Tag: black history month

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Activism Art Blog Caregiving Classes Education Featured health History International MaMaPaLooZa MOM Conference Reel Equals, Film Festival, Through Womens Eyes The Factory, St Pete

February is for Loving Our History & Our Herstory

Speaking Truth to Power in Challenging Times

When I was a little girl, adults sometimes dismissed my voice. When I was a young woman I was told to ‘be nice’ and ‘smile’. Oftentimes other people in positions of power tried to convince me what I was experiencing was not real– even though I knew it was.

Now, more than ever before, I remind my friends, children and family that speaking up and out, and that speaking truth (from my experience) is as important as listening to other people’s perspective. Whatever the case, it is never acceptable to promote people, parents, politicians, or posses whose aim is to suppress. oppress or make invisible another human or segment of the population either through force, finances or purposeful distortion of factual evidence.

M. Joy Rose 03/12/26

A diverse group of people celebrating Black History Month at the Museum of Motherhood, with a vibrant backdrop featuring historical images and text about empowerment and community.
Black History Month at MoM

Refusing to Disappear/ Refusing to be Disappeared

Its Black History Month! Even though the ‘Black History Matters’ mural was removed by state crews on August 29, 2025 and the on year ago that the Smithsonian Institute was mandated to review and change exhibits deemed to be promoting “divisive, race-centered ideology” by the current political administration.

Facts are not ideology. Black history is real. The only people who can tell the story of the families, experiences, histories and realities of Black Americans are the ones whose lives were impacted. We are fortunate in St Petersburg, FL that Carter G. Woodson African American Museum is on mark for big plans for future development and we are encouraged and lifted by their successes. Carter Woodson championed Black History month because of his singular devotion to “Negro Life and Culture,” and the formation of an organization whose goal was to make Black history accessible to an audience beyond college campuses and academic texts. His passion resulted in the formation of  Negro History Week in 1926, which eventually came be what we now know as ‘Black History Month‘.

Through Women's Eyes Film Festival

ORDER TICKETS NOW: Through Women’s Eyes – Film Festival

This spring, MoM will be visible in partnership with REEL EQUALS International Film Festival Spotlight on Diverse Voices: ​Reel Equals International Film Festival Shines in Sarasota: ThroughWomensEyes.org

2026 REEL EQUALS: Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival

REEL EQUALS 27th Annual Festival In-theater screenings, Sarasota, Florida March 6-8 Virtual screenings March 5-10 Featuring 25 films from 11 countries!

March 5 – 10 (in person and streaming)

Buy tickets: HERE

Opening Night Celebration, Friday, March 6 th

College of Art + Design auditorium.

Reel Equals 2026 festival themes include:

An entertaining opening night film that uses comedy to address a universal topic, human anxiety, opening a door to a mental health issue everyone knows about.

The need for diverse stories; female filmmakers from 12 countries reveal topics ranging from stand-up comedy to elephants in India, motherhood to the war in Ukraine. We examine how media portrayals shape beliefs and opportunities; films reflect and reveal how influential media is on creating the ways we talk, think, and act and underscore the need for diverse voices in visual media. Changemakers; narratives that challenge stereotypes and elevate inspiring lives are central to the festival.

Feb/March Press Release

Promotional graphic for the 13th Annual Localtopia event at Williams Park, featuring vibrant colors and text announcing the date, time, and location of the celebration.

MoM will be at Localtopia this Saturday, Feb 14, 2026. Our location at The Factory will be closed during the day and reopening 5-9PM For Second Saturday Art Walk – Karaoke is for lovers. Come sing with us!

Download our most recent Press Release

A cheerful woman singing into a microphone, wearing oversized glasses, with a colorful backdrop decorated with hanging art, surrounded by heart graphics. The text displays information about being closed Saturday, inviting visitors to a local event for Valentine's Day.

Press Release

Workshop announcement poster for the Museum of Motherhood, featuring two events: 'Empower Yourself: Create a Mom Mission Statement' and 'How the Words We Use Impact Our Kids'. Includes date, time, pricing, and location details.
A black and white QR code featuring a star shape in the center.
QR Stripe

HOLD THE DATE– MoM Conference 2026 is coming March 27-29th

Promotional graphic for the Museum of Motherhood's Annual International Academic & Arts Conference titled 'Reproductive Identities & Resistance', featuring diverse speakers and event details.
2026 MoM Conference

EVERYONE MUST PRE-REGISTER –SPONSOR A STUDENT/ARTIST 

Donations optional but you must let us know you’re attending!

