S3, E11: Library Services for BIPOC Adoptees & Children in Care

In this episode, we welcome Kendra Morris-Jacobson with the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center (ORPARC), and Lisa MM Butler, a Black, biracial, transracial, domestic adoptee working in libraries in Washington State.

Kendra and Lisa discuss the vital role that libraries, books and educational resources play in the lives of children in care and adoptees. From fostering a sense of identity and belonging to providing comfort, escapism, representation and essential learning opportunities, access to diverse and inclusive reading materials can be life changing. 

Hosts: LaRee Dominguez & Ericka Brunson-Rochette
Date of recording:  December 2, 2024 

Access the ORPARC Lending Library here
Follow guest Lisa Butler on Instagram @theadopteeclown

Mentioned in This Episode:

VOICES, a BIPOC Adoptee Reading, April 26, 2025, 6:30-9PM @ the PAM CUT Tomorrow Theater, in Portland, OR, FREE (more details to come)

VOICES, a BIPOC Adoptee Conference, July 24-27, 2025 @ Portland State University, in Portland, OR, REGISTRATION

Additional (Not Mentioned) Upcoming BIPOC Adoptee Events:

BIPOC Adoptees Mixer, March 13, 2025, 5-8PM @ Stormbreaker Brewing in Portland, OR FREE

BIPOC Adoptees Writing Workshop, May 24, 2025, 1-5PM @ Seeding Justice in Portland, OR with amazing BIPOC adoptee writer, Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka, FREE 

Check out the robust list of content creators mentioned in this episode here!

Transcript

(Intro Music Playing)

LaRee : Hello and welcome to OVERDUE: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries, a podcast produced by the Oregon Library Association's Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Committee. I am LaRee Dominguez, she/her pronouns, and I'm joined today by my co-host, Ericka. 

Ericka : Thank you so much, LaRee. I'm Ericka Brunson-Rochette, she/her pronouns, working as the librarian in the state of Oregon. Today we are so excited to welcome two wonderful guests on the show, Lisa M.M Butler and Kendra Morris Jacobson. 

  Lisa M.M Butler, She/they is a black biracial, transracial, domestic adoptee, born and raised in Wyoming. She is an artist, advocate, writer, community organizer, and lover of avocados. She's a library worker on the Board of Voices, a BIPOC adoptee community organization, and a court-appointed special advocate for foster youth in Oregon. Lisa has an undergraduate degree in planning and environmental policy from Western Washington University and a master's degree in environmental science from Washington State University. Neither of which in her words serve her in her life at the moment. She currently lives in America's Vancouver with her hubs, their tripod dog and their judgmental cat. I also have one of those, Lisa. 

                            Kendra Morris Jacobson, she/her, is a preschool teacher turns mental health therapist who ultimately landed in child welfare. She is the director of Oregon programs for Northwest Resource Associates, where she oversees a variety of services and programs supporting child welfare, involved children, youth and families, and their community partners. She sits on the board of directors executive committee for Washington D.C based nonprofit Voice for Adoption on Oregon's Foster Homes of Healing Coalition and serves as the United States hub contact leader for Therapeutic Life Story Work International. We are so happy to be joined by both of you this morning. 

Lisa : Thank you so much for having us. 

Kendra: Very happy to be here. 

Ericka : Well, I'm going to go ahead and get us started with an icebreaker. Do you have a library story from your past or present that you would like to share? So maybe something that's a memorable moment or something that maybe shaped how you view the role of libraries. And for this first question, we're going to have Kendra kick us off. 

Kendra: Yeah, mine's a little unusual. So, I grew up without a television. My parents pretended it broke one day and then relegated it forevermore to a closet. And fortunately, I was already a voracious reader who devoured books like candy, but that just really upped the ante. So, I read so many books that, in fact, in third grade I won the school-wide MS Readathon, not because I was trying and not because I've raised much money, merely because I was always in the library consuming books. 

Ericka : I love that. Do you ever find yourself in a conversation with someone when they're like, oh, this TV show from our generation growing up, and you just don't get any of the references? 

Kendra: Absolutely. That used to happen to me so often. Yeah, we did have a TV, but I also was just reading all the time, so I can relate to that. Well, thank you for sharing. Lisa. 

Lisa : Yes. So, my favorite library story has to do with kind of a coming full circle moment. When I started working for Vancouver Regional Library System, which I work for now, the library director at the time when I started was a woman who upon first meeting her, she told me she worked as a children's librarian in my own childhood library. And I'm from Cheyenne, Wyoming. So, it's a very small, it's considered a city, quote unquote, but really it's about 50,000 people. So, we had one library branch in town. And yeah, this woman, when I met her, she was nearing retirement. So, I actually met her within I think the last six months or a year that she was even working as a librarian. 

                            And I don't specifically remember her from childhood, but I spent hours and hours and hours at the library as a kid in the children's library section. And I was friendly with all the librarians and they would help me locate books and do things like that. So, it's just kind of interesting because I know she had to have played a role in why I love libraries, even if I don't remember her specifically. Yeah. And it's great. So, I got to meet her and she retired not long after I started. So yeah, felt just a really full circle moment. 

Ericka : Yeah, that's amazing. What are the chances? 

