Reclamation Workshop

Event Description

The Iowa City Area Juneteenth Committee would like to invite you to participate in “Freedom Week,” running from June 18 – June 23rd. Freedom Week, is an extended celebration of the emancipation of enslaved Africans in America. Our theme this year is “Other-Mothering,” which can be understood as: The nurturing or fostering of children who are not biological offspring of the guardian.

Other-Mothering was coined to reference the raising of enslaved children, on American plantations, by other enslaved adults when their parents were sold off, or murdered. In the 21st century, Black Americans are still facing large amounts of biological family separation due to mass-incarceration and extrajudicial lynchings, amongst individual factors that contribute to families being torn apart.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird READS,” is the second iteration of the Reclamation workshop taught by Tameka Cage Conley (originally taught with Derek Nnuro), a M.F.A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. This event, will synthesize texts from both sides of the Atlantic to explore parts of Black identity that have been torn away from enslaved Africans throughout the diaspora. Participants will study their own losses and learn textual strategies for mothering/nurturing themselves in the after-live(s) of enslavement for diasporic Africans, and colonization for continental Africans.

This event is free and open to the public, but we accept donations to keep our events throughout Freedom Week complimentary.