Samantha C. Daley, a reproductive justice leader from Atlanta, discusses her background, including her Jamaican heritage and her role as a managing director at BYP 100, a grassroots organization focused on black liberation. With host A.J. Haynes, Sam emphasizes the importance of breathwork and centering practices for her well-being. Daley highlights her work in kitchen table organizing, emphasizing intergenerational knowledge transfer and the significance of her matrilineal lineage. She also discusses her involvement in birth work and the Care Healing Collective, which promotes herbal remedies and cultural practices. Daley's reproductive justice advocacy includes combating stigma around abortion and promoting self-determination in reproductive health.
In this episode, Sam covers everything from her zodiac sign to her involvement with various organizations, including BYP 100, Arc Southeast, and Power U, highlighting the impactful work being done in these spaces.
Fleming, grab you a cup of tea and get comfy baby, because this is Season Two of the South has the answers, and this season, your host AJ Haynes and Eric Fleming will be speaking to reproductive justice leaders across the country, specifically those who are working in the Deep South. I
greetings. We are here today with a wonderful, wonderful guest, Samantha Daley, say hey to the people.
Hey people here,
amazing. And so for those of us that aren't as familiar with your work, who are you? Share a little bit about your background, the world you inhabit, what you do and where you is
absolutely so my name is Samantha, or Sam. All my people call me Sam. My pronouns are she and her. I am currently in Atlanta, but I am from the 954, born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, first generation. My family's from Jamaica. I'm queer. I'm a Gemini. Love a Gemini. I'm a cook, I'm a caretaker, I'm a real nurturer. I'm a Auntie of 10, nibbling and a god baby. So I am, yeah, just somebody that really loves to love on my people and loves to create opportunities and create experiences where we can be in practice together and really be in practice of trying to build the world that we're trying to be in together. So that's a little about me. I also traveler. I love to hop on a plane. Love that do that soon, and that's those, some of the ways that I like help care for myself and also remind myself that what we are experiencing here in The Empire is a particular experience, and is not the world experience. And so I think it's also just a good reminder for that.
Yay. Okay, so you are a traveler, a global citizen, if you will, Earth citizen, seeing the world, getting some some perspective on, you know, our experience here in the Empire, which is always helpful. So being in transit a lot is a lot what embodied practices help keep you centered and sustain you?
Oh, such a great question. Um, I'm still in practice. I'm still in the practice of building consistent practices. But the ones that I really resonate with in this moment are breath work. Definitely doing some counting with my breath, doing some fire breath, for sure, centering 100% centering really has helped me move through my emotions and just be in my emotions. Yeah, and I'm a I'm the person that can oftentimes be in my head, and so it helps me really get into my body, yeah, and be in my voice. Because a lot of times when I feel tension in my body, it's in my throat, and it's like in my breathing, it shows up in a lot of different ways.
Incredible. Yeah, we were doing some breath work and stuff before we hopped on. So I'm glad that resonated and that felt good and felt yummy. I didn't even talk about so, like, what, what is the work that you're doing these days? Like, because you, you have such a rich history and, like, have been in so many different spaces within RJ and and this justice in general. So yeah, where are you right now? What is, what's happening with you?