Lisa : I know. 

LaRee : It is amazing. 

Lisa : Yeah. Yeah, very cool. She was really cool woman too. 

LaRee : I love those kind of stories. So, what brought you to doing the kind of work we're doing now? So, Lisa, can you start that one off for us? 

Lisa : Yeah, sure, sure. I feel like my ice breaker answer sort of plays into it, but I do think that library work was something I was just supposed to fall into. So, I went to school. I did not go to school for library, I went to school for science and environmental policy and all these other things. But I grew up loving books, reading, loving libraries. My mom was an elementary educator and so she just really instilled a love in me in reading. I was reading before I started preschool even. It's one of the only things that's kind of come naturally to me in life, just reading and being able to read and being interested in reading, luxuriating in reading, I guess. And so yeah, in the past I did all these things that I enjoyed, but didn't really see a future in or enjoy as much as I wanted my career to be as much as I want my career to enjoy my career. 

                            So now I'm a library worker. I also do community organizing with adoptees. And so for me, it's kind of the perfect thing. I want to be able to bridge my interests and bring adoptee stories from adoptees to other adoptees, but also to the wider public. So, I'm just always looking for these opportunities to share adoptee voices both with the world and again, to connect adoptees with these types of resources and these types of voices. So it's been one of the coolest things that I'm doing now is when I meet an adoptee that might come up to me and say, hey, have you been putting these books on staff picks or whatever, and we make this connection and I can introduce them to words that helped me so much as an adoptee personally. So yeah, yeah, I think both of those things kind of came together and that's what kind of brought me to where I am now is being an adoptee and just my love for words and how they've helped me in my life. 

LaRee :               Oh, that's great. I love when those things come together. 

Lisa : Yes, me too. Very thankful. 

Ericka : I am low-key obsessed now with luxuriating and reading. 

Lisa : That's amazing. Yes. It's so true. 

Ericka : What are you doing on Friday? 

Lisa : Luxuriating. Exactly. I became known for reading and watching TV at the same time because there was always a TV on in my house. It was a small house, but I was like, I would kind of do both. I'm always half getting. 

LaRee :                I get that. 

Ericka : I feel like I still kind of do that, but- 

Lisa : Oh yeah, I do. Definitely. 

Ericka : Also my ADHD, I'm pretty sure. 

Lisa : Exactly. Exactly. 100%. 100%. I'm like, I'm doing two things at once here. 

Ericka : Yeah. 

Kendra: Well, unlike Lisa, I'm just a wannabe library worker or a librarian, not a real one. But in terms of child welfare work, I'd have to say the work found me. One of my very first clients when I worked as a therapist at OHSU Outpatient Child and Adolescent Psychiatry just happened to be a transracial adoptee. And we worked together almost weekly for around three years, and I learned so much from her. She actually wrote me a short, stunning poem I'd love to share with you all today. I think she'd be really honored to have me read it. 

Ericka : Oh, we would love that. 

Kendra: Wonderful. I even have it in her original handwriting on a blue striped piece of paper, and it's called Visions Unseen, and it's all the way back from February, 1996. And she wrote, "Ink and paper epic offers, glass moon waltzing on the water, horse and carriage I am courting the marriage of dreams in the wings of visions unseen." Isn't that beautiful? 

Lisa : Love it. 

Kendra: Talk about a talented youth. 

LaRee :                Yeah, that's wonderful. 

Ericka : Thank you for sharing that with us and with our listeners. 

Kendra: Yeah. She was an amazing young person, and I feel really honored that she left me with that and that I've been able to hold onto that all of these years. 

Ericka : Yeah. Well, she clearly left a mark on you. Kendra, you oversee the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center or ORPARC for short, is that how you say it, ORPARC? 

Kendra: Yes, ORPARC. Thank you. 

Ericka : Yeah. 

Kendra: That's perfect. 

Ericka : Can you tell us a little bit about ORPARC? 

Kendra: Yeah. So ORPARC's a 25-year-old this year, 25 years old this very year. And we're a nonprofit program that originally arose out of statewide focus groups and community conversations that were happening around the state of Oregon. And they were recognizing that families needed a wider and deeper array of tools to better support adoptees and children and youth in care that they were caring for. And thanks to strong support from ODHS back then and today and then a long-standing core staff, ORPARC's been able to continue to evolve. 

                            And currently we maintain a team of highly trained foster adoption competent staff who provide support, education, consultation, and a whole plethora of other resources and services statewide, we serve the whole state, to adoptive, guardianship, kinship, foster resource, families, children, youth, adult adoptees. And plus, a key part of our services is also serving and supporting community partners. Community partnerships are actually foundational to our work. So we get really excited about things like our new and growing relationship with Lisa's organization, for one example. And one of the special gems that originally connected Lisa herself to ORPARC is our tiny but mighty library that we've been able to nurture and grow, again, thanks to so much community support. 

Ericka : That's wonderful. I know that there are lots of families, a lot of individuals out there that are very thankful for the work that you do. 

LaRee : Yes. And I would second that. And I know a lot of people are really thankful that you're growing collections. 

Kendra: We're really fortunate to be able to do so. 

