Ash and Feather: a Black family with teen and two dads, one of whom has brain cancer, addresses minority mental health, medical trauma, anti-racism, and queer family life. It is written by Sharon Frances, director of Well Beings Studio, a non-profit that supports the emotional well-being of families impacted by cancer through the arts.
About Ash and Feather, Frances says, "I wrote this podcast, as a person with cancer and a lifetime child of a parent with cancer. I wanted to explore my relationship with my daughter, as she watched me fight for my life, and to imagine a better relationship with my father who had lost his life to cancer. I wanted to represent a family struggling with something quite hidden: the pain of going through cancer and emotional turmoil and grief.
Personally, I have always succeeded in hiding my disabilities because they were internal: cancer, pain, fatigue, sadness, panic. Often people don’t know when I am struggling with one of these invisible conditions. I wanted Ash and Feather to celebrate the joys and struggles of a family experiencing a range of emotions and going through often invisible medical struggles.