Yeah, thank you. Well, right now I am really I'm managing director for an organization called BYP 100 and we are a grassroots based building organization really trying. We turn up in the streets and are building in community to change our material conditions for black people. And so that's a lot of the work I do right now. It has looked a lot like I came to BYP 100 really trying to be in the practice and being collective practice of building what liberation looks like together. So like trying and failing and learning together so that we can figure out the ways we want to be together. And I've done that a lot through really examining both my relationship to resources and black folks relationship to resources, and how that affects how we show up as organizers, as just folks and movement as folks passionate about the world we're trying to create. And through that work, have helped, BYP 100 adopt a just a transition framework, with collaboration from an organization called rap, which stands for wealth reclamation Academy of practitioners, to really talk about, yeah, how does resources show up in our organizing? What does it look like to turn up on the street? How are we creating community based solutions that are sustainable? So really being in the practice of building that liberatory vision together, I'm also, you know, always really looking to be back in my birth work practice. I've doula it for many folks, and just love that work. Love help bringing folks Earth side. I always say, like, what's my role in revolution? When the revolution comes, what's my role? And I say, like, helping catch babies, helping build systems, cooking like very tenderly. This is my those are my offerings. And so that's where I'm at now, and really looking to get back into my birth work. Most recently,
I love that question, what's my role in the revolution? And I love that there's so much maternity maternal, you know, mothering. And I think of mothering not as something that's gendered, right? I think of it as, you know, thinking about revolutionary mothering is as defined by, like, you know, Alexis Pauling gums and Loretta Ross work, that really beautiful anthology. So I love that you're naming that. Let's, yeah, let's talk about kitchen table organizing. I read an article that you wrote about it a while back, and so much of what your what your gifts are around, feel very intergenerational or honoring that legacy of kitchen table organizing. So yeah, I just wanted you to put in your own words, what is kitchen table organizing look like for you? What does it feel like? Who the ancestors that you're honoring the lineage of through that practice? Like, what is kitchen table organizing like? Not everybody even knows what that is.
Yeah, no, that's a great question. So kitchen table organizing is really like the deep relationship building that we're in with our communities, with our people, whether that's like our birth families or our chosen families, to talk through how we want to be together, like so again, like, what are the things we want to pass on? What is the collective knowledge we can continue to build, and how we're passing that knowledge along. And yeah, for me, when I think about my ancestors, I think about I'm also from, I'm from a very strong matrilineal line. And so I think about my grandmother, who recently became an ancestor last year, my aunt, I think my mom, who is still on this plane, and how they really gave me the energy and like, encouraged me when they didn't have the answers. Like, share their experience being from Jamaica, the different struggles that my mom had to get get here, which the cards She said she's dealt, and how she raised three children now raising a grandchild with the with her conditions, and then, yeah, encourage me for the things that she didn't know or didn't know how to talk to me about to learn. And then we've been able to, like, in this journey, like circle the block and be like, well, like, in this newfound or, yeah, like, change our relationship from, I'm your child, you're my parent, but also, like, I'm here as an adult in this in this body, I'm learning and moving through these experiences. And yeah, have been able to really hear more about her childhood, her development, her struggles. Yeah, in a way that I feel like is very modeling that kitchen table conversation, modeling the deep desire to share the things that can help us move and grow better together.
What should you be cooking? What do you like to like to throw down in the kitchen? Oh,
you know, I love, I love to throw down a lot of ways. So most what I would say, I cook nine times out of 10. I love seafood. So that, like, just last, just a couple days ago, I made. Mahi, Mahi. I love snapper. We love Jamaican. We love snapper. So I also will cooking is like a love language for me, and so I cook as, like a like, how I nurture my people. And so, like, for Thanksgiving, like last Thanksgiving, for example, or thanks taking, right, we're sharing food together, cooked 15 pounds of oxtail, for example. So, like, yeah, it really depends.
So what am I coming over? Is what I need to know and make my way down to Atlanta. Okay,
have you. I would love to have you. I It's really, I love to make meals and share stories over meals, and so for me, that's what my cooking helps bring forth. So like, How can I help love on someone? Make your favorite meal and us just talk like that is my goal. That is what I like to do for my family. That is what I do for my friends. I just had friends leave from my home yesterday, and we took turns making different meals, and it was just, it's, I feel like it's such a beautiful way to love all your people.
