This collaborative auto‐ethnography provides an account of the sociohistorical context of Black mothering in the United States and highlights how our complex, intersectional identities as Black‐(other)mother‐scholars shape our cultivation of the homeplace—a place where Black children are nurtured as “subjects, not objects,” in a society that aims to dominate black bodies. Drawing on Black feminism and Black Woman's Geographies, we document how time at home with our children during COVID‐19 allowed for critical dialogue regarding racial injustice and exposure to culturally sustaining educational content endeavored toward resilience building. This work highlights the strength of Black mothers’ collective experiences in fostering resilience amidst crises. Societal implications of COVID‐19 amidst ongoing racial traumas reify the need to reclaim not only our time as Black mothers, but also our voice, agency, and the spaces we cultivate for Black children's liberation. We also discuss recommendations for amplifying Black mothers’ voices in education policy efforts such that schools are better prepared to serve Black children.

In the legacy of Black womanhood, surviving the loss of a loved one is etched into our blood memory. Amidst some of the most unfathomable grief, we, daughters of the dust, are often expected to move forward as quickly as possible (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2009; Romero, 2000). Black women and girls have historically had to overcome–or mask–insurmountable losses at intersections of identity, to ensure Black survival (Collins, 2000; Evans-Winters, 2019). I propose a strong Black girl schema (Brown, 2021) to trouble the erasure of lived experience evident in pervasive cultural discourses like strong Black woman schema (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2009). Utilizing Sista circle methodology (Johnson, 2015) and extending duoethnography (Sawyer & Norris, 2013) within embodied memory work (Dillard, 2000; Ohito, 2020) and storytelling (Evans-Winters, 2019), this paper extends the future possibilities of grief scholarship centering grieving Black girlhoods. Further, the paper acknowledges the enduring tensions in navigating grief and aspires to highlight the power of embodied memory work to illuminate the current and (re)membered geographies of grieving Black girlhoods.

Battle, Nishaun. Black Girlhood, Punishment, and Resistance: Reimagining Justice for Black Girls in Virginia. New York: Routledge, 2020.

Black women have historically informed educational theory and practice. As Black women who have been nurtured and sustained by Black women's educational leadership both inside and outside the home, and who mother and "othermother" Black children, we seek to recognize and honor the labor of Black women. Motherwork, a term coined by Patricia Hill Collins, refers to the "reproductive labor" that women of color engage in to ensure the survival of family, community, and self. Black women center their motherwork on Black children by asserting their knowledge and experiences as related to teaching and learning. In this paper, we explore Black mothering as culturally sustaining pedagogy. We also reimagine and dream about our Black children's possibilities for learning. Through this work, we seek to center Black mothers as knowledge bearers and guides for building and sustaining Black children's brilliance and culture. We contend that Black mothering should be of foremost consideration in developing culturally sustaining pedagogy.

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