LaRee : So Kendra, as sort of a follow-up to that ORPARC's library recently launched the Culture Connection Collection, which was designed to uplift children of color in foster care, adoption, guardianship, and kin care, and those working hard to support them. Can you share more about this collection and if there are ways public and school libraries can help make these collections or other resources accessible to families they serve? 

Kendra: Great job on the alliteration LaRee. If you say culture, connection, collection too many times too fast, it gets pretty wobbly. So nice job. Well first of all, shout out to the State Library of Oregon for having the confidence in ORPARC staff to pull off the CCC project. We really appreciated that. And the project is essentially, we partnered with a group of foster-adopt lived experience experts from parents to youth who were all also writers or illustrators themselves, which was a really neat aspect of the project. And then they helped curate an informed collection for kids of color and care. 

                            We had talented cultural consultants like author illustrator, publishers, Brian and Josie Parker of Believe in Wonder, prolific writer Melissa Hart and two of ORPARC's own staff, Christina Duarte and Ruthie Murray as well as a variety of other contributors. And we purposefully curated the collection in a very public facing way so we could reach anyone who might help us get the books into the hands of kids. So, any library, family or agency can read about the project on our site and actually access the list of titles so that it can aid them in enhancing their own collections. It's a easily replicable model. 

                            And then I'd say we'd have, or I have two additional suggestions for our library listeners, and one is that ORPARC's library relies on a brilliant invention called the diverse book finder collection analysis tool, also called the CAT for short. And this free tool helps you actually analyze representation in your children's picture book collection so that you can mitigate any gaps or weaknesses. And one of our staff, Chloe Lundebolt, gets all the credit for finding and implementing that tool for us. 

                             And then secondly, another fruitful strategy, which is part of what we did with the Culture Connection Collection, is finding and creating consultancies, ideally compensated of course, with trusted and qualified experts. For instance, Lisa, she'd be a fantastic candidate for a partnership in a collection like that. And we just had the pleasure of hosting Lisa at ORPARC just recently and having her meander through our little library was just sparking all sorts of groovy ideas and light bulb moments for both of us. So those are some suggestions. 

Lisa : It was awesome. 

Kendra: It was, wasn't it? 

Lisa : Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It was very cool. 

Ericka : I love it. I love it. And I feel like that's one way that our work definitely overlaps, that those community partnerships are just so key for getting this work done, for finding voice and bringing in folks that are both doing this work but are directly affected by it. So, I love that that connection was made. 

Kendra: Yes, we had a lot of fun. 

Lisa : Yeah, yeah, it was really nice to see their library and just felt very welcomed. So, thank you. 

Ericka : I love it. Well, so for you, Lisa, you serve on the board for Voices, which is a 501C3 with the mission to provide a safe, inclusive and supportive space for BIPOC adoptees. Can you tell us a little bit more about Voices? So, the background of the organization, who it's for, and how interested folks can learn more? 

Lisa : Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So first I'm going to define BIPOC because I was just doing a Instagram Live the other day and had a few people ask about this. So BIPOC stands for Black, indigenous, and people of color. So, our organization serves adult adoptees and former foster youth who identify under that BIPOC umbrella. The organization was started by three Korean adoptees who recognized a really deep need for our community to be able to come together and to find one another. That was a big part of it. There's something like five million adoptees in the United States right now. However, we don't walk around with anything on us that indicates we are adopted, so sometimes it's hard to find one another, specifically BIPOC adoptees. So anyway, they recognize that there is a potential for healing if they could create these sort of safe spaces, excuse me, for the community. 

                            So really it was to create spaces for BIPOC adoptees and BIPOC adoptees kind of only. So, we sometimes say it's for us and by us. So, we do as much as we can from the organizational aspect to during an event. Often we have BIPOC adoptee photographers or BIPOC adoptee caterers. We really try to really make it a space that is really forced by us so everyone can come together and really feel comfortable and to share their stories and to listen and learn from one another and kind of create really deep connections. 

                            If you're an adult adoptee or former foster youth that identifies as BIPOC, I hope you find us. Please find us. You're, I like to say just that you haven't met your community yet, but we're here. Especially a lot of adoptees, not just transracial adoptees, but I would say just a lot of BIPOC adoptees, stories I've heard even from same-race adoption, BIPOC adoptees have told me they've been sometimes raised in really white communities, and so we're all sometimes really isolated. And even if you aren't raised in those communities, you're still isolated as an adoptee. So anyway, you can find us at BIPOC adoptees on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. And then we're also on the web at bipocadoptees.org. But yeah, we welcome and hope all of you BIPOC adoptees out there and former foster youth can find us for sure. 

Ericka : Thank you so much for that introduction to the BIPOC adoptees and the Voices board. I can say that when I got connected and learned that this was something that was out there, I cried literal tears because as a biracial adoptee myself, I am no stranger to the isolation and solitude that comes with being adopted in general, like you said, but not having that community or having folks that could understand even within a margin of experiences and feelings and thoughts and what I even still struggle with identity-wise as somebody who's almost 40 years old. 

Lisa : Yes. Yeah. 

Ericka : So I love that it exists. Can I ask, so what area is this group mostly focused in and are there opportunities for folks who live across the state or maybe in a different state? Because I know, Lisa, you're joining us from Washington State. How can they get involved? 