Yes, what's so this is bringing us to, like, your your culture and the, just the the richness of being from the Caribbean, you know, what's important about the care of healing collective for you? Yeah, yeah. And what impact do you witness it having on your community, on you, like, I think it's just such a beautiful idea. Beautiful. Thank
you. Thank you. So the care healing Collective is on the pause right now, but as it was created and developed, it was really our intention to build deeper relationship with our lineage, and that for us was through herbs and through spices and through stories that those those items and those those herbs carry and just our different experiences and so like learning about Ways to soothe their stomachs, and learning about ways to soothe their heads. And for me, I'm asthmatic, and so as even as before, when I talked about, like, when I can't speak, or some of my breathing tensions, it occurs in my throat, very much so and so, like learning the recipe, a ganja recipe, that's like a ganja and pimento, a lot of other herb mixes, and that steeped, and how that was able to my dad didn't really go into detail about when he gave it to me for the first time as a child. Was like, drink it, and how it immediately helped open my airways. And so I think about that example to really think about the heart of why we did care, appealing collective, to bring folks together through lineage and through herbs. And also like be open to learning more and exploring, because we're always in this quest for learning. And so how can we learn together and share stories across lineage. And so the care appealing collective very much gave and gives that like for the folks that get to experience like the social media or the zine that we made, I still am all within our zine, making things and reminding myself when I'm tense or intention, like, go back to what you know
I love, go back to what you know that is so profound, the remembrance, right? Yeah, I'm just seeing such a clear line between your work in and the herbalism and, you know, remembrance of heritage with reproductive justice and the practice of like how we build safer communities, literally our physical autonomy, being able to breathe. I came across an article that you wrote a while back about pom pom politics coming back to Jamaica. So I was like, We got to get into this. So, yeah, talk to me about poom, poom politics. Explain it for the people. What you know, and what kind of reactions did? Did you get? Like, whenever you crafted that? Yeah?
Well, yes, yeah. Pump politics. It that article is a labor of love between myself and my dear, dear friend, Bianca Campbell. And really our goal around writing about pumpkin politics and like Carnival was to talk about how the scrutiny, how the dissect. Action of Carnival really takes away from, like, the rich ancestry and the intention right, like the pom pom talking, being very celebratory of pom pom politics and of body positivity and of exploring our bodies is our right. And yes, people are here to have things to say about it. But when you're from the Caribbean, when you're from and rooted, you know that pom pom politics is your part of your birthright. It's a part of your lineage, and we should be celebrating that and celebrating it unapologetically. A lot of folks are sharing now St Lucia's carnival. Caribana just passed not too long ago. Trinidad is a big event. I'm from South Florida, so Miami Carnival is when people turn up and, like all of those opportunities are like rich and deep in culture, and we can't lose that, and we can't allow others to dissect it and try to sexualize it. And we get to reclaim our sexuality, get ready to reclaim our pleasure and ground in that. And I, yeah, I wrote pom pom politics with Bianca a while ago. Even like thinking as a young person like the the exploration and the journey it took me to really ground in and just sit with my pleasure. And so when I think about kung fu politics, I think about that. And I also think about like the fact that we people get to determine you get to determine your sexuality, to determine your pleasure, and you get to root it in your ancestry. And so that article really stems from there also a real celebration of Carnival, the winding of the hips, the body movements, the gyration, the celebration, yeah, I love politics. It makes me happy just being able to talk about it,
I live. The joy has to be, you know, we are called, you know, Joy channel. And working with, yeah, the Louisiana worship fund, we up in these streets. So question is, which I feel ties to, like the celebration of the body and the expansiveness of celebrating the body, right? How does, yeah, what? What do you love about your queerness and your individual expression of queerness and how it shows up in your creative life?
What do I love about my course, I mean everything I love that the spaciousness, the spaciousness the learning, the exploring and the to kind of what I named earlier, the the being open to learning and exploring and peeling back the layers of myself as I get older, as I go through different life experiences and changes, and also like my blackness, right, my blackness as a queer, black first generation, navigating like things that are put on me as responsibilities, but also things I can choose to decline and things that I do take with me, and so, yeah, I'm just learning and continuing to be in like me, even two years ago, is not me now, and that's part of the beauty of it. Like I really ground in giving myself and others grace to be in their learning, to be in their body positivity, to be in their exploration, to be in their pleasure, and to know that that is a lifelong journey. And so for me, that's what my queerness really represents. It's a lifelong journey for me to be in a deeper relationship with myself, however that may look I think that's super important. I think for all of us that is essential, and so that's kind of, yeah, that's what I think of,
absolutely. How do you How does queerness shape your reproductive justice practice? Or, how does it queer your reproductive justice practice?
