All mothers were summoned, when George Floyd called out for his mother. —Rachel Costa
Every mother heard him. We heard George Floyd. We hear him. —Kadiatou Diallo, mother of Amadou Diallo who was murdered by New York City police officers in 1999.
For today’s post on living Black in the United States, I invite you to view a three-part series presented by the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art. The project features Dr. Tameka Cage Conley, an artist I initially met many years ago when she was a student–an English major, of course. 😉 I am so very proud of her and her work.
The museum describes the “Summoned Mother” series as:
a memoir of a particular American motherhood: Black and uniquely precarious. This three-volume video series features Dr. Tameka Cage Conley, a literary artist and mother to a six-year-old Black boy, as she responds to George Floyd’s breathless call on motherhood. Conley juxtaposes the works of Elizabeth Catlett with those of contemporary Black poets, bridging the visual and literary arts in a meditation of Black artistry’s longstanding eye on injustice.
Dr. Tameka’s masterful weave of poetry, art, story, and song achingly reaches that primordial place in all mothers that compels us to protect, to rescue, to do something.
The project was spearheaded by Kwadwo Nnuro; the entire series is approximately 42 minutes in length.
About the image: The image that leads today’s post features a favorite photo of my son and me–modified for the post.
Other posts in the “Black Lives Matter” Monday series:
Pics and Posts 
I will watch this series, thanks. But I will add to those quotes by saying that all mothers and those who wanted to be mothers and those who had mothers were summoned by George Floyd calling out to his mother. I, for one, heard him, and cried for him.
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Chandra, I thought I was going to be able to watch this, but as it turns out, I need a minute still. I watched the first 1:20 and I could feel the tears about to come. I can tell it’s powerful and I’ll have to do baby steps with this one ❤
Thank you for sharing. I think this is important.
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Definitely baby steps. I watched it in 3 parts–as Tameka posted it on FB. She posted them one at a time–days (or was it weeks?) apart. Take your time.
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