MOTHERS OF THE MOTHERLESS
In 2008, I was commissioned to create a painting for the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgendered People at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. I created this work on-site and visited classes as part of a residency. The work is a celebration of women/ trans/ queer people who have essentially nurtured oppressed and marginalized communities. I use the term "mother" here not in a biological or gendered sense but rather as a transcendent expression for those who love, nurture and heal, regardless of gender. Below is a list of those featured.
From the upper right corner, these mothers spiral through the waters of a whirlpool marking Yoruba orisha of motherhood and the sea, Yemaya. They are:
Antonia Pantoja: Puerto Rican visionary, educator, activist, founder of Aspira
Marlon Riggs: Radical poet, activist, educator and filmmaker
Julia de Burgos: Puerto Rican revolutionary poet
Cherríe Moraga: Chicanx radical poet, playright, essayist and memoirist
Audre Lorde: Radical “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,”
Rachel Beverly: Activist and nurturer in the Oberlin community
Tania: Clandestine combatant in the Cuban Revolution
Willie Ninja: Mother, House of Ninja, performer
Luisa Capetillo: Puerto Rican labor activist, gender non-conforming anarchist
Phoolan Devi: Indian revolutionary, Bandit Queen, warrior for all women
Assata Shakur: Black freedom fighter still living in exile
Yuri Kochiyama: Japanese revolutionary, social justice warrior
Edmonia Lewis: Chippewa and African American artist, sculptor
Sylvia Rivera: Legendary Puerto Rican trans social justice activist
Lolita Lebrón: Puerto Rican freedom fighter
Gloria Anzaldua: Radical Chicanx scholar and cultural theorist