AN ODE TO UNDROWNING | Jenna Grauman

“This work is inspired by ‘Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals’ by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Honoring her ancestors who perished in the Middle Passage. In its creation I discovered that I did not have many images of black/brown bodies. It made me wonder if that was due to lack of representation. I am troubling this idea by adding white bodies and asking the question: would we care more if this happened to white bodies? Applying this to larger frames, modern medicine outcomes for people of color are often subpar, especially in the world of obstetrics, tumbling us through shared waters of interconnectivity.”

Gumbs, Alexis Pauline. Undrowned Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, AK Press, Chico, CA, 2020, pp. 1–2.

Jenna Grauman is a collage artist and graduate student at Antioch University studying the intersections of narrative medicine and social justice in healthcare and community building. Grauman completed her B.A. at Antioch University with a concentration in narrative medicine, creativity and healing. Grauman, who was a resident in chaplaincy and an ICU liaison at a level-one trauma center, also served as a transplant donor coordinator. She is passionate about humanizing medicine, storytelling, visual art and spiritual activism. Post degree, Grauman hopes to work with the full spectrum of care from medical students to caregivers.

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