This session explores how adopted boys—particularly Black adopted boys—are often rendered invisible when adoption is understood as an endpoint rather than a lifelong experience. While stability and love are essential, they do not automatically address the layered identity, emotional, and belongin...

Adopted people often find themselves caught in a web of different identities, systems, and predicaments, all of which intersect in complex ways that can be very difficult to navigate. Joe Toolan, a transracially adopted person born in Guatemala discusses what those intersectional roots meant for ...

It can be difficult to see the full picture in adoption, because we often only hear from one side of an adoption triad at a time. However, adopted people and adoptive parents within the same family have individual and unique perspectives and struggles that require the context of the rest of their...

Transracially adopted person Isaac Etter is an activist, racial bias consultant, and social entrepreneur, and the founder of Identity, where the focus is on re-imaging post-placement support for adoptive and foster families. He is also the founder of the podcast Inside Transracial Adoption, which...

Meggin (Nam) Holtz, LMSW, a transracially adopted person born in Korea, has been involved in adoption advocacy, awareness, and support for a decade. Her award-winning documentary film, Found In Korea 한국에서 발견된 , about birth search, identity, and adoption was created to serve as a point of entry fo...

Dr. Maxine Bryant provides an important and rarely highlighted perspective as a domestic Black adoptee adopted by Black parents during a time when formal adoption in the Black community was rare. Alongside her personal story, Maxine also brings crucial insight into the history of the practice of ...

This session explores transracially adopted person Torie DiMartile's dissertation research on how racial identity and family belonging is created and understood by Black adult transracial adopted people. Drawing from interviews with dozens of adult adopted people, along with her own experiences i...

Author and transracially adopted person Kevin Hofmann was born into the racially-charged Detroit of 1967 to a white mother and a Black father, placed into foster care, and then adopted by a white minister and his wife, who were also the parents of three biological children. Hofmann’s talk is base...

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, President Emerita of Spelman College and author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race, guides us in a discussion that explores what it really means to be a parent...

This session explores Sasha Mack’s journey as a Black same-race adopted person. Through her powerful "Black Sheep" art collection, Sasha delves into the complexities of identity, cultural connection, and belonging. She addresses the nuances of same-race adoption in the Black community, navigating...