Omschrijving
Black motherhood through Black woman photographic art 'Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing' questions how the Black female body, specifically the Black maternal body, navigates interlocking structures that place a false narrative on her body and that of her maternal ancestors. This volume, which includes a curated selection of images, addresses the complicated relationship between Blackness and photography and, in particular, its gendered dimension, its relationship to health, sexuality, and digital culture – primarily in the context of racialized heteronormativity.
With over forty contributors, this volume draws on scholarly inquiry ranging from academic essays, interviews, poetry, to documentary practice, and on contemporary art. 'Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing' thus offers a cross-section of analysis on the topic of Black motherhood, mothering, and the participation of photography in the process.
This collection challenges racist images and discourses, both historically and in its persistence in contemporary society, while reclaiming the innate brilliance of Black women through personal narratives, political acts, connections to place, moments of pleasure, and communal celebration. It serves as a reflection of the past, a portal to the future, and contributes to recent scholarship on the complexities of Black life and Black joy. 'Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing' questions how the Black female body, specifically the Black maternal body, navigates interlocking structures that place a false narrative on her body and that of her maternal ancestors. This volume, which includes a curated selection of images, addresses the complicated relationship between Blackness and photography and, in particular, its gendered dimension, its relationship to health, sexuality, and digital culture – primarily in the context of racialized heteronormativity.
With over forty contributors, this volume draws on scholarly inquiry ranging from academic essays, interviews, poetry, to documentary practice, and on contemporary art. 'Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing' thus offers a cross-section of analysis on the topic of Black motherhood, mothering, and the participation of photography in the process.
This collection challenges racist images and discourses, both historically and in its persistence in contemporary society, while reclaiming the innate brilliance of Black women through personal narratives, political acts, connections to place, moments of pleasure, and communal celebration. It serves as a reflection of the past, a portal to the future, and contributes to recent scholarship on the complexities of Black life and Black joy. Acknowledgements
Our Mother, My Muse
Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet
Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing
Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago
PART ONE
MORE BLACK AND MORE BEAUTIFUL: SOCIAL MEDIA & DIGITAL CULTURE IN THE REWRITING OF SELF
1 Regarding the Pain of Our Own: Jazmine Headley, Portraiture, and the Sorrow of Black Motherhood
Brie McLemore
2 Beyond “Welfare Queens” and “Baby Mamas”: Low-Income Black Single Mothers’ Resistance to Controlling Images
Jennifer L. Turner
3 Black Motherhood Online: A Reimagined Representation: A Conversation with Tomi Akitunde
Kellie Carter Jackson
4 Thotty Mommies: The Erotic Potential of Black Mothers Online
Marly Pierre-Louis
PART TWO
“TURNING THE FACE OF HISTORY TO YOUR FACE”: SEEING THE REAL SELF THROUGH REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK MOTHERHOOD
5 Motherhood in the work of Deana Lawson – A conversation with the Artist
Susan Thompson
6 Photographic Afterimages: Nationalism, Care Work and Black Motherhood in Canada
Rachel Lobo
7. “I Like to Make Pictures of Children”: African American Women Photographers and Wielding the Weapon of ‘Motherhood’
Emily Brady
8 Losses Not to Be Passed On: Paula C. Johnson’s and Sara Bennett’s Portraits Rewriting (Ex-) Incarcerated Black Mothers
Atalie Gerhard
9 Speaking of “unspeakable things unspoken”
Sasha Turner
PART THREE
“YOU ARE YOUR BEST THING”: SELF-CARE AS A SITE OF RESISTANCE
10 Black Birth Matters – A Conversation with Andrea Chung and D’Yuanna Allen-Robb
Nicole J. Caruth
11 Worth a Thousand Words: Visualizing Black Motherhood and Health
Haile Eshe Cole
12 Three Black Mothers in a Cleveland Cabaret
Rhaisa Williams
PART FOUR
“IN SEARCH OF MY MOTHER’S GARDEN, I FOUND MY OWN”: BLACK FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE MATRILINEAL SPACE
13 Letter IV: Where Are They? – M/othering R/evolutions
Renée Mussai
14 Every Day is Mother’s Day in My Book: Black Motherhood in the Work of Nona Faustine Simmons
Jonathan Michael Square
15 The Motherland Between Us
Grace Aneiza Ali
16 The Impossibility of Breathing When the Sun Covers Your Face
Marcia Michael
PART FIVE
“THE ASSERTION OF THE LIFEFORCE”: A SELECTION OF WORKS CURATED BY WOMEN PICTURING REVOLUTION
Afterword. Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing
Régine Michelle Jean-Charles
Contributors
Artists
Colophon