Such a juicy question. Oh, juicy. My queerness, really. It shapes it shapes how I fight. It shapes how I've organized. Yeah, it really defines how I approach knocking on doors, how I've approached raising funds for folks to get abortions. How I approach my own abortions? I'm somebody that's had to and, yeah, it has helped me show up better for others, to support them in those places and in those experiences. It has helped me when I'm helping folks bring their baby's Earth side. It has helped me as I navigate, you know, tensions in organizing and racial justice and so, yeah, it really my queerness helped me show up as a full human, and helps the other people in their fullness and also the. The reality that as we're moving through, as we're organizing around reproductive justice, as we're fighting for communities that get to self determine, communities that, whether they are chosen families or our birth families, or a beautiful mix of the two, get to create these communities in ways that enable us to thrive and get to learn and sharpen that over time. I think really building out the vision that we want to see and sharpening it is is really where I feel like, that's how I what I bring to my organizing and movement and my queerness really enables me to see like, okay, we're in a learning together. We're in a building together. We may not always get this right, but the point is that we're we're sharpening because we're learning, we're evaluating, and we're choosing to move forward so that we can show up better for each other and also show up better for ourselves.
What did? Okay? Then what are you very yummy answer. Thank you, of course. So connecting reproductive justice to the work that you do at BYP, which, for those of us that don't know that BYP stands for black youth project. So how does RJ influence your work with BYP, and what are the intersections?
Great question, yes, so at BYP 100 I mean, originally I came to BYP 100 there was some overlap. I was organizing in Miami, doing some amazing work with young people fighting for comprehensive sex ed, fighting to change curriculum, fighting to redefine what pleasure looks like, and for young people to be able to state pleasure unapologetically. And came to BYP 100 after building and talking with with young people around like organizing the future. They had a lot of questions around, okay, how does this affect me, being able to live my life? How I want to? How can I use my organizing tools in college, or maybe not college, just in life? And so that's what brought me to BYP 100 really the right, the ability to self determine and live autonomously, and how we can be better organizers in that and thinking through the legacy of organizing like BYP 100 being a political home for so many and a place where people could be in practice, that's really what brought me to BYP 100 how my RJ shows up every day is around like really being able to hear folks on when we're aligned and when we're not when we're misaligned, on how we can create something that is collaborative, that has looked like building strategy around our resources, for example, that's looked like, Okay, now, how do the ways that we engage with resources affect how we show up in our organizing. How does that affect how what we advocate for? How does that affect how we strategize and then from those places, how are we moving to really create the self determined communities and the thriving communities that we want to be in, and also build new shit very transparently. What are the alternative solutions that we're trying on and what are we learning from them? Because some of them may not work. If we knew how to get to liberation, we'd be there already. And so that's right, how are we just in some practice with with the acknowledgement that we're learning together and we're being able to craft this together. That's really how my RJ shows up at BYP 100 and then, you know, I'm always doing work locally around all of the things I've named, around abortion and also birth work in general, and really complicating the narrative around somebody's reproductive life, right? Like these two things aren't separate. Any person can go through a number of reproductive health experiences and considerations in their life. And how do we complicate the narrative so that we're not so decisive, but we're really being strategic in how we organize and how we talk about the rights that we should have the control over our bodies and the ability to really craft the communities we want to be in and need to be in in order to thrive.
