Fighting for Our People: Queering Motherwork through New York Community Activism

My paper examines how motherwork can be used as a frame to understand activism in New York immigrant communities of color from the 1970s to the present.  Drawing upon oral history interview and archival research, this paper argues for a queer approach to motherwork that acknowledges broad communal concerns related to children’s lives.  This approach to reading community engagement and organizing efforts engages the critical care work and advocacy by a range of activists as they sought to support mothers and children in their communities.  Key issues that mobilizations addressed included police violence, health, housing, education, and poverty.  In this case study of New York, questions of how the urban context and identity-based oppression have provided opportunities as well as limited the recognitions of activists’ claims for healthy and safe communities are addressed.  This paper seeks to emphasize a need to blur boundaries between histories of mothers’ activism and their collaborative work with other concerned community members in a manner that draws upon contemporary framings of reproductive justice.  

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