Mothering, Community, and Friendship

Mothers, Community, and Friendship is an anthology that explores the complexities of mothering/motherhood, communities, and friendship from across interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives. The chapters in this text not only examine how communities and friendship shape and influence the various spectrums of motherhood, but also analyze how communities and friendship are necessary for mothers. Through personal, reflective, critical essays, and ethnographies, this collection situates the ways mothers are connected to communities and how these relationships forms, such as in mothering groups and maternal friendships. By calling attention to these central and current topics, Mothers, Community, and Friendship represents how communities and friendship become means of empowerment for mothers.

Essah Díaz is a doctoral student in Caribbean literature in English at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus. Her poems have appeared in several poetry journals, including Moko Magazine, Eclectica Magazine, Tonguas, Odradek, and The Odyssey Online, Creative Contradictions, etc. She has co-edited the collected essays from the March 2020 Caribbean Without Borders Conference held at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. Presently she is working on her dissertation with a focus on the poetics of healing in Caribbean women’s poetry. Dannabang Kuwabong, PhD is a professor of postcolonial Caribbean literature in English at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. He has published widely on different fields in academic journals, contributed numerous essays in books and journals. His books include Rhetoric of Resistance, Labor of Love: The Ecopoetics of Nationhood in the Poetry and Prose of Lasana M. Sekou, Voices from Kibuli Country, Caribbean Blues & Love’s Genealogy. He has co-authored books including Myth Performance in African Diaspora Drama: Ritual, Theatre, and Dance, Mothers and Daughters, etc. His critical Dorsía Smith Silva, PhD is a professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Her poetry has been published in several journals, including Portland Review, Storyscape, Pidgeonholes, Mom Egg Review, and Moko Magazine. Her articles have been widely published as well, including in the Journal of Caribbean Literature. She is also the editor of Latina/Chicana Mothering and the co-editor of six books.