Emotional, informational, and decision-making support needs among people seeking abortion in the US: perspectives from All-Options Talkline callers

September 20, 2023 Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

Co-authored with Jane W. Seymour, Bria A. Goode, Angélica M. Campos, Kai Kyles, Poonam Dreyfus-Pai and Sarah E Baum

People seeking abortion may need or want emotional or informational support before, during, and after their abortion. Feeling supported and affirmed contributes to perceptions of quality care. The All-Options Talkline offers free, telephone-based, peer counselling to callers anywhere in the United States. This study aimed to explore the types of support received through the Talkline and the ways it supplemented other forms of support received by people who obtained an abortion. Between May 2021 and February 2022, we conducted 30 interviews via telephone or Zoom with callers recruited through the Talkline. We coded the interviews and conducted thematic analysis, focusing on themes related to gaps of support from family, friends, and healthcare professionals, as well as types of support received through the Talkline. We identified four key motivations for calling the Talkline, including the need for (1) decision-making support and validation, (2) a neutral perspective, (3) emotional support to discuss negative or complex feelings, and (4) information about the abortion process. Participants indicated that interactions with family, friends, and healthcare professionals ranged from unsupportive and negative, to substantially supportive. Access to the Talkline was particularly useful prior to clinical interactions and in the weeks or months after an abortion. We found that the All-Options Talkline provided person-centred, remote support for callers, filling gaps or supplementing support from one's community or healthcare professionals. Abortion support from non-medically trained support people contributes to high-quality abortion care, especially in a time of increasing abortion restrictions and use of remote abortion services.

Mary Dead Souls

October 1st, 2022 Coffin Bell Journal Volume 5 Issue #4 The Zodiac

Flash fiction story based on the ballad of Mary Hamilton

Congressional Testimony to the U.S. Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Hearing on: “Roe Reversal: The Impacts of Taking Away the Constitutional Right to an Abortion”

July 19, 2022

Blue Night Full

April 11, 2022 Bewildering Stories issue 945

Flash fiction story about a mother and daughter coming to terms with a mother’s need for transformation by fire.

The Smith Island Crab Co-op: Women's Work in the Chesapeake Bay

May 1, 2019 Indiana University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

The Smith Island Crab Coop is a crab-picking facility located in the tiny town of Tylerton on Smith Island Maryland. Originally opened in the early 1990s, the coop was a result of government enforcement of illegally picked crabmeat in women’s homes. The coop represents value-laden heritage discourses about Chesapeake Bay maritime families (know as watermen) and also indicates a shift about women’s representation and roles in their work on the Bay. While crab-picking has historically been a significant source of income and folklife in the Bay area, it has remained in the shadows of men’s work on the water. This research aims to rectify some of those gendered gaps, while also addressing how this work is highly racialized and gendered through the use of historical primary sources and fieldwork.

Review: (All Kinds of Fur): Erasure Poems and New Translation of Tale from the Brothers Grimm

Apr 8, 2019 Journal of Folklore Research Reviews

Yocom’s work illustrates some of the very best features that the discipline of folklore has to offer in the research, re-visioning, re-imagining, and continued exploration of fairy tales. Her writing in the afterword section states her process in writing erasure and her choices regarding everything from points of research to the choices of fonts and font color. This kind of nuance and detail is interesting and poignant for understanding this little gem as a whole. Her work is a testament to how much can continue to unfold using a feminist folkloristic lens in translations and interpretations of texts, and the use of creative writing as a process of continuing textual conversations and perhaps, as she states, even arguments.
Reading this small book about an old Grimm tale is a surprising experience—it is a little bit like being handed a very cute present that ends up being a Molotov cocktail. The best kind of folklore.

Will The Show Go On? Strip-Club Faces a Changing City

Dec 27, 2016 Limestone Post Magazine

Night Moves, Bloomington’s only strip club, faces a changing city. Writer Paulina Guerrero looks into the misperceptions, contradictions, and challenges faced by not only the longtime establishment but also its dancers — and by the sex work industry in general

Harm Reduction: A Challenging New Approach to the Drug Scourge

Sep 27, 2016 Limestone Post Magazine

The drug-addiction epidemic in southern Indiana has defeated almost every effort people have tried to address the problem. But some groups, such as the Indiana Recovery Alliance, are finding that a new method, called 'harm reduction', often has better results than the decades-old war on drugs

Review: Hotel Mariachi: Urban Spaces and Cultural Heritage in Los Angeles

May 8, 2014 Journal of Folklore Research Reviews

The book features stunning black and white photography by Gandert. The photographs show the daily lives of the mariachis, capturing moments of waiting on the plaza, local clothing shops working on outfits, impromptu dance sessions, children’s groups, and festivals of Santa Cecilia. Gandert’s photographs encapsulate the sense of cultural community that mariachi music brings, but it also shows the day-to-day work of being a mariachi musician--the inside of a musician’s room shows his clothes drying for his next gig, mariachis sit outside on the plaza with their instruments waiting to be hired, and musicians take a break to grab a bite to eat and chat with each other. The photographs also show the supporting economies for the musicians, such as tailors who make mariachi clothes, vendors who sell buttons and boots outside, and instrument stores. Throughout the collection of photos, the sense of space that defines the book permeates the images, enabling viewers to feel like they are themselves walking around the East L.A. neighborhood. The photographs also beautifully showcase the sense of joy that mariachi music brings through its performances and festivals.

A Story Told Through Plena: Claiming Identity and Cultural Autonomy in the Street Festivals of San Juan Puerto Rico

May 1, 2013 Island Studies Journal

Las Fiestas de la Calle de San Sebastián is a four day-long festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While the festival comprises music and dance that is a combination of various Caribbean and Latin American aesthetics, there is a small group of local musicians who insist on staying away from the larger throngs to specifically play a Puerto Rican music medium known as plena. By defining a distinct physical space that is separate from the rest of the festival, but also a part of the festival, they sing throughout the night speaking to contemporary issues of American imperialism, class warfare, and corrupt politicians. During the festival the complex power dynamics of Puerto Rico as a United States territory, lacking both independence as a sovereign nation and the same rights as a state, are manifested in festival performance. This performance tries to negotiate how the island remains autonomous while being attached to a more powerful mainland economy.