You Want To Be A Mother?

a question from my mom, a lesson too.

Is that your baby doll? You want to be a mother? yes. Make sure the baby has a clean face, clean clothes clean pampers, you hear me don’t ever have that child sitting in spoiled pampers. That’s neglect. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired. Talk to the baby, play with the baby, don’t hold a mirror to the baby’s face before they turn one. Why? Cuz their hair will fall out. Don’t have anyone just hold your baby, they may want to hurt your baby. Don’t leave your baby with any men in our family. Don’t be a single mom. It’s hard. Don’t let your baby cry in front of you. Don’t have a baby as a teenager. I will kick you out. Don’t have a baby before marriage. Always buy nice clothes for the baby. always cover the baby’s head, even in the summer. Don’t feed the baby food you wouldn’t eat. Be a good mother, don’t take care of white children then you won’t be able to take care of your Black ones. Be a good mother, ask for help but not to the point that people think you don’t know what you’re doing. Ask me for help before you ask others. I know better than them. I’ll know my grandchild better than them. You want to be a mother? I think so. What happened to your yes? What if I’m a bad mother? Then I’ll take your baby until you learn to be a good one. That’s what we do in this family, my mother didn’t raise me, your great-grandmother raised me. You want to be a mother? I think so? Bath them every night, buy them name-brand things, and make sure you look like you have sense! People will hurt your baby if they know the mother doesn’t have sense. Don’t put a man before your baby, fight for your baby, sing to your baby, hymns, and lullabies. Speak good things onto your baby, give god to your baby. And remember always to look neat make sure your face is clean and everything is done up nice, you hear? And don’t take care of white children.

Christy DeGallerie- domestic

It has been so thrilling to not just focus on the portraits of my mother but the landscape, exploring the social constructs, and movement as it allows me to take ownership of Black images in my lifetime and of those I am in close relation with.

In the above photo, my mother was pregnant with me in America.

The bottom photo is her mothering a white child whom she worked for in America.

I'm looking forward to sharing these images and the text composition that accompanies them. Thank you for being here!

talk soon

-C