Dr. Michelle Hite on Mothering While Black, Everyday Courage, and the Power of Telling the Truth

What happens when the world sees your child as a threat before it sees them as human? What does it cost to raise a child while defending your right to grieve, to question, to be seen?

This conversation centers the weight—and the wisdom—of mothering while Black. In this featured National Black Girl Month™ 2025 episode, we’re joined by Dr. Michelle Hite, Spelman College professor, public scholar, and cultural critic whose work traces the intersections of Black identity, grief, and resistance. Together with co-host Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown, we examine what it means to mother, nurture, and protect in a world that wasn’t built for our safety.

This episode isn’t about resilience. It’s about truth-telling as a form of care.

You’ll hear:

• How cultural narratives, from Mamie Till to Toni Morrison, shape our understanding of motherhood

• Why public strength can’t replace private witnessing

• The difference between independence and isolation—and why communal living is the lesson we keep returning to

• How everyday gestures become sacred acts of protection, memory, and joy

• Why sharing isn’t a virtue. It’s a practice. And we’re out of practice.

Whether you're a mother by birth, bond, or assignment, this conversation invites you to return to what you know: you don’t have to do it alone.

Listen now and access the free toolkit at NationalBlackGirlMonth.com Access Dr. Hite's work: https://www.spelman.edu/staff/profiles/michelle-hite.html Connect with Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown: www.instagram.com/dr.rikesha Connect with Felicia Ford: www.threads.net/@friendscallmefe

More about Dr. Hite:

Michelle Hite, Ph.D. has been a Faculty Member Since 2004 and is an Associate Professor for English, the Honors ProgramDirector and the International Fellowships and ScholarshipsDirector.

Michelle Hite earned her Ph.D. from Emory University in American/African American Studies in 2009. Her dissertation used Venus and Serena Williams as subjects whose representation in popular media, books, videos, and other texts prompted her research questions regarding what their public portrayal might suggest about the intersection of race, gender, and nationalism during late capitalism.Although Dr. Hite remains deeply interested in sports, her intellectual work now focuses on African-American life, culture, and experience in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. To this end, she is currently working on a monograph about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963.In addition to her work as an associate professor in the English department at Spelman, Dr. Hite is director of the Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program and director of International Fellowships and Scholarships.

#nationalblackgirlmonth

You’re praised for the baby. But not asked about your body. You’re celebrated for becoming a mother. But rarely supported as you grieve the version of you that no one else seemed to notice disappeared.

This episode is for every Black woman who gave birth and then wondered where she went.

In this featured National Black Girl Month™ 2025 conversation, Dr. Phoebe Ajayi—a physician, maternal health advocate, and author of After Birth: Postpartum Recovery of the Body and Mind—joins us to name the invisible weight of postpartum identity loss. From her clinical roots in Nigeria to practicing medicine in the UK, Dr. Ajayi weaves personal story and global insight into a rare reflection on what happens after the delivery room.

She doesn’t just ask what care we deserve. She asks what care we’ve never been taught to expect.

She shares:

• Pelvic floor dysfunction, identity shifts, and global disparities in postpartum care

• Cultural traditions that hold us (like Nigeria’s omugwo) and Western systems that often don’t

• How to protect your identity after birth—and why that work is still yours, even years later

• Boundaries, grief, and the quiet work of nourishing yourself after motherhood begins

This isn’t about going back to who you were. It’s about meeting who you’ve become—with more language, more grace, and more support than you were ever offered before.

*This is a special National Black Girl Month™ feature by Dr. Phoebe Ajayi originally airing on www.youtube.com/@nationalblackgirlmonth

Access the free toolkit at NationalBlackGirlMonth.com Connect with Dr. Ajayi at phoebeajayi.com Connect with Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown at www.instagram.com/dr.rikesha Connect with Felicia Ford at www.threads.net/@friendscallmefe Join Momentum Lab: https://lab.feliciafordandco.com More about Dr. Ajayi: Dr Phoebe Ajayi is an NHS GP with experience across numerous specialities, here in the UK and her home country, Nigeria. She took a professional interest in postpartum rehabilitation and maternal health after a difficult first pregnancy and labour experience in 2017. Her desire is that all women are well supported during and after pregnancy. She achieves this by educating healthcare professionals and the public, influencing policy, and consulting with companies who have the same goal. For her work in this area, she received an award from the Royal College of General Practitioners. She is a published author; her book "After Birth: Postpartum Recovery of the Body and Mind" is available on Amazon and at all major book distributors. Outside of work, Phoebe enjoys crocheting, exercise and a good novel.