Your PAID registration free includes breakfast & lunch Friday and Saturday, light snacks in the afternoon, and access to all panels, workshop, and the keynote address. Those registering with no payment are welcome to attend and BYO..

QUESTIONS? CALL US and LV a MESSAGE – We’ll CYB: 877-711-MOMS (6667)

Categories
Art Featured History The Factory, St Pete

MoM’s Healing Garden – Finding Your Path To Wellness

Before we round the corner into February, we want to share some upcoming opportunities that we think are worthwhile reflections of a ‘new year – new you journey’ with MoM. Many of us charge out of the gate with the best of intentions post-holiday as we turn the calendar on another year. Each of us carries some degree of hurt, loss, pain, or trauma. We already know this. Studies also show that arts, culture and community are great ways to feel more integrated, connected, and educated about our purpose and place in the world. MoM is so pleased to support the work of some of our friends, facilitators and collaborators for this ongoing holistic journey to serenity, connection and even happiness.

Black History Month

We celebrate Black History (and HerStory) Month at MoM with our exhibit featuring Sojourner Truth, activist, suffragette, mother and preacher. We are continually inspired by her example of calling out gender and racial inequity. We stand by her memory and share her story at our space in The Factory in St. Pete beginning with the First Wave of Feminism circa 1850. We also celebrate our local Carter Woodson African American Museum here locally. Carter G. Woodson was a scholar and historian who dreamed of an entire month devoted to Black History, just as we, at MoM dream of an entire field of study, museum, and month of scholarship, art, and education devoted to mothers each May across the USA.

Well-Being Is (Mostly) An Inside Job

Visit MoM’s Healing Garden growing onsite at The Factory. We didn’t know we needed this, but we do! Part of our mission at MoM is to ‘start great conversations’. Over the course of the last four months we’ve been astounded at the humans in need of a deeper connection as they process issues around loss, grief, stress, and isolation. Inspired by our neighbor @Gio’s_Typos and his garden at The Factory we’ve decided to carry the mantle of floral expression to new heights as we build out our in-person experience with prompts, poetry and stress -relievers. Bring a flower, take a prompts, enjoy the serene and intentional setting and visit soon. We’ll be waiting for you! Regular hours are 12-6 Wed – Saturday, Second Saturday Art Walk (Second Saturday each month) 6-9PM, Indie Flea (First Sunday of each month) 12-3PM. Call ahead to book your tour and make sure our volunteers are on site. 877-877-MOMS (6667). Leave a message and we’ll call you back.

Break Free from Anxiety & Love Yourself Unconditionally 

A Very Special Women’s Retreat Feb 9-14. 5-days $299 or just the weekend $149 – plus accommodations (meals included). Rooms with private bathrooms are selling out. Finally release layers of emotional pain and reconnect with calmness, clarity, and happiness. Experience on-the-spot anxiety relief plus music, movement, and meditation to reawaken joy. 

LEARN MORE: 

https://www.stressisgone.com/retreats#nextretreat

The Stress Is Gone Method is a transformational healing modality facilitated by Author & Stress Expert, Brett Cotter. He is a clairaudient empath that guides you to reopen your heart as you feel self-love melt down emotional pain in your body and inside old memories. Brett has 25-years experience helping people recover from the most traumatic events of their lives. 

“As a clinician, it was impressive feeling my own stress lift out of my body. I’ve encouraged several family members to call for coaching!” Gerri DeBenedetto, Mother, LCSW

”It was a life-changing experience. Brett creates a safe space to open up and has an innate ability to get to the core issues. You feel tension leave your body.” Sarah StanczewskI, Working Mom, NY
Immerse yourself in a safe place for deep, lasting emotional healing. 

“I never expected in the first 5 minutes he’d be able to identify the source of my trauma, and give me the words to release it and move on.” Deidre Auchmoody, NY

[POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS] 33 Days of Transformation In-Person & Online Development Workshop

Sierra M. Clark, MoM Empowerment Facilitator invites you to join her onsite at the Museum of Motherhood each Tuesday at 6PM beginning Feb. 6th (or online) for FOUR WEEKS – 33 days – of personal and professional empowerment. Each week focuses on specific aspects of the empowerment journey, allowing participants to delve deeper into their strengths, obstacles, and break-through to new awareness and behaviors that will benefit every area of their lives. Sierra uses custom built tools which she shares with you as part of this workshop for your ongoing success. These tools can also be used for a self-paced experience which Sierra will guide you through. Register now for this insightful, personal, and empowering experience! 

MoM Announcements


“Womb Project”
By MADISON HENDRY
Time-Based Sculpture and Documentation
Sculpture: Pink Yarn, Crochet Hook
Prints: Color Print on Foam Core
May 2013 – January 2014.

