(NEWARK, NJ) -- Mayor Ras J. Baraka will join award-winning documentary filmmaker Tonya Lewis Lee, and Office of Comprehensive Community Education Chief Education Officer Dr. Sharnee Brown, to host a screening and panel discussion of the 2022 documentary film "Aftershock" on Thursday, May 30, 2024 at The Newark Museum of Art, located at 49 Washington Street in downtown Newark. An hour-long reception will start at 6:00pm, with the screening beginning at 7:00pm and the discussion following, moderated by CBS Network News Anchor/On-air Contributor Carissa Lawson.
The film describes the stories of two African-American women who died after childbirth, one in 2019, the other in 2020, due to medical negligence, and their families' struggle for institutional reform. The discussion will address the importance of Point Six in Mayor Baraka's "Newark Citywide Prenatal to Third Grade 10-Point Literacy Plan," which calls upon families to "get quality prenatal care and read to the unborn child."
"As of last August, research continued to show that Black women in New Jersey suffered a maternal mortality rate almost seven times higher than white women; and that Black babies in New Jersey were more than three times more likely than white babies to die before their first birthday," said Mayor Baraka. "There are many factors that cause this extreme disparity, but the main reason - above all others - is systemic racism. While the City of Newark strives to make affordable maternal health care accessible to all, I urge residents to help remove barriers by supporting healthcare policy reform and medical education reform that yields a diversified, expert maternal health workforce trained to recognize unconscious bias."
Mayor Baraka will discuss the film with Ms. Lewis Lee, Shawnee Benton-Gibson, mother of Shamony Gibson, and Omari Maynard, partner of Ms. Gibson, who died 13 days after the birth of their son. After that tragedy, Ms. Benton-Gibson and Mr. Maynard teamed up with the partner of another such victim to fight for better treatment. They call for systemic change and greater accountability in the medical community for how it cares women of color and their babies during the prenatal, birthing, and post-partum stages of pregnancy.
"This event will convene hospital officials, families, advocates, and other health providers such as doulas, to stand together and shed light on these important issues with two important goals: to reconceptualize the foundation of literacy as a prenatal experience, and to reimagine healthcare that is equitably available to all families," said Dr. Brown. "This is a critical opportunity to not only develop policies that improve outcomes and increase resiliency among Black and brown mothers, but to also emphasize the positive impact that reading to unborn children has on their brain development and memory capacity."
In light of the 2022 third grade literacy scores, Mayor Ras Baraka developed the Mayor Ras J. Baraka Brain Trust to Address the Urgent Literacy Crisis. From that collective came the "Newark Citywide Prenatal to Third Grade 10-Point Literacy Plan." Research has proven that monitoring third grade literacy is a strong predictor for high school dropout rates.
Besides highlighting that reading to unborn children is critical in developing early literacy, the mayor's plan stresses the importance of pre-natal care. Newark's federally qualified Community Health Center operates a women's health practice in the Mary Eliza Mahoney Health Center at 394 University Avenue. Residents seeking maternal health care can call 1-800-734-7083 to make an appointment between 8:30am and 4:30pm Monday through Friday and two Saturdays a month. The center also accommodates walk-ins. It accepts all insurance including Medicaid, and offers sliding scale fees based on income for the uninsured.
"Newark is laser-focused on the welfare of our pregnant residents and offers a full spectrum of services to care for them and their babies," said Newark Department of Health & Community Wellness Director/CEO Ketlen Alsbrook. "We've long known the disparities that have put women of color and their babies at risk, and I applaud the commitment of Tonya Lewis Lee and the men and women in this film who are bringing this important issue to the forefront of national discussion."
Ms. Lewis Lee has spent more than 20 years delivering quality content across multiple platforms. As a television producer, Ms. Lee served as Executive Producer on the episodic series "She's Gotta Have It," which is currently streaming on Netflix. She produced her first limited series at Nickelodeon, "Miracle's Boys," based on the Jacqueline Woodson Novel of the same name, which remains classic television today.
As a film producer, Ms. Lee produced the adaptation of the Walter Dean Myers novel, "Monster," which premiered in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and is now available on Netflix. Most recently, Ms. Lee co-directed and co-produced "Aftershock," which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, won the Special Jury Award for Impact for Change, and was acquired out of Sundance by Disney's Onyx Collective and ABC News Studios and released on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ worldwide.
"I am deeply committed to social justice, and storytelling through film is a way I can reach people to try to change hearts," said Ms. Lewis Lee. "I want our world to be better than when I got here. I want to stop the avoidable death of mothers and babies in the middle of what should be such a joyful time. And I hope that, when Black women and healthcare systems see the film, we can all engage in conversations about what a truly woman-centered supported birth looks like so all birthing people have access to a dignified and safe birth."
"Aftershock" screened as an official selection at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and had its international premiere at the prestigious Hot Docs International Film Festival.
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.
