Congrats are in order for Vashtie Kola aka Downtown’s Sweetheart and her Danish husband Emil Boye who have announced they’re expecting a baby, which will be their first. Vashtie did not indicate how far along she is in her pregnancy.
The DJ, director and designer announced the news on Instagram today (September 5, 2020) where she said she kept the news “on the low for a while” because of what she viewed as bigger issues going on in the world.
On Instagram Stories, she explained, “I kept it on the low for a while because I wasn’t how sure how public I wanted to be in this new chapter in my life. Also, every time I felt like sharing…there just seemed to be bigger issues (worldwide) that no moment felt appropriate.
Vasthie went on to list the impact of COVID-19, her own hospitalization, the death of her cat, Vladamir, the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McCade, and a massive explosion in Beirut that killed 190 people.
She added, “While I’ve been preparing for my own motherhood, I’ve also been finding ways to be of service to my own community through (safely) protesting, donating, petitioning, blogging/sharing Black businesses to support, shopping to support those Black businesses and continuing self education.”
As part of the announcement, the 39-year-old used her platform to call attention to the higher rate of deaths resulting from pregnancy and birth for Black and Native American women versus white women.
She explained, “According to the CDC, Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native American women are two-to-three-times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.”
Addressing the disparity, Vashtie let her followers knows she donating money to Black Mamas Matter to “help support their mission to advocate, drive research, build power, and shift power for Black maternal health, rights and justice.
Vashtie and Boye married earlier this year in a ceremony that took place at City Hall in Manhattan. The bride made a big splash wearing a Supreme t-shirt, white Dickies a dramatic durag veil and Nike Air Force 1 sneakers.