This 9 month long documentation explores the physical changes artist, Madison Hendry experienced throughout her first pregnancy. By crocheting around herself during this period, she creates a “womb-like” soft sculpture, which protects and comforts her, just as her womb protects and comforts her growing baby. Madison utilizes the repetitive and meditative process of crocheting to reflect on her pregnancy. As her baby continues to grow and begins to manipulate her body, it is apparent that the sculpture is doing the same. The more the baby grows, the more difficult it becomes for the artist to continue creating her work. However, it is inevitable that she continues. This is catharsis. At last, when the sculpture is complete, it is then deconstructed by the artist to reveal the greatest work of art; her baby. The “Womb Project” is currently on display at MoM.

Please Welcome Our New Board of Directors 2024

Courtney Kessel, President, is a mother, artist, academic, and arts administrator living and working in Athens, Ohio. She is currently the Assistant Director for Experiential Design at Ohio University and a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Arts. Courtney is one of the pioneers of the mother-made art movement.

Kayley Robsham – Secretary, is professional life coaching and Neuro-Linguistic Programming trainer, advanced Certified Life & Business Coach working with entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, healers, and visionaries to grow their business by helping them heal their subconscious mind and body. 

Deanna Barcelona, Treasurer, (aka Dr. B) is a proud St. Petersburg local mama to two teenagers. Her Ph.D. is in Higher Education Administration with a cognate in Anthropology which she studied for both her undergraduate degree and Master of Arts. She currently works as a home loan specialist transferring her strengths and skills as an educator into the world of helping people build wealth through homeownership.

Atlas Obscura January 11, 2024– Thank you for adding us to your collection of newsworthy organizations. Atlas Obscura has a mission to inspire wonder and curiosity about the incredible world we all share. MoM is part of 28,202 unique places shared by this resource. [LINK] for their recent coverage of MoM – because, ya know, m/otherhood is so obscure!

CFP: Incarcerated (M)others Publisher: DEMETER PRESS / Editors: Olga Marques & Michelle Hughes Miller. Writers, artists, academics, activists, and all those who work in and/or study or explore (m)otherhood within the context of incarceration are invited to propose a chapter for this interdisciplinary anthology centered within the criminalized, regulated, resisted, and lived experiences of (m)others who are or have been incarcerated and/or are or have been under state supervision. When we use the term (m)others, we refer to anyone who self-identifies as a mother or parent who has or is engaging in motherwork. We use the term incarceration to reference state governance over the lives of individuals within the state’s regulatory authority. CFP PDF Download

We continue to promote, thank, and celebrate the work of WEDU PBS who did an extraordinary job capturing the journey of founder Martha Joy Rose music career to motherhood through illness to the creation of the Museum of Motherhood in St. Petersburg, Florida. From inception in 2003 in New York to actualization, the aim of MoM is to reach humans everywhere with a message of inspiration, education, and compassion. The video is on rotation locally in throughout the Tampa Bay/ Sarasota area and is also available for viewing on YouTube. Here’s the LINK.

Categories
Blog breastfeeding Caregiving Education Featured health motherhood

LIBRARY FEATURES: The Big Let Down

By Violet Phillips

February is Black History Month! Here at MOM, we celebrate Black motherhood by kicking off our Library Features by highlighting the work of author and activist Kimberly  Seals Allers.

Kimberly is a graduate of Columbia  Graduate School of Journalism, executive director of Narrative Nation, inc., president and chief health communicator of  Shift Health Communication  Strategy and author Of “The Big Letdown—how Medicine, Business & Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding,” published in January 2017. [1] Recent accomplishments include a yelp-like app that fights racism from a public accountability perspective. Find out more here [LINK].

Kimberly Seals Allers is passionate about the ways motherhood intersects with race, class, and policy. [2] She had her first baby shortly after graduate school and was very anxious about birthing complications, that, as a black woman, she was statistically more likely to face. She felt her concerns were brushed off by the hospital workers, and then was inspired to invent strategies to improve birth and breastfeeding conditions in America.

