Former media student Brenda Hayes, put the skills she learned at Grassroots DC to use in producing her award winning film BackBurner Dreams which premiered in 2018.
BackBurner Dreams has screened at eight festivals from Brixton, London to Cleveland, Ohio since its 2018 Mother’s Day premiere in Washington, DC. While it’s gratifying to have the documentary screen at festivals, what’s most rewarding is seeing attendees, particularly women, imagine what it would be like to take their long held goals, passions and dreams off of the “back burner” and pursue them in earnest. I’ve started an initiative in hopes of screening the film nationwide not only at traditional venues, but at women centered organizations and groups with a focus to take it to historically marginalized communities. Reigniting Dreams – Reimagining Community uses BackBurner Dreams as a springboard to hopefully inspire attendees to imagine what it would mean to live the totality of their lives and how reshaping their immediate communities would help make attaining their dreams a reality.
To support this initiative go to brendaahayes.com and click the “Donate” button.
My October 2018 Address to West Virginia’s Women’s and Gender Studies Students and Staff
I wanted to as best I could, prepare to speak with you, part of that preparation included reading the Center For Women and Gender Studies’ general statement -“Students are encouraged to explore female behavior and the realities of women’s lives.” At the risk of preaching to the choir, I’d like to share some of the lived experiences, historical context, and social norms that waylaid the dreams, passions and life goals of my mother to whom I dedicated the film. I want to use my mother’s life as an example in hopes that it will give you a deeper understanding, deeper insight of what the intersection of race and gender held for my mother.
My mother was the youngest of six children and grew up in the throes of Jim Crow Louisiana during the Great Depression. She was born in Baton Rouge but spent most of her childhood in New Orleans. Both of her brothers, my uncles, molested my mother from age nine until she was thirteen and my grandmother sent her to Los Angeles to live with an older sister.
Women in marginalized communities are more likely to be victims of sexual assault and often face more hurdles to being believed when they come forward. Approximately 40% of Black women report coercive sexual contact by age 18. Sixty-seven percent of reported sexual assault victims are under 18 years old and 34% of all victims are younger than 12, my mother unfortunately met these statistics.
Shortly after graduating from high school, my mother returned to New Orleans. A few years after her return to Louisiana, she met and married my father. My father was a brilliant man, he worked in the Department of Entomology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C. for close to 30 years with a concentration on creating a vaccine for malaria. My father was also and alcoholic who more times than I care to remember, physically abused my mother.
More than four in ten Black women experience physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes according to statistics. White women, Latinas, and Asian/Asian Pacific Islander women report lower rates of abuse. Black women also experience significantly higher rates of psychological abuse including insults, name calling and coercive control than do other women overall.
My mother also worked in a number of low paying jobs to supplement my father’s income which more times than not was squandered on alcohol. My mother spent most of her time and energy ensuring we had food on our table, clothes on our backs and enrolled in good private Catholic schools. Black women make 61 cents for every dollar white men make.
My mother suffered from several reproductive related health issues as well Black women are 243 percent more likely than white women to die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes producing one of the largest racial disparities in women’s health according to ProPublica.
My mother was an intelligent, beautiful and resourceful woman but I never knew the dreams she held for her life, I’m not sure she in the midsts of the many challenges she faced, could even dare to remember them.
