ABOUT
Rochelle Jamila
I am a reproductive companion (doula), multidisciplinary performer, dance maker, yoga and meditation teacher and folk herbalist hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. My work imagines liberation and pleasure through human and ecological fertility. As a dancemaker and performer, I am particularly inspired by my heritage and upbringing in the Mississippi River Delta and my practice as a full spectrum reproductive companion. I create rituals and spaces that honor and explore the somatic and psychic worlds of bleeding and birthing people. My work has been presented in Tennessee, New York, the Netherlands at venues such as Judson Church, Snug Harbor Botanical Garden, Triskelion Arts, The Buckman Theater, University of Amsterdam, and Center for Performance Research. I was a 2024 Resident at A Studio in the Woods, a recipient of Brooklyn Arts Council’s 2024 Creative Equations Cultural Heritage & Dance Fund, a 2024 Brooklyn Arts Council Social Innovation Fellow, a 2021 Laundromat Project Create Change Artist-In-Residence and a 2025 Movement Research Van Lier Emerging Artist of Color Fellow. I have performed in works by Ebony Noelle Golden, Adia Whitaker, Jasmine Hearn, Beth Gill, Ambika Raina, and Maria Bauman among others. Currently, I am a member of Trisha Brown Dance Company and Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel Performance Group.
As a reproductive companion and wellness guide, I weave movement, vocalization, yoga, meditation, herbalism, and ancient womb wisdom to hold space for transitions from menarche to menopause. I believe womb care radically attunes bleeding people to their divine power and is an invaluable precursor to empowered birth, postpartum, parenthood, and communities. By rooting in legacies of southern Black midwives, freedom fighters, and healers, I honor womb and birth care as a front line for liberation and planetary healing. Since 2019, I have supported over 250 families through reproductive transitions, primarily as a menstrual health guide and postpartum doula. My studies as a reproductive companion and wellness guide include over 1000 hours training in folk herbalism with teachers in African American, European, and Mesoamerican traditions and 500 hours of yoga and meditation training and mentorship. I am a certified birth, postpartum, and pregnancy loss doula and have facilitated womb circles throughout New York City and abroad. I am deeply influenced by my lineages in Mexica moon ceremonies, Tibetan Buddhism, and Black American midwifery. I graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Dance and Women’s Gender, & Sexuality Studies. I am currently blooming on unceded Lenape and Canarsie land otherwise known as Brooklyn, NY.
Photos: Justin Rocha (top), Ziggy Mack