Lisa : Yeah, absolutely. So, we are headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and I live in Vancouver, Washington, which is really just a suburb of Portland. And I'm on the board. So we meet very regularly, obviously, as a board. But yeah, we try to have multiple events throughout the year. And even if you're an adoptee who doesn't live in this area, we have tried to do some virtual events to make sure that we can come together in that way virtually. We also, all of our events are free. So, the hope sometimes is that, for example, we had a three-day conference this summer in Portland. The conference was free. A lot of conferences cost hundreds of dollars to attend. So, we kind of hope that we can offset those costs to maybe travel to Portland if you're maybe not super far away, or maybe the flight is a few hundred dollars, we can kind of offset those travel costs. So, we do try to do that. 

                            We have put on an event in LA that was our one so far, foray outside of the Pacific Northwest, but we really do hope and plan to continue to do events outside of the Northwest so that we can create meeting spaces for adoptees all over. One thing that we have kind of coming is more of a focus on social media and how we can use social media to create spaces and find each other as well. And that's something that we're working on really deeply is finding a way that we can use social media or an app even to come together and locate each other in isolated places. So yeah, we recognize that there's a need just to even find one. But yeah, I agree with you, Ericka, when I found this group, which I found through social media, I was shocked, is the only thing I can say. 

                             I really just didn't know that adoptee groups existed really let alone a BIPOC adoptee group. So, it really was... And I say that this and kind of joke that it sounds corny, but I'm being serious when I say that finding this organization was very life-saving for me. Not having any mirrors growing up genetically, racially, whatever, any mirrors as far as sharing this really, really unique adoptee experience as well is really hard to not... I have not felt understood ever in my life the way I do now having met these other adoptees. And part of what brought me to thinking that I needed to even find this adopted community was through books, was by reading books by adoptee authors that have now been coming out more and more. It's those words that led me to think, wow, these people get me. I need to find more people like this. You know what I'm saying? 

Ericka : Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I'm thankful that you found the group and you found your community. That's so important. 

Lisa : Yes. Yeah, me too. Me too. Absolutely. I hope that answered your question. 

Ericka : Oh, it did. And thank you for letting me throw a bonus question in there. 

Lisa : Oh yeah. Oh, for sure. Yes. I very strongly hope BIPOC adoptees can find us and each other through us. So yeah, love to get that information out there. 

LaRee : Yeah, I hope this helps because I'm sure there are so many that, like you all, didn't know that this was out there and then you find it and it's this bright star. That's wonderful. So, as a follow-up, Lisa, Voices regularly holds storytelling events, and you have one coming up this month. So, can you share with us storytelling and how it helps to shape and support BIPOC adoptees and create a sense of self? 

Lisa : So storytelling is actually what brought me to the BIPOC adoptees organization. I've, obviously, as I've talked about, been in love with books and through books, I've been in love with storytelling. I really feel like I'm drawn to reading narrative nonfiction or memoirs that share insights and little views into other people's lives. Even as a child, some of my favorite books were these Value Tales biographies that my parents had, and they were just little mini biographies that had drawings. I'm an artist as well, so they were illustrated, and the historical figure you would learn about had this little inanimate object friend that would teach you a value. Anyway, so I've just always kind of been into that narrative nonfiction learning through lived experience. So, I'm also a writer, and when I write, that's really all I focus on is the only thing I feel like I'm an expert in is myself and my experience as a transracial BIPOC adoptee. 

                             So, I read a lot of personal essays, and I saw submission online on Instagram from the BIPOC Adoptees Organization for a storytelling event. They just asked, you could submit a story, any story you wanted to tell about your life, about being adoptee, and that it would be shared in a space that was safe, that it was BIPOC adoptees only in the space. And so I thought, this is a great way to get my writing out there, give myself a deadline. I'm somebody I have ADHD. So just giving myself a deadline was huge. I submitted my story about losing my mom and it was accepted. I went to the event by myself. I didn't know one person in that room. It was only filled with BIPOC adoptees though. And it was like I didn't know anyone, but I also deeply knew everyone. It was very interesting. 

                            And even the first time I spoke to Liana, so at first, she's our executive director, it felt like I knew her even though I didn't know her. And just to be able to speak my truth in that safe space, this was the first time I had really shared at all, especially some really deeply personal things to me about my adoption. And just being able to share in that space I think really ignited something in me that has kind of allowed me to carry my message outside of the community even. The more I share within my community, the more I can share outside of my community. And I also think that just listening to adoptees share these stories, it's giving each other language. I was just saying I was given language for things I couldn't express before that happened to me. And I experienced that every single time I listen to adoptees share their stories. 

                            So, I think coming together gives us a sense of belonging that eludes us in our daily lives and gives us language for our own experience. And yet I just think being part of this organization has just been so life-saving to me, and I'm so grateful that as I have started to, they call it kind of coming out of the fog, quote unquote, as you start to sort of look and think about your adoption more critically and personally. I'm just grateful for a lot of the storytelling I had access to, which is writers like Susan Devan-Harness, Rebecca Carroll, and Nicole Chung. Their memoirs helped me so much and gave me so much language. And even Rebecca Carroll, she writes and does a lot of writing, not about her adoption, but just about black authors. And a lot of her work has been really important to me as well. So just really important, I think, for us to be sharing our stories in that way. It's healing and helps healing within the community. 

