Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing

337 Pages·2023·15.12 MB·English

by  Lesly Deschler Canossi, Zoraida Lopez-Diago

Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing questions how lesly deschler canossi zoraida lopez-diago (eds)
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the Black female body, specifically the Black maternal body, navigates interlocking structures la
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that place a false narrative on her body and that of her maternal ancestors. This volume, l k
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which includes a curated selection of images, addresses the complicated relationship between s M
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Blackness and photography and, in particular, its gendered dimension, its relationship to d t
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health, sexuality, and digital culture – primarily in the context of racialized heteronormativity. es ili
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With over forty contributors, this volume draws on scholarly inquiry ranging from h e
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academic essays, interviews, poetry, to documentary practice, and on contemporary art. Black e g
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Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing thus offers a cross- c ,

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section of analysis on the topic of Black motherhood, mothering, and the participation of n h Matrilineage,
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photography in the process. ss to
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This collection challenges racist images and discourses, both historically and in its g
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persistence in contemporary society, while reclaiming the innate brilliance of Black women z a
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through personal narratives, political acts, connections to place, moments of pleasure, and r h
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communal celebration. It serves as a reflection of the past, a portal to the future, and d , Photography,
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contributes to recent scholarship on the complexities of Black life and Black joy. l nd
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Lesly Deschler Canossi is a photography educator, cultural producer, and co-founder of - p
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Women Picturing Revolution. She is faculty at the International Center of Photography, i e
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Zoraida Lopez-Diago stands at the intersection of visual, social, and environmental s) ti
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justice; she is a photographer, independent curator, activist, and co-founder of Women n
Picturing Revolution.
Representation
Another Way of Knowing
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Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation:
Another Way of Knowing

Black
Matrilineage,
Photography,
and
Representation
Another Way of Knowing
Edited by
Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago
Leuven University Press