 Since she kept hearing of more traumatic experiences from black and Latina women, she and her 13-year-old son decided to launch an app calledIrth , that helps people of color find prenatal doctors, birthing doctors, postpartum doctors and pediatricians, by showing reviews similar to Yelp. You can even search for reviews by the race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or income of the reviewer, allowing users to make sure the medical professionals will be inclusive of their needs. Although currently only available in New York City, New Orleans, Sacramento, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, she hopes it will eventually be launched nationwide. She also hopes it will grow to include fertility specialists and breast cancer doctors, and that it will inspire white women to take allyship.[3]

She also wrote The Big Letdown about how breastfeeding is stigmatized in ways that promote unhealthy baby formulas,  and how it relates to oversights in feminism and public policy. [4]

By the logic she uses, breastfeeding babies for the first six months of their lives has been proven to benefit their physical and mental health in many ways, including decreasing chances of disease and obesity. It is also proven to benefit the breastfeeder by lowering chances of past-partrum depression, increasing confidence, self-esteem and calmness, improve sense of connection with the child, and lower chances of cancer, diabetes and endometriosis. [5]

However, as women now work more than ever before, many mothers, especially black mothers, have been convinced that baby formulas are better, because they don’t take time away from work. Health care, daycare, and maternity leave have gotten less attention now that women can feed their babies through pumps and don’t need the time to breastfeed. [6]

In addition to the scheduling preference for formulas, breastfeeding in public is typically shamed, as most people have noticed. Even though breasts are commonly shown in advertising and media for straight men’s sexual interest, many people are uncomfortable seeing breasts used for an essential action. The association with sexuality causes anxiety, embarrassment and confliction about breastfeeding in public.

Studies  have proven that social status, level of education, and especially, amount of support from friends and family, all improve chances of making healthy infant-feeding decisions;but, even the majority of women who breastfeed still believe it’s wrong to do in front of men.[7] even in Australia, where there is a law banning discrimination against breast-feeding,  formula feeding is still more popular due to lack of knowledge on how to breastfeed properly, pressure to return to work, conflicting medical advice, isolation and lack of support. [9] Many argue that it’s a personal choice whether you breastfeed or formula feed, but I’m not sure it’s an informed choice, when so many people are unaware of the benefits of breastfeeding.

Feminism and sociology aim to change this by promoting normalization of female/reproductive body functions. Professionals in this field have aimed to show how much women and breasts are seen as sexual objects, designed to tempt men and boys, [11], and create changes towards breasts being seen as a simple body part. As they might argue, the stigma against breastfeeding is part of the issue of women, transgender people and children being seen as less “natural” and suitable for public exposure.

As Allers herself argues “[t]asking about breastfeeding means talking about women’s bodies, feminism, policy gaps, commercial interests and physician education.” [12] She, and others in similar fields, aim for breastfeeding parents to have support from their partners, family and friends, and eventually, improve birthing conditions, children being treated equally and adequate muttering leaves. [Tap on the image below to read more about Kimberly].

This project is made possible through the MOM Internship Project. To find out more about Violet Phillips or to read about our interns, go to our Internship Page here at MOM [LINK].

Citations

[1] LinkedIn. “Kimberly seals allers.” https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlysealsallers

[2] the riveter. “Kimberly seals allers: contributor.” https://theriveter.co/voice/author/kimberly-seals-allers/

[3] New York family. “Kimberly seals allers: fighting to lower black and brown maternal mortality rates.” October 1. 2020. Donna Duarte-Ladd.

[4] Amazon. “The big letdown: how medicine, business, and feminism undermine breastfeeding.” https://www.amazon.com/Big-Letdown-Medicine-Undermine-Breastfeeding/dp/1250026962

[5] Cleveland Clinic. “The benefits of breastfeeding for baby & for mom.” https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/15274-the-benefits-of-breastfeeding-for-baby–for-mom

[6] the new republic. “The war over breastfeeding.” November 23, 2015. Kathryn Joyce.

https://newrepublic.com/article/124348/war-breastfeeding

[7] international breastfeeding journal. “It’s okay to breastfeed in public but….” June 11, 2019. Athena Sheehan, Karleen Gribble & Virginia Schmied.

[8] the pump. “A surprising number of people still find breastfeeding in public inappropriate, survey reveals.” June 2019. Stephanie grassullo.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thebump.com/news/breastfeeding-in-public-aeroflow-survey/amp

[9] multicultural center for women’s health. “Why breastfeeding is a feminist issue.”

Why breastfeeding is a feminist issue.

[10] feminist current. “Why are women being erased from breastfeeding advocacy?” August 21, 2019. Nicole Jameson.

https://www.feministcurrent.com/2019/08/21/why-are-women-are-being-erased-from-breastfeeding-advocacy/

[11] thought I. “Explaining cultural taboos on breastfeeding in public.” September 30,2018. Nicki Lisa cole, p.h.d.

https://www.thoughtco.com/why-breastfeeding-in-public-is-taboo-302623

[12] Facebook. “Kimberly seals allers.” November 8, 2018.

https://www.facebook.com/iamKSealsAllers

Photo credie: By Anton Nosik – TheKid, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15481910

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