LaRee : I love how you pointed out all of the important ways that storytelling teaches and we learn and share and can find where we belong. And it made me think when you were describing that language, that you got new language. I was thinking it's almost like you found the words to describe an emotion that you couldn't describe before you met others. 

Lisa : Yes, yes. And I think that's a great way to put it. I often in my writing talk about how difficult it is for me to name my emotions and to access my emotions as a result of my adoption trauma. And I hear that a lot in the adoption community. So, I do often think it's just that, that we truly don't have access to some of these words we need in these. I literally read an adoptee Cameron Lee Small, he wrote a book called The Adoptee's Perspective. He defines an emotion in it. And I was so grateful when he did that because I truly was like, oh, okay. And I'm texting it to friends like, "Hey, did you read this yet? Because this describes..." I think we really need those words from one another and those stories. Yeah. 

Ericka : Yeah. And I feel like you've just shared so many amazing authors and works out there that maybe we can put together some kind of list to add in the resources or the details of this podcast so others can connect with those stories that exist out in the world. And as a writer myself, everything that you have shared resonated with me. But really that feeling of sharing something finally with someone else who gets it or at least can understand part of it, I literally got chills and got filled with this sense of warmth just thinking about that. I've shared my writing with a lot of folks, but it's always one of those like, oh, that's really beautiful. What does it mean? Or where did that come from? Or What is it that you're trying to describe? And I've had maybe one or two people that I've shared something with and they're like, exactly, I get it. And to be seen in that way is just such a rare and beautiful thing, I think for some folks. And yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. 

Lisa : Oh yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. 

Ericka : How might libraries and library services to a child in care or child post adoption differ from how we serve birth families? What are some considerations often overlooked? And I know Lisa, we've had you talk for quite a while, so I'm going to have Kendra start us on this one. 

Kendra: Well, first of all, I was busy quickly Googling in our library to make sure we had all the books that Lisa was talking about. 

Lisa : You do. You do, you do. I promise you do. 

Kendra: Okay. Relief. Okay. Making sure. But in terms of considerations that are overlooked, I think it really ties back into what Lisa was talking about, and you as well, LaRee, too, which is the storytelling. It's about broadening the storytelling and then also honing-in on the storytelling. So, kids in care or post adoption, not only face indescribable loss and trauma, but they're at infinitely increased risk of disconnection from their culture and heritage, which means really losing touch with their identity, which is what Lisa was talking about, and Ericka, you as well. So, it's essential, absolutely essential that libraries like ours feature books that show full representation of all the children our children welfare system might encounter, especially those overrepresented in care and underrepresented or misrepresented in literature in the media. 

                             And not just mirrors. Mirrors are extremely important, but it's also stories of triumph that feature these children as resilient and enduring and successful. And this isn't to say that intact birth families might not also encounter unfathomable challenges at times as well, but in foster care or adoption, it's a given. It's a guarantee, which is why it's so extra important for these kids that we're providing them with those inspirational mirrors. 

Ericka : Well, you can't see me, but I'm sitting here clapping. Yes, we do need those, we need those stories of triumph. We need to celebrate our identity, celebrate who we are, where we come from, where we're going, and we don't always have to focus solely on the trauma. It's important that we have access to that, but it's also important that we celebrate how much beauty is encapsulated in just being a person, being part of this world. 

Lisa : Yes, exactly. 

Ericka : I'm going to turn it over to you, Lisa. 

Lisa : Yes, great answer from Kendra. I was clapping too. So, let's see. So, from my perspective as a transracial adoptee, I think some of the most obvious things would be attempting to connect a child or a parent to resources around their culture and lived experience for sure. I loved being at ORPARC's library and seeing that they had access to things like hair tutorials and things for, I think, I can't speak for everybody, but as a black woman, that hair thing was a whole thing for me as a child. And I've heard this from other adoptees as well. And so, I think just having things like that, that ORPARC has is great. I think access to better black history, black church experiences. I think there's some things that I wish I had access to that I think the library support in some ways. But for me, I think a big thing is is that I just want to be able to connect anyone to these resources, just like we connect people to housing resources, tax resources, genealogy resources. 

                             I think about sort of the, quote unquote, e-resources available at FVRL. You can go to their website, and you can click into these different topics, and we have all these resources for the things I was just saying, taxes, genealogy, auto repair manuals, all kinds of stuff. And so why at least every library in Oregon and Southwest Washington don't have ORPARC linked in that same way from that spot is crazy to me or wild to me. I shouldn't say crazy, but wild. I think they should have that. That would be a really easy way to link people to those resources. I think a lot of times the library catalogs have some of these items there, but I know that at FVRL, I personally am one of the people who orders in a lot of these adoption books. They're not necessarily on the radar of our librarians that do the collection development. 

