Luna Malbroux (00:02): 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.A.J. Haynes (00:22): Welcome back to season two of the South has the answers. We are elated to have Tyler with us again. This is our second interview. Thank you for being here. Thank you for all you are and all you do. So before we get into our questions, just a quick little snapshot. Who are you for folks that are less familiar with you and your work, a bit of your background, what are some of the worlds you inhabit right now?Tyler Barbarin (00:49): So thank you. And this is always an awkward question for me because I never know where to start, but my name is Tyler. I am the director of grants and development for the Louisiana Abortion Fund. I am a sister, a td. I am a Philly born, now southern loving girl myself, and I'm very excited to be here today.A.J. Haynes (01:18): And also you have family from the south, right? This is where your roots are. So born in Philly and also Louisiana is a long home for you.Tyler Barbarin (01:27): Yeah, my dad is born and raised. New Orleans man will tell you, he went to St. OG probably within the first 10 minutes of meeting him. And my family traces back to 1806, I want to say, in the what is now known as Louisiana. So yeah, definitely feel like I am where I'm supposed to be and where my people are from.A.J. Haynes (01:49): Yes, I love that context. Okay, so the first question is, what is sustaining you through this fuckery? Woo.Tyler Barbarin (02:00): Starting off easy. Yeah, so I guess what sustains me most is definitely the next generation. I am a bonus care person for young ones myself. I also have two nephews that I love very deeply, and a lot of the people that I interact with on the daily have children. And I think seeing them get to inhabit little bits of the world that are more free and more accepting and more loving and more tender definitely keeps me going. I think, yeah, even when we lose in the polls or we lose at the ballot box, knowing that there are black kids growing up in softer, more tender existences and being freer at a younger age, it definitely sustains me and makes me feel like we're doing something right.A.J. Haynes (02:54): I love that. That just brought the biggest smile to my face. So thank you for that reminder of who we're doing this for. We've had conversations before about principled struggle and actually you're the first person that introduced me to that phrase, so I wanted to dig into that. So how do you define principled struggle?Tyler Barbarin (03:16): Yeah, I think for me, principled struggle could be a number of things, but most frequently, what I mean when I'm talking about it is we inhabit these movement spaces and there's people that are in it for various reasons. Some people are in it because it's a buzzword, especially when we're talking about reproduction justice. It's a buzzword. It's a term that is in the news a lot, and we're kind of in this moment where people are caring about our issues, social justice issues. But for me, principled struggle is people that really are trying to transform the world. They're not in it for selfish reasons, they're not, I mean, maybe a bit selfish because we all want to inhabit the world that we're co-creating together. But people that are really determined to see the world become a better, more loving place overall, I think that it's easy to get wrapped up in this premise that this is just a job or this is work to be done Monday through Friday. But I think that people are engaged in principled struggle view, social justice, reproductive justice, our movement spaces as sites for co-creating the world we hope to inhabit in the future. I hope that's a good definition.A.J. Haynes (04:33): Yeah, no, it feels really honest and hopeful, which is what I need right now. So thank you for providing that. So to expound on that, how do you personally move through principled struggle, especially as an organizer here in the context of the deep south south and especially in the microcosm of New Orleans where the culture is so relational, everything is so relational.Tyler Barbarin (04:58): I think that that's the unique part about the South for me, is we are really a community. I think here, unlike other places in the United States that I've lived, you need other people to survive. You need them in different ways, be it help with childcare or help with transportation or financial support, whatever it is, because our systems have strategically abandoned us. In the south, you just need people. And so I think being in principled struggle for me is a commitment to not only the good moments, not only the abundant, happy, joyous moments, but also some of the more difficult components of it all. ...
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