L–R: Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Joy-Ann Reid, Dr. Regina Davis Moss, U.S. and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell at In Our Own Voice’s third annual Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch on Martha’s Vineyard
On Martha’s Vineyard, we gathered for our third annual Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch—bringing together Black women leaders, advocates, and allies to ask an urgent question: What does this moment demand of us now—and what are we building for what comes next?
For generations, Martha’s Vineyard has offered Black leaders space to gather, rest, think, create, and imagine new possibilities. Returning to the Vineyard this year was an opportunity to continue that tradition—and to remind ourselves that sustaining a movement requires more than responding to the latest crisis. It also requires space to strengthen our relationships, exchange ideas, and build for the long haul.
In Our Own Voice President and CEO Dr. Regina Davis Moss opens the third annual Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch with a call to build and exercise Black women’s power beyond the ballot.
Mobilizing Beyond the Ballot
This year’s conversation, “How Black Women Are Mobilizing Beyond the Ballot,” featured bestselling author and award-winning journalist Joy-Ann Reid, U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley, and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, in conversation with In Our Own Voice President and CEO Dr. Regina Davis Moss.
The discussion began with a truth Black women know well: We vote. We organize. We educate our families. We lead in our communities and institutions. And when democracy is threatened, Black women are consistently called upon to help defend it.
But our power cannot begin when we enter a voting booth—or end when we leave it.
Together, Reid, Pressley, and Campbell explored three interconnected forms of power: culture and narrative, policy and political power, and law.
Joy-Ann Reid, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, and Dr. Regina Davis Moss explore the connections between narrative, political power, policy, and law.
The conversation examined who gets to shape the stories America believes about Black women; what it means to exercise power within institutions that were not built with us in mind; and how government can move beyond responding to threats to build lasting infrastructure for Reproductive Justice.
At the heart of the conversation was a larger challenge: How do we win the fights in front of us while changing the terrain we are fighting on?
The Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch creates space for Black women leaders, advocates, and allies to connect, reflect, and build together.
Our Stories Are Power
That question is deeply connected to who we are at In Our Own Voice.
From our founding, we have believed that Black women must not simply be represented in decisions about our lives—we must have the power to shape them. And we must be the authors of our own stories.
Because stories do not remain on a screen or in a headline. They travel into our workplaces, schools, hospitals, courtrooms—and ultimately into our laws and policies.
That connection came alive throughout the afternoon as our guests considered how narrative, political leadership, policy, and law can reinforce one another to create lasting change.
Guests also received copies of Joy-Ann Reid’s Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America, followed by a book signing with Reid—a fitting reminder of the Black women whose political labor has too often been overlooked even as they helped transform this country.
Joy-Ann Reid signs copies of Medgar and Myrlie following a conversation about storytelling, memory, and the often-overlooked political labor of Black women.
Building Power for What Comes Next
Reproductive Justice requires more than protecting individual rights. It requires Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people to have the economic, social, cultural, and political power to make decisions about our bodies, our families, and our futures—and to thrive.
That work requires investment. In Our Own Voice founder Marcela Howell reminded us that building Black women’s power also means investing in the organizations and infrastructure necessary to sustain it.
In Our Own Voice founder Marcela Howell calls on guests to invest in the infrastructure needed to build and sustain Black women’s power.
Our third annual Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch reminded us that building that future requires all of us.
We must organize. We must vote. We must shape policy and hold institutions accountable.
And we must tell our own stories.
Because Black women do not simply need access to power.
We need the infrastructure to build it, claim it, and sustain it.