                             So having just a link to ORPARC would be a way to not need that expertise, per se, on your staff. Anyway, another thing I think libraries should do is include adoptee and former foster youth stories in their various diversity displays and curated collections. So, for example, FVRL does November as a way to highlight Native American and indigenous voices. And what they don't ever highlight is the memoir Bitterroot by again, the amazingly talented Susan Devan Harness. Similarly, our collections in February for Black History Month don't include Rebecca Carroll's books. And I think already a lot of adoptees, especially transracial adoptees, don't feel as though we are part of our own diasporas or are part of our own cultures. So that further separates us and kind of creates this othering, like our stories aren't included as part of a regular black experience when it is. My experience is a black experience. 

                             And I just want to tell everyone too, most libraries do allow the public to suggest a purchase or purchase requests. So that's how a lot of the books around adoption have gotten into my own library at FVRL is that I've just requested that they purchase that. I am, at FVRL. We allow five titles at a time. Most libraries, it really depends on the system, but I would just give that out as a tip to you. If you don't see some of these titles, let's say you live, you're hearing this in Indiana and you see all these great things that ORPARC has online that you can look at, you can always go into your library and just request that they purchase some of those items. 

Ericka : Thank you. And thank you for, I think, including those tips, but also those actionable steps that libraries can take. It could be as simple as just linking to the ORPARC Library that exist. No need to recreate the wheel. But you also get some really great titles and ideas for things that you can highlight yourself at your own library. Or like Lisa mentioned, those collection development tips. And I think that's just really helpful because sometimes people don't know where to start. They can see, yeah, that's a need that we have, which this is a need in all communities. 

Lisa : Yes, yes, Definitely. 

Ericka : Yeah, I'll put that out there. But it's a need that we have and we don't really know how to meet it. We don't know what first step to take. So, all of those tips that you shared are great first steps for people to take. I also want to, so I want to remind everybody that FVRL is Fort Vancouver Regional Library. 

Lisa : Thank you. 

Ericka : Maybe that got lost a little bit earlier. 

Lisa : Yes, thank you. 

LaRee : And I love that the idea of everyone, every library, having that link to ORPARC and ORPARC can do so much for so many people. And I do appreciate that ORPARC seems to be adding more materials for specific indigenous groups and indigenous nations and within the state and across the country. It's really important, and that's a big help the more you add. I appreciate that. So, Lisa, let's go back to you. Will you please talk about how adoptees can support other adoptees through resource sharing and access? We've talked about this and around this a bit, but could you help us out here? 

Lisa : Yeah, absolutely. I really love that there are so many adoptees out there supporting one another already, from adoptees social workers, advocates, lawyers, therapists, librarians, mentors, researchers, artists. There are so many adoptees out there working to create better systems and outcomes for us, I think, which is obviously rad. Specific to resource sharing and access, I know that social media with all of its faults helped me find resources when I was first really starting to interrogate my own adoption. So, there's some transracial adoptee and adoptee educators online. So, for example, Hannah Jackson Matthews, she is a transracial adoptee. She's an educator. I did some mentoring with her when I first was kind of questioning my adoption, and she was a huge, huge help for me just to kind of even begin to dip my toe in the questioning of my adoption. It was just nice to have that support. 

                             So, I did some identity coaching with her. She shared all kinds of resources with me. She just herself was a resource. Just being able to see her as a happy, competent adult was nice for me to see. So, she's on Instagram. She has a podcast with her brother as well called the Fake Siblings Podcast. There's also a gentleman I mentioned earlier, Cam Ridley Small. He's a great resource online. He's a transracial inter-country adoptee and a therapist. And I mentioned his book earlier where he described an emotion for me. Thank you, Cam. Angela Tucker, she's in the Pacific Northwest. She does Adoptee Mentoring Society out of Seattle. They're awesome. I found them online as well. She wrote a book, and she also does provide her mentorship free to youth in care, which I think is amazing. I also just took a zine workshop from an amazing artist and writer named Cam McCafferty, and you can find them on Instagram. 

                             I made my first zine recently. It was really fun, and it's a really great thing to just share with community. So, I really just think there are adopters out there being really generous with their time, being really generous with one another and sharing knowledge, resources. I knew what a zine was, but until I sat down and did one, did I see how for me as a writer and illustrator, it was just a really awesome healing thing for me to do, and that I kind of continued to do since I took that little workshop. And yeah, I think if you're an adoptee and you have a desire and capacity to share any of your talent with the community, I think that that would be great. 

                             But yeah, social media is a lot of resources in social media. And then, yeah, I'd say just sharing any other resources in terms of things like I was talking about books, going to ORPARC, just seeing what they have in their library and then maybe returning to your library and requesting those purchases. Those kinds of things I think are a great way to just help one another. We're very free flowing with our information I think to one another. And I should mention also Isaac Etter, who Kendra can talk about also has some great resources that ORPARC has available at their library. 

Kendra: Yeah, Isaac is amazing. I'm so glad you mentioned him, Lisa. I was immediately thinking about Isaac. Isaac Etter, he runs a company called Identity, and they've been self-publishing all sorts of wonderful guides on hair care, parenting, all sorts of things, and they're continuing to roll out lots and lots of content. 

Lisa : Yes, thanks, Kendra. And Hannah Jackson-Matthews and Cam, if you go to their websites, they also have a lot of content and resources, things you can download, things like that, that you can use resource-wise as an adoptee or even sometimes an adoptive parent. 

