WTUL News & Views, Access and Empowerment Series, Episode 1

Welcome to a new series for WTUL News & Views called “Access and Empowerment” that sheds light on the contemporary convergence of crises through the historical enclosure of the commons and the internalized oppressions. I'm your host Nora and I'll be offering this series to explore what feeds capitalism? Where is primitive accumulation still happening? How do we experience enclosure in our lives? How do we understand the relationship between access and empowerment? Where, and who by, is community being reproduced? What aspects of community are visible and valued? Where do internalized capitalisms show up in today's movements? How have we come to experience capitalism in our bodies? The Access and Empowerment series by WTUL News and Views will pose these questions by talking with local community members and exploring academic texts.

WTUL News and Views, Access and Empowerment Series, Episode 1 features a local event “Beneath the Womb Veil: a forum on early female healthcare” from the Cachet Arts & Culture Program and the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. Cachet Arts & Culture Program celebrates the launch of their first in a series of podcasts this morning, visit cachetprogram.org to listen to Hysteria Podcasts Part 1. The podcasts are being released this month in advance of May 1 International Day of the Midwife, and Cachet presents two panel discussion on May 4 and May 5 at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. For more information, stay connected to Cachet on Facebook.

“Beneath the Womb Veil: a forum on early female healthcare” panelists include:

Owen Evers, moderator and director of Cachet Arts & Culture Program
Kate Paxton, certified nurse midwife
Elizabeth Seleen, student of historical anthropology, working in the excavations at Storyville
Jen Stovall, herbalist and one of the owners of Maypop Herb Shop
Rachel Speck, resident artist at Cachet, and member of New Orleans Community Print Shop

Rachel Speck poses the question, “Looking at the historical development of pharmaceuticals it seems that there has been a tremendous shift where originally only upper class could afford pharmaceuticals, while lower class and slaves relied on herbalism and alternative practices. This changed at some point, with over the counter medicines and pharmaceuticals used heavily by the lower classes and alternative medicines used heavily by the wealthy. What do you think enabled this shift? What really do you feel happened and why?” Panelists Kate Paxton, Elizabeth Seleen, and Jen Stovall respond.

The Access and Empowerment series will feature more from this event, but if you are eager to hear the full audio, listen to Goat in the Road Productions Numb #4 Podcast.