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 9
Our Mother, My Muse 11
Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet
Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation:
Another Way of Knowing 17
Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago
PART ONE
MORE BLACK AND MORE BEAUTIFUL:
SOCIAL MEDIA & DIGITAL CULTURE IN 
THE REWRITING OF SELF 35
1 Regarding the Pain of Our Own: Jazmine Headley, Portraiture,
and the Sorrow of Black Motherhood 37
Brie McLemore
2 Beyond “Welfare Queens” and “Baby Mamas”: Low-Income Black
Single Mothers’ Resistance to Controlling Images 53
Jennifer L. Turner
3 Black Motherhood Online: A Reimagined Representation: A
Conversation with Tomi Akitunde 73
Kellie Carter Jackson
4 Thotty Mommies: The Erotic Potential of Black Mothers Online 83
Marly Pierre-Louis
4 — 5
PART TWO
“TURNING THE FACE OF HISTORY TO YOUR FACE”:
SEEING THE REAL SELF THROUGH REPRESENTATIONS
OF BLACK MOTHERHOOD 93
5 Motherhood in the work of Deana Lawson – A conversation
with the Artist 95
Susan Thompson
6 Photographic Afterimages: Nationalism, Care Work and Black
Motherhood in Canada 107
Rachel Lobo
7. “I Like to Make Pictures of Children”: African American Women
Photographers and Wielding the Weapon of ‘Motherhood’ 125
Emily Brady
8 Losses Not to Be Passed On: Paula C. Johnson’s and Sara Bennett’s
Portraits Rewriting (Ex-) Incarcerated Black Mothers 145
Atalie Gerhard
9 Speaking of “unspeakable things unspoken” 171
Sasha Turner
PART THREE
“YOU ARE YOUR BEST THING”: SELF-CARE AS
A SITE OF RESISTANCE 173
10 Black Birth Matters – A Conversation with Andrea Chung and
D’Yuanna Allen-Robb 175
Nicole J. Caruth
11 Worth a Thousand Words: Visualizing Black Motherhood and Health 195
Haile Eshe Cole
12 Three Black Mothers in a Cleveland Cabaret 217
Rhaisa Williams
contents
PART FOUR
“IN SEARCH OF MY MOTHER’S GARDEN, I FOUND MY
OWN”: BLACK FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE
MATRILINEAL SPACE 231
13 Letter IV: Where Are They? – M/othering R/evolutions 233
Renée Mussai
14 Every Day is Mother’s Day in My Book: Black Motherhood in the
Work of Nona Faustine Simmons 241
Jonathan Michael Square
15 The Motherland Between Us 251
Grace Aneiza Ali
16 The Impossibility of Breathing When the Sun Covers Your Face 263
Marcia Michael
PART FIVE
“THE ASSERTION OF THE LIFEFORCE”:
A SELECTION OF WORKS CURATED BY WOMEN
PICTURING REVOLUTION 273
Afterword. Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation:
Another Way of Knowing 307
Régine Michelle Jean-Charles
Contributors 311
Artists 321
Colophon 333
6 — 7
Thank you to my family, my sons Marcel and little Naeem. You are my heart. To my
dear and loving husband Mike. During the course of this book, we brought our little
baby Naeem into the world. And through motherhood and Black motherhood in this
particular moment, you have held my hand, held me as I’ve cried, and comforted me
when I needed it most. You encouraged me to push through and inspire me more than
you could ever know. Words cannot express how thankful I am for you.
I am so thankful for the community of women who raised me and continue to pro-
vide guidance and love. For my rock, my mother Marcia Zoraida Bonitto. Thank you
for loving me, believing in me and from an early age, showing me that Black girls and
Black women could accomplish anything and everything. I am forever indebted to my
grandmother, Rosetta Bonitto, who like so many grandmothers, took care of me so my
mother could work. Thank you grandma, for ensuring your girls would always get an
education.
I dedicate this book to the women in my family, the root of my Black matrilineage,
those who always beckon me home.
—Zoraida Lopez-Diago
To my family Andrew, Noa, and Mateo for quietly supporting the late nights and
early mornings dedicated to this project, I thank you. Together we create love and light
in the everyday and I am endlessly in love with the home we’ve made. To my mama
community, thank you for your deep and lasting commitment to mutual care. There
is power where women co-create and I am indebted to the women artists in my life for
your camaraderie and dedication to one another. To my students, time spent with you
is a pleasure and privilege, I am grateful for your willingness to stay curious and move
deeper into your images. To my stepfather, my dad Larry Schultz, thank you for being
there (for everything) and especially when the chips were down in Baltimore. I will
never forget. To my siblings and especially my sister Teresa Gallaway for your unwa-
vering big sister encouragement, which kept me going more times than you know, I
thank you. And to our mother Jacqueline Anne Canossi Schultz who centered our lives
in laughter and kindness, you are missed. Twenty-four years without you is absurd.
To the women lost to history or violence, unnamed, or renamed—this book is ded-
icated to you.
—Lesly Deschler Canossi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would not be possible without the support of many, whom we’d like
to acknowledge and thank. Thank you Leuven University Press for believing in
this project. We deeply appreciate KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access and
Knowledge Unlatched for making this work accessible, independent of one’s
financial means. Thank you to our editor Mirjam Truwant for her extraordi-
nary guidance, and just the right amount of impatience to bring what could
have been an endless labor of love, to a beautiful end. Our gratitude extends
to Columbia University’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies,
the International Center of Photography, and Fast Forward: Women in
Photography, for their belief in the Women Picturing Revolution. In the early
formation of Women Picturing Revolution, Suzanne Nicholas, Dr. Samuel K.
Roberts, Lacy Austin, and Dr. Deborah Willis encouraged us to dream big. We
extend a heartfelt thank you to the many contributors to this project, without
your scholarship and artistic brilliance this would not be possible. It is in the
shared spaces of conversation and collaboration that ideas such as this book,
Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing are
born.
We as co-editors of this volume we capitalize Black when we or essayists in this
volume are referring to groups in racial, ethnic, or cultural terms. Through
this effort, we hope to demonstrate how Black reflects a shared sense of com-
munity and identity for Black mothers throughout the African Diaspora.
8 — 9