I love this complicating the narrative. So, you know, I feel like what I witnessed in working in abortion care. So quick backstory. I worked, you know, at an at, at Hope Medical Group for women and Shreveport, Louisiana, which was one of the last abortion clinics there. And then was, you know, been in these abortion streets, and I so often see people oversimplifying the narrative of how people feel. After their abortions. Like there's such a lack of nuance in how people are supposed to feel, quote, unquote, you know, right? So, so can you speak to like, how do you further complicate the narrative and make it more authentic, and whenever you're sharing even about your abortion stories with people like in into intimate spaces, that's
such a great question. Yeah, how I'm complicating the narrative? I think just being part of it is being unapologetic about my experience, and also, like, the great of my experience, and also the things that I might that I experienced that weren't so great, the different experiences because I've had two abortions and went to two different facilities, being just sharing openly about that to really complicate that narrative. And also the fact that, like, you know, I potentially want to parent someday. I do want to parent someday, and so like, this is all a part of my life, and it's all a part of a lot of our lives. We have a lot of family members and experiences that maybe we don't know, or maybe we only know part of. And how are we creating better and more fluid dialog so we can get into those stories? Because we not just myself and not just anybody that I'm talking to, but like there's a rich layer of history and communication. And sometimes when we either whether it's ask for or not, place stigmas or place discussions or experiences on folks, we don't allow people to really be in their dignity and their power, and that's that stops us from having the deeper conversations that we need to have. So when I think about really complicating the narrative, it's yes, sharing my experience, but it's also like and we're not one dimensional. We live and experience so much, and we should be emboldened to right. We should be able to have these deep conversations. We should be able and have a right to have these experiences. And so let's get into that. Let's start digging deeper in that. And that's how we complicate the narrative. That's how we both show folks through doing but also just how we live that that, I think, yeah, provides opportunities for folks to really live in their authenticity, share experiences and know that your experience could change. And that's amazing, right? Like that is what we're trying to do and be in because we deserve to live lives that flow, that have autonomy and ensure that we can have the communities and the richness of experiences that we want to have
of this fluid dialog like just being Being like water, I just resonates with me. Okay? We got one more question. How are we feeling? I feel great, yummy, yummy. This is like Time is flying. What is time? So this podcast is called the South has the answers primarily as a way to push back on anti southern sentiment, because you know how they date. So what answers do you see being curated in your work in the south, that you know, if we're organizing here in the south, what are the answers that we're providing to those not in this space? And I'm thinking of the South. I'm also thinking of the Global South. And really, because, you know, as someone who is pulling from diasporic traditions, and and and medicine, what are the answers you see being curated?
Yeah, such a great. Oh, so good. I kept like, because I just, you know, and I appreciate, like, the the expansion of just how even we're talking about this off, because I think oftentimes folks haven't named that, and that's so limiting. So thank you for that. There's a quote and I'm forgetting apologies. Who says it, but like so goes the South, goes the nation. And I think for the Empire specific, that is so true. And then in the larger, in the larger view of the South, it's just it resonates so deeply. Because oftentimes in this empire and out of this empire, the Empire exerts power on the south and and in this empire we rooted in in the south are the testing ground. Are oftentimes where folks experiment terrible shit that they want to do and restrictions and then recreate it in other places. And so. Of when, I mean, as part of the South, has the answer itself, has something to say. We have continued to resist. Historically, we're great. We thrive and are so inventive. And when I think about, like, ancestrally, all that, I've learned a lot of my essence, yeah, a lot of the experiences I've had, and like to our earlier conversation the kitchen table, conversations that have enabled me to be here and continue to exist are rooted in both Southern tradition, but also in like medicine making, also when strategy shared over over the kitchen table, over meals. Yeah. Also in writing, I used to be a part of a Writing Collective that that like, if I if I hadn't been a part of that Writing Collective, I wouldn't be here. And just the experiences that I've shared with other folks grounded in the south, like even Florida I live. I've grown up in South Florida. And a lot of people have complicated feelings around considering South Florida, the South but like being raised in Florida, going to school in college in Florida, it very much. You get a lot of the ways that folks continue to restrict people's rights, restrict people's access, restrict education, restrict materials. And we've seen that very recently, and have seen it for decades, and so, yeah, the South, I will say it so I'm boom of faith. The South has the answers. We have strategies. We have creativity. We have Jews. Like the juice, right? The juice, and it informs and is replicated all over the world. And so how are we looking at the south? How are we learning from folks in the South? How are we in practice together across the south to help determine, again, how we want to be but also what we want to do differently, and so yeah, like, as we're in this practice, we're figuring out what we want to do differently, and then how we're building that to scale, even like the South has continued to show me, and continues to show me, I'm a Southerner forever in all of the ways I will root here, I have rooted here what is possible. The South has continued to show me what is possible,
forever, ever, what is what is an example of, like, an innovative strategy or an innovative practice that that you've engaged in? Oh, good question. Great question. Oh,
I would go back to my organizing in Miami, and just the ways that organizing, yes with young people, but also organizing deeply rooted in not just hearing and building with community, but also being in creative strategies to create something new. And so I think about, yeah, organizing around sex ed, for example. And at the time when we were talking about young people, and young people sharing unapologetically about the pleasure, the amount of, you know, pushback, accusations, all the things that happened. And young people persisting to create spaces, even amongst that, to pass it across the schools when we weren't allowed in schools. What are the outside spaces that young people help determine and create to make sure that that campaign was able to move forward and develop and like how we were organizing in a handful of schools, but young people from across the county of Miami, Dade, which was one of the largest counties in the nation, which is one of the largest counties in the nation, with one of the largest county budgets, how that was able to happen and be successful and really shift the curriculum, shift, what was available for young people to be in study of because youth teenagers felt like, no, so we can't organize, okay, but we're gonna make this Halloween party, or we're gonna make this other gathering, or we're gonna make this and then we're gonna carry it out through here. And yeah, you want to be a part of this, because we get to do this. We get to create. We get to experiment. And that that, to me, that shifted how I thought about advocacy at the time. That shifted, you know, what I thought about organizing in the long term game, right? Like billion, the how are we getting these material wins that then shift everything over time.
