Woven Threads:

Building Bonds in Othermothering and Community Mothering

Jane Alberdeston, Kuwabong Dannabang, Dorsía Smith Silva

• Publisher: Demeter Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781772585810
• Subtopic: Women Authors Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

This illuminating collection moves beyond the perspectives of mothering and motherhood as an individual practice. Here, attention is given to how caretaking is extended in a myriad ways, especially in familial systems and community networks. These chapters reveal multidisciplinary perspectives that include sociology, literary studies, health, cultural studies, media studies, history, law, women' s and gender studies, and personal narratives. In each conversation with the reader, the collection reflects on how othermothering strengthens core bonds within the community. The core tenet of feminist theory and practice, " the personal is political" , becomes through the essays an invitation to reconceive the structures of parenting from, not only a critical, historical, and analytical perspective, but also from the stories that support and bring those analyses to the foreground. Here, othermothering is rescue and the collection, by sharing these diverse narratives, becomes a valuable tool – an apparatus for building community.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Introduction Multiple Perspectives on Othermothering and Community Mothering
• Chapter 1 Othermothering as Motherothering in Feminist Utopia
• Chapter 2 Birthing Futures: Black Doulas, Othermothering, and Educational Praxis for Maternal and Community Health across Generations
• Chapter 3 Dissociative Identity and Ancestral Voice in Sister Souljah’s A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story
• Chapter 4 Othermothering and the Black Maternal in Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Chapter 5 “You Ain’t Got No Sons Here. Ma-Mee Our Mama and Our Daddy”: Familial Relationships and Othermothering in Jesmyn Ward’s Where the Line Bleeds
• Chapter 6 Spiritual Migration and Community Mothering: Black Feminist Resistance in Assata Shakur’s Narrative
• Chapter 7 “With as Many Other Moms Around as Possible”: Exploring Queer and Trans Representations of Caregiving in Torrey Peters’s Detransition, Baby
• Chapter 8 Nurturing the Neighbourhood: Expanding Maternal Boundaries in Call the Midwife
• Chapter 9 Maternal Boundaries of Othermothers and Community Mothers
• Chapter 10 Community Mothering in Nepantla: Engaging in Comadrisma to Transcend the Borders between Academia and Familia
• Chapter 11 Mothering and Othermothering in Caribbean Slave Societies
• Chapter 12 From Ancient Ritual to Status Symbol: Tracing the Evolution of Wet Nursing in Chinese Culture
• Chapter 13 Nurturing Bonds: The Othermothering Journey of an Aunt
• Notes on Contributors
• Deepest appreciation to Demeter’s monthly Donors