Nyasia Cooper
2025 HEAR US Awardee
Undergraduate Film & TV Class of 2027
Nyasia Cooper is an interdisciplinary artist who explores social and cultural analysis through lens-based arts and research. Her work aims to foster discussion on how injustices affect Black and Brown people in the United States. Cooper's artistic practice examines various inequities including reproductive freedoms, birthing discriminations, and healthcare disparities.
Project
Miracle Workers
This research/documentary campaign hopes to bring awareness to Traditional Black birth workers' presence within underserved communities. It will highlight their unwavering defense of birther autonomy and how they front run the fight against increasing maternal mortality rates. Black doulas and midwives often battle inadequate education around maternal health while also being severely underfunded.
The research and documentary will be set in Atlanta, Georgia. Georgia’s black maternal mortality rates are dire and 34.6% of the counties are maternity care deserts. Meaning community members have slim to no access to obstetric providers or hospital and birth centers simply don’t exist in those counties. The research will track how federal/state policy aids and or hinders communities' access to traditional birth workers in the metro-Atlanta area.
The film will follow two birth workers on their daily journey’s and uplift the work they do. It will watch how they engage with their communities, and examine the elements of spiritual, ancestral, and holistic traditions used. With implications of sweeping changes at the federal level, this campaign questions what actions birth workers are taking to prepare for unprecedented modifications. Using a creative and intimate approach Miracle Workers will spread awareness to the necessity that is birth workers presence during black birth.