Kendra: And then just have to pop in there too, Dr. Chaitra Wirta-Leiker, she's another incredible adoptee therapist who's also doing a lot. She's been publishing some books, and she maintains a lot of content on her website as well. 

LaRee : I'm so excited about all of the resources you're sharing. I hope people will have pen and paper and go listen to this. And definitely we need to put together a list, Ericka, of resources. 

Ericka : I have almost like, a page and a half over here of notes I've been jotting down and titles. But yeah, I think that what we can do too is connect some of this, our listeners, to some of this information in the podcast details, but also link to those specific websites if Lisa, if you're up for it, linking it to any of those public sites that you have out there. And then of course, Kendra, will link to the ORPARC site and library and all of those resources as well. 

Lisa : Absolutely. I can send those links. Yeah. 

Ericka : Thank you. This has just been a wealth of knowledge. I keep getting distracted too. I'm like, oh, no, I just missed something because I was still writing down or typing in and Googling an author's name. But I am very thankful that I get to re-listen to this one as we get it ready for launching. 

LaRee : Absolutely. 

Ericka : I will miss nothing. So, I have our next question, and that is, what is something that you have learned in this work or through your own lived experience that you wish you had known sooner? And for this one, we're going to start with Kendra. 

Kendra: Thank you, Ericka. I'm going to bounce backwards in time, just a few moments to add a couple more things to the previous question. And sorry about this. I just wanted to quick mention Lisa has been pointing out how ORPARC's library collection is freely visible online. You can access at any time. But we also have resource pages that are also public, and I want to call our listeners' attention to one of the resource pages that's called Adoptee and Foster Voices. And it features a magnificent array of adoptee and fosteree talent and expression on that page. And in addition, we're very excited to debut that in just the last month or so, we cataloged all our library materials by adoptees and fosterees. So, you can literally search that tag and pull up well over a hundred items all by adoptee and fosteree authors and illustrators. 

Ericka : This just gets better and better. This is amazing. 

Lisa : It's really, really cool that you can tag, Kendra, how your catalog works, that you can bring up those voices that way. That's a really great little tag in there. It's very cool. 

Kendra: Lisa and I couldn't just talk about it. 

LaRee : I saw some of that on the website when I was poking around in ORPARC, and it's amazing. It truly is. 

Ericka : It's so simple to navigate too. I feel like even some libraries don't get that right but being able to just find the information that you're looking for or have something kind of serendipitously take you to attached information that you did not know existed. 

Lisa : Yeah, absolutely. 

Ericka : Well, thank you for going back and adding that on Kendra. 

Kendra: In reference to your current question though, I think Lisa will have a much more meaningful answer than this one. But this one is also a bit more of a all-purpose tip and tool for libraries everywhere, and it's something that we've learned programmatically at ORPARC. We have a wonderful international colleague, a bibliotherapist named Bijal Shah in the UK. And through her, we recently discovered the ancient, literally ancient intervention of bibliotherapy, which captures the work we do in a way that we never knew how to articulate it before. And bibliotherapy is basically healing through literature and storytelling. And in one of Bijal's courses, this is how she states it, she says, "The power of healing lies in the stories we are told and the stories that we recite," which is I think just a hopeful reminder, an inspirational reminder for all of us in terms of this theme of storytelling. 

Ericka : Yeah. And so powerful. 

Lisa : So actually in reading this question was the first thing that came to my mind is everything I've learned in the last four or five years, I wish I had known soon. And I was like, that's not a great answer but that's what came to my mind at first. But I think for me, I'll just say I wish I had known more, as a casa now, I wish I had known a lot more about the foster youth experience. I really, even in trying to put together foster youth and foster work from the mouths of former foster youth or from foster youth, there's just not a lot of works out there that I can find. And so I guess I wish that there were more of those voices out there. I also wish that I had known more about the inner country adoptee experience, so I wish there were more voices from inner country adoptees out there. 

                              I think when I really think about it, what I wish I had known sooner was everybody's experience. And so, what it brings me back to is just that all of our voices are needed. All of our voices need to be out there. And it really brings me to thinking about one of the main goals I think of what's happening with adoptees right now, and I have seen it referred to sort of as this adoptee reckoning, but just that stories about adoption and about adoptees need to come from adoptees. They need to come from our voices. If it's a story about being a foster youth, it should come from the mouth of a foster youth or a former foster youth. So, I know that's not really an answer to your question per se, but I just really think, it's like, what did I wish I know sooner? It's like all of it. 

                             I wish I knew all of these narratives. I wish I knew all these stories. And the only way I'm going to get that is by making sure more and more people feel empowered to share their voices. The only thing I can do about that is continue to share my own voice, and hopefully that keeps inspiring people. It's just every time really I hear anything from... I've been doing some writing workshops and I often there adoptee only spaces, and when I hear the shares at the end of the workshop, I'm always inspired. I always hear something great. I always learn something new. And so I just really, really more want to empower every adoptee or foster youth that's listening to this, your voice is needed and wanted and is important. 

