oregon. 

About Black Futures for Perinatal Health Project

In 2023 a working group of Black birthing people, birth workers, public policy, medical and public health professionals convened to develop core priorities of an agenda for Black maternal health in Oregon for the next 5 years. The Black Futures Initiative for Perinatal Health is a Black women-led collaboration to expand Birth Justice for Black birthing people through advocacy, research, power-building, and cultural transformation. We need a center for Black birth that is holistic, providing wrap around, culturally congruent, community care to meet perinatal and postpartum needs. We aim to build on the existing network of community-led support for families and to provide a needed anchor for this work. Gratitude to Portland State University, All Ready Network, and the Children’s Institute for funding support.

3 Project Components:

  • The establishment of a birth center
  • The passing of Momnibus legislation in the 2025 legislative session
  • Development and touring of Push: Black Mamas Changing the Culture of Birth a devised theater piece about Black maternal health experiences in US healthcare settings

Additional information on closing the gap one birth at a time can be found on the Black Futures Initiative for Perinatal Health website.

Dr Roberta Suzette Hunte on stage

Center for Women’s Leadership Partners with PSU Professor to Improve Black Perinatal Care

Given the widening political divides around maternal care and reproductive justice, the peace-building and educational agenda underwriting Push could not come at a more crucial time. Spring audiences will surely come away from the production moved, informed, and, Hunte hopes, empowered to demand change.

 

Meet the Push Project Interns 

Tamara Antunes

Tamara

Tamara has dedicated her life to community empowerment and advocacy, beginning her journey in Brazil by supporting grassroots education initiatives and faith-based programs. She has a Business Administration degree, where she also collaborated with fellow students to develop and lead impactful philanthropic projects. Throughout her life, she has been deeply involved in activist causes, and in 2020, she joined the anti-violence movement, advocating for survivors of sexual assault, trafficking, and domestic violence. These experiences ignited her passion for systemic change, prompting her to engage in policy work aimed at advancing survivor rights and social justice. As she nears the completion of her Master of Social Work in 2025, Tamara remains steadfast in her values as an anti-racist and feminist advocate.
She has supported Black Futures and Children's Institute on lobbying and advocacy to advance reproductive rights and address racial disparities in healthcare. Bringing strong organizational skills and a creative mind, Tamara is enthusiastically facilitating the Push Mamas Project with her colleagues towards a successful finale.

Witnessing birth workers and birth people unite as one force has only deepened my inspiration to join this movement and work toward improving maternal health in America. We are the ones chosen to make history, so let's create it together.

 

Christina Jenkins

Christina Jenkins 

As the granddaughter of a midwife and daughter of a nurse, Portland State University student Christina Jenkins says advocating for maternal health speaks to her heart and runs in her blood.

This made joining forces with Dr. Roberta Hunte, an assistant professor at the PSU School of Social Work, a natural fit. Hunte, in collaboration with Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project and with support from PSU’s Center for Women’s Leadership (CWL), is bringing to life a theatrical piece that explores the issue of providing culturally sensitive perinatal care to Black women. Called Push: Black Mamas Changing the Culture of Birth, the piece is the first project from CWL’s Engaged Scholarship initiative, which is a new program that creates learning pods of students, faculty, and community leaders around significant social issues.

Jenkins, who is pursuing a degree in social work, experienced the shortcomings of Black maternal care when she delivered her second child and had only limited state-funded insurance. 

It was frightening to see so many strangers involved in my delivery, pushing me to give birth in ways that caused stress and overmedication,” she said. “It affected my ability to recover promptly, nurse, and care for my newborn. I don’t want anyone—especially not my Black sisters—to endure that experience.

A self-described humanitarian, Jenkins is pursuing a degree in social work because she is dissatisfied with how social services are currently being delivered in Oregon and around the world. She is especially interested in researching climatic displacement of Indigenous people with an eye toward helping social workers become more knowledgeable about the need for cultural continuity.

As the Legislative and Non-profit Support Intern on Push, Jenkins is gaining hands-on experience in specific skills—nonprofit management, grant writing, and leveraging the legislative process to achieve policy change—that will serve her well as she pursues her career goals. “I am excited by the steady growth of knowledge I am receiving in this position with Push,” she says.

 

Sarah Applin PUSH Intern

Sarah Applin

Portland State University student Sarah Applin has “always been drawn to the acts of mothering.” So when she learned about an opportunity to apply for a production assistant internship for a theatrical piece about Black perinatal care in Oregon, she didn’t hesitate.


The piece, entitled “Push: Black Mamas Changing the Culture of Birth,” was written by Dr. Roberta Hunte, an assistant professor in the PSU School of Social Work. Bringing Hunte’s script to life is the inaugural project of the Engaged Scholarship initiative, a
program launched last fall by the PSU Center Women’s Leadership.


Applin, who is working toward degrees in Sociology and Child, Youth, and Family Studies, is well aware of how institutionalized racism fosters disparities in the healthcare
system and how these disparities continue to impact the lives of Black people long before and far after pregnancy and birth. It is what her mother went through and what
she expects she and her sisters will go through as Black women.


The theater internship allows her to delve deeper into these difficult issues using a lens that is both artistic and truthful; to make deep connections in the community; to act on her feet; and engage in creative problem-solving while supporting the directors, communicating with actors, and managing props. Although not yet a mom herself, that is part of the plan, along with pursuing a master’s degree and Montessori credentials. 

I dream of my Black children and their futures. I will always dream of a better future.

Lacie Wilson

Lacie Wilson

Lacie Wilson is a Social Science student minoring in Women’s Studies at Portland State University. As a Media Intern for Push: Black Mamas Changing the Culture of Birth, they contribute to efforts addressing Black maternal health by developing a strong media presence and creating an interactive website that fosters community engagement. With a deep passion for care ethics and healthcare equity, Lacie advocates for systems that empower all people, families, and communities. They are honored to collaborate with birthing people, birth workers, and advocates to promote equitable access to care.

Birthing is an essential and vulnerable transition, and we all deserve to feel safe and honored when we choose to cross that bridge.