Birthing Black Mothers Frontmatter Contents Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION The Afterlives of Malaysia Goodson or Black Mothering in Crisis One. BLACK GOLD Remaking Black Breasts in an Era of Crisis Two. IN THE ROOM Birthwork by Women of Color in a State of Emergency Three. BLACK MATERNAL AESTHETICS The Making of a Noncrisis Style Four. WRITING BLACK MOTHERHOOD Black Maternal Memoirs and Economies of Grief CONCLUSION The Afterlives of Jazmine Headley CODA “All Mothers Were Summoned when George Floyd Called Out for His Mama” Notes Bibliography Index In Birthing Black Mothers Black feminist theorist Jennifer C. Nash examines how the figure of the “Black mother” has become a powerful political category. “Mothering while Black” has become synonymous with crisis as well as a site of cultural interest empathy fascination and support. Cast as suffering and traumatized by their proximity to Black death—especially through medical racism and state sanctioned police violence—Black mothers are often rendered as one dimensional symbols of tragic heroism. In contrast Nash examines Black mothers’ self representations and public performances of motherhood—including Black doulas and breastfeeding advocates alongside celebrities such as Beyoncé Serena Williams and Michelle Obama—that are not rooted in loss. Through cultural critique and in depth interviews Nash acknowledges the complexities of Black motherhood outside its use as political currency. Throughout Nash imagines a Black feminist project that refuses the lure of locating the precarity of Black life in women and instead invites readers to theorize organize and dream into being new modes of Black motherhood