Ericka : Thank you. I definitely think you answered the question. I think this is one of those questions that you approach from wherever you are or whatever it is that really speaks truth to your power. And I feel like even if I were to answer this question, I have learned so much in our short time together that I wish I knew sooner. And I think every conversation we have about this, every opportunity that we can spend really amplifying voices that has been historically silenced or those that are still in the room, just meekly being heard because we are not stopping to listen is so important. So, I thank you for both of you sharing and for all of the resources that you've shared with all of our listeners today. 

LaRee : Yeah, it's been so empowering, and I can only imagine for adoptees how much more empowering it can be with all of these resources available. So, do you have any last thoughts or resources or information you want to share with folks serving BIPOC adoptees and their families and or for BIPOC adoptees themselves? Lisa, do you want to take that first? 

Lisa : Yes, yes, absolutely. So now that we talked about when this was going to air, I'm not sure that this is worth saying, but there are still free tickets available on our website for our event this month, which is December 7th. So, I'm not sure that this will work out. So that was something I was going to say. 

Ericka : Yeah, we can still promote it. So, we've got social media sites so we can promote and let folks know that this is happening and that there's an episode coming out in the next few months so they can learn more. 

LaRee : Absolutely. 

Lisa : Awesome. Awesome. Okay, cool. Yeah, that was something I was going to share. The theme for the next storytelling event is food and identity. And by the time this comes out in February, we should be having another event, February. We just started talking about that. I think the theme might be boundaries, so maybe we can update this podcast as it gets closer. But yeah, that was the only thing I was going to share. Just BIPOC adoptees, former foster youth. Find us. 

LaRee : I love the idea of food and community, and storytelling all mixed together. 

Lisa : Food isn't a way that I have really gone into my identity at all. So, I'm very excited to hear from adoptees who have kind of used food as a way to an entrance to their identity or connected with their identity through food. 

LaRee : Yeah, that's awesome. And it feels like an easy way to approach identity. 

Lisa : Right. Yeah. For some. Yeah. 

LaRee : If you're just starting. 

Ericka : It's something we all have in common. 

LaRee : Yeah. Do you have any last thoughts, Kendra? 

Kendra: Yeah, thanks, LaRee. Well, first of all, I want to say especially big thank you to Lisa and Ericka for being courageous enough to share so much about their own personal stories. Not everyone is able to do that, and it was wonderful that they were able to really put themselves out there for all of us to learn from. So, I appreciate that. 

                             And then, LaRee, I loved how you called BIPOC Adoptee VOICES, which of course includes Lisa and the founder, Liana Soifer, a bright star. I think that was just a beautiful way to describe what they're doing in the community. And at ORPARC, we're so excited that we become allies. We know that that's also really important to their organization, is fierce allyship is key to helping spread the news that adoptees can find one another and can find resources. So, we really appreciate that. And just as sort of an add-on to that, ORPARC is an open book, figurative and literal. We welcome you to reach out anytime. Our value lies in our engagement with you, with the community, with organizations like BIPOC Adoptee VOICES, and we love to make new friends, and we're always happy to share whatever we're learning or curating, give you a tour and orientation, whatever. We welcome all of you. 

LaRee : Thank you so much for sharing all of these resources and personal stories and bringing a sense of belonging and being able to share that. It's so important and it just touches my heart. 

Ericka : Yes, yes. Same. I don't have all of the words for it quite yet, but this has been deeply meaningful for me and really inspirational. I think Lisa mentioned earlier how coming to this or finding that this group, the BIPOC Adoptee VOICES group existed, was quite literally life-saving. I feel like there are more folks out there than we realized that are just hanging on by that last thread that they have. And they need, they are craving, they are desperate for connection and to be understood. And I feel like that is a birthright of everyone. So, the more we can connect folks with each other, with their histories, with their stories, with their identity, and with these resources, the better off we all will be. So, thank you so much for being part of that, but also for your time today. 

LaRee : Absolutely. And I just want to put a little reminder out there that for folks that have adoptees in their families, whether it's their immediate family or spread out a little bit, cousins, this is so enlightening, and please don't feel like you can't look at this. Everyone should look at this so that they have a better understanding and can help the allies in any way they can. I really appreciate both of you and the work that you're doing. Thank you so much for joining us. 

Lisa : Yeah, thank you so much for having me on and having us here. And yeah, just really giving me as a BIPOC adoptee, a place to share. And yeah, the allyship piece is really, really huge for us. So yeah, thank you so much. 

Kendra: Yes, thank you so much. Honored to be here. 

LaRee : Thank you. 

(Voiceover) 

OVERDUE: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries would not be possible without the generous support from the Oregon Library Association and the State Library of Oregon, whose mission is to provide leadership and resources to continue growing vibrant library services for Oregonians. We would like to take time to acknowledge historical injustices. We recognize Oregon was established as a white sanctuary state with the intent to exclude African-American and Black people on ancestral lands stolen from dispossessed indigenous peoples. We recognize and honor the members of federally recognized tribes and unrecognized tribes of Oregon. 

We honor Native American ancestors, past, present, and future whose land we still occupy. This acknowledgement aims to deconstruct false histories, correct the historical record, and disrupt genocidal practices by refocusing attention to the original people of the land we inhabit, the slave trade and forced labor that built this country and to the oppressive social systems interwoven into the fabric of our national and regional heritage. We ask that you take a moment to acknowledge and reflect as well. 

(Outro Music Playing)