FIERCE: Black MotHERstory is a collaborative exhibition and programming series taking place in the Lower Level Gallery of the Contemporary Arts Center, as well as virtual platforms.
FIERCE, a collaborative empowerment art project, was created by Jeni Jenkins of Renegade Babe Studio in collaboration with Queens Village Cincinnati as a platform for Black mothers to be SEEN and HEARD. The exhibition provides space for these women’s stories to be broadcast in a world where speaking about being a Black woman and Black motherhood is still considered a radical act. In this forum the personal is political.
Through a series of eight guided workshops over a 3 month period, a diverse group of Black mothers from across Cincinnati engaged in writing and sharing their stories in their own words; and creating works of narrative art reflecting on their experiences through their own eyes.
FIERCE is a partnership with Jeni Jenkins, of Renegade Babe Studio, and Queen’s Village Cincinnati.
Renegade Babe Studio was founded by Jeni Jenkins as a means to support mission based organizations and initiate social change through collaborative design and art projects. Renegade Babe’s mission is to transform society to an equitable, sustainable future. Jeni Jenkins is a visual activist and social practice artist invested in enabling positive social impact by extending her practice outside the studio and into the social context.
Queens Village is a supportive community of powerful Black women who come together to relax, repower and take care of ourselves and each other.
Queens Village is an initiative of Cradle Cincinnati, a collective impact organization that fights high rates of infant mortality that disproportionately affect Black women in Cincinnati and beyond. We center Black women’s voices on changing not just racial disparities in birth outcomes but also the conditions that drive inequity in maternal and infant health.
We provide a safe space for Black mothers to support and be supported by their peers, to connect, to relieve stress, to process trauma and to build a better world together for ourselves and our children.