“Our Bodies, Our Stories: Reproductive Justice with Vayla New Orleans” by Syna Pal
This spring, I had the opportunity of interning with Vayla New Orleans through Newcomb Institute’s Reproductive Rights & Justice program. Starting out, I was unsure of what to expect, and what the expectations of me as an intern would be at VAYLA. As the internship continued I was so grateful to be a part of the VAYLA Team because we weren’t just working towards achieving a common goal, but also working to support each other and create communities of joy and love.
The majority of the work I did was with Aimee Bowling, another RJ intern in the program. We worked together on a reproductive justice podcast titled “Our Bodies, Our Stories.” We knew we wanted to create something that would raise awareness, and advocate for the intersectionality of reproductive justice. We created a total of six episodes over this semester along with the social media posts and marketing for each of them.
While majority of my time at Vayla was spent working on the podcast, I also had the opportunity to help with VAYLA’s other events. I co-facillated a poetry event in Audubon, created fun feminist stickers, tabled at Nola Nite market, and attended the monthly cha and chat community builders. These experiences helped me connect with the wonderful New Orleans AAPI community, meet people in different fields, and make local community connections.
My time at Vayla was both challenging and rewarding. I had the opportunity to meet and connect with so many different individuals from diverse backgrounds and learn about their experiences. I had the opportunity to be creative, to push myself, to learn professionalism and also explore and connect with myself and my identity. I hope that the podcast Aimee and I created this semester can serve as a tool for advocacy and education, and that it can inspire others to take action in support of reproductive rights and justice.
I’m so excited to continue with VAYLA over the summer, and hopefully next semester too 🙂
Tune in to the podcast here.