Mothering as an Act of Resistance: Reclaiming a Visual Culture of Access and Acceptance

• In Event: DisCrit Mothering: Interrogating Consequential Education for Our Children's Lives and Humanity

Abstract

Purpose
Inspired by revolutionary mothering (Gumbs et al., 2016), activists of color (e.g., Fannie Lou Hamer), radical feminists (e.g., hooks, 1999), and in conversation with Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit; Annamma et al., 2013), this paper conceptualizes Neurodivergent families as socially engaged practitioners, educators, and art agitators. My son was diagnosed as Autistic at the age of 3, and I felt it essential to begin redefining my role as a disabled parent raising a disabled child by exploring how my art and design practice could inform a framework for community engagement advocating for Autistic communities. This included breaking the visual cycle of unjust stigmas within social and clinical practices in the process. This led me to release an advocacy photo zine entitled "KnoxRoxs" dedicated to our Autistic son (Author, 2018), as a way to give visibility to children of color in Neurodiverse communities. I highlight how our Neurodivergent mothering included care, community work, and creative resistance (Deem Forum, 2022).

Theoretical Framework
My definition of Mothering as an act of Resistance (Author, 2019; 2020) aims to empower and activate change - encouraging families and communities to engage in conversations about acceptance, starting with how Neurodivergent children and adults are treated, valued, and seen. I consider this grassroots definition of Mothering in relation to DisCrit’s lineage (Annamma et al., 2013).

Methods & Data Sources
Through methods of critical autoethnography (Holman Jones, 2016) and visual research (Mitchell, 2011), I explore and discuss the development of the KnoxRoxs zine. In particular, I discuss the processes that led to the creation of my photo zine, including artistic platforms where I was given room to share my activism on a global scale. I detail how these artistic platforms and photo zine creation led to the development of Neurodivergent mothering workshops where attendees were encouraged to begin telling their own mothering stories, identifying qualities special to them that are rarely seen in the media concerning Black mothers and mothering, and defining social inaccuracies from their own lives that should be dismantled.

Findings & Significance
The Neurodivergent Mothering workshops fostered conversation around the practice of re-designing and hacking the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process using zines as alternative methods of self expression and protest. The KnoxRoxs zine is now permanently archived in Libraries at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and in the Special Collections at Firestone library at Princeton University. The zine has prompted the creation of community and academic zine workshops held at The Bloom Collective in Baltimore, MD as a part of 2019, 2020 Black Maternal Health Week, Baltimore Museum of Art, and within the DisCrit (Annamma et al. 2013) and Disability Art academic spaces at University of Minnesota College Of Design, Tisch School of the Arts, School of Visual Arts and California College of the Arts among other universities.

Author

• Jennifer White-Johnson, Maryland Institute College of Art
  Presenting Author