I love this making, you know, as we say, making, shout out Tony K Bambara, making the revolution irresistible. And this is something I've noticed. You know, I'm here in Louisiana, and we have, like Mardi Gras, and we have just our our culture that celebrates, i. Celebrates our culture, celebrating us, okay? And so I just love the idea of, like, Okay, we can't, quote, unquote, organize, well, we're gonna have a party. Guess who's gonna be at this party? Throw an ass in information, which is just that feels so very southern to me. It's got this that okay, I'm gonna find another way, and I'm gonna make it a celebration. Which I find so nourishing about organizing here in the south is that that practice of that celebratory practice, is integrated into how we move right. Just so exciting. So thank I love this example of the teenagers during a Halloween party, and
a lot of different parties. Now, did I just the Halloween one was lit? But more
I'm getting inspired,
yeah. So like through our recruitment season, Halloween, just as an example, then movie nights kickbacks back to school events, right? So making sure that community could also, hey, you and our neighborhood. Remember that building that's us. Come see us. Come hang with us. Yes, your kid, come on. We do this. We do pickups and organizing that way, when specifically that the schools would not right. Thought, thought about the organization, and tried to paint the organization largely as one that that wasn't helpful for student. And then students be like, Ah, no, let's, let's take back this narrative, and let's do it in the ways we know how, and through celebration to everything you need, through throwing ass and also information,
throwing ass and throwing pamphlets, I'm here for it. Oh yeah, and it's W, it's so coming back to the quote, so goes the South. So goes the nation, like W Dubois, that's, that's one of our beginning quotes for the podcast. Love it. We're just rolling. We're rolling. Well, I'm gonna wrap things up here. Where can people find your work on on the internet, where you be
great. Where are they i I'm in my real millennial bag. I'd be on Instagram. My G is Gemini, a U, natural. People can also hit me up through email, SCD, daily, D, A, L, E, y, a, Gmail. I'm on LinkedIn, if you are about that life. I'm also on Facebook, because that's how I always connect to my family and my people. And then you never know I'm sometimes writing, a lot of times building. And so you can find me for sure at the organizations I've named. So I talked about BYP 100 but also doing beautiful work with Arc southeast and have been and power you, which is the organization power you, Center for Social Change in Miami. They're the young people were throwing information. But also do deep, deep organizing to change conditions for for young people, teachers and also intergenerational organizing, and in South Florida,
like I said, like you just be out, get all that's a lot, and it seems like you do it so fluidly, like it seems like a joyful practice. So just shout out to you for shout out to you for that. Okay, well, we're gonna wrap up here. Thank you so much for joining us. Sam,
thank you. This has been amazing. And
the south and need an abortion. Give laugh a call at 84444, abort. That's 844-442-2678, laugh, provides compassionate, affirming support that honors and affirms the dignity of people seeking abortion care. This has been a joy channel production. Find out more about joy channel@joychannel.org you