Chris Charles
Sagashus Levingston.
Smart phones and cameras focus on Sagashus Levingston as she takes a center seat on a panel with 10 of the women of color featured in her book, Infamous Mothers. The glossy coffee table book, released last October, profiles women who have “mothered from the margins of society” and emerged to become respected voices for social change.
The Infamous Mothers’ Talk Back, Between the Covers conference, held in Madison in late February, aimed to educate the other side, the “respectable mothers” as Levingston
calls them: the social workers, teachers and healthcare professionals, who tend to be white and liberal. The four-day event sold out quickly and played out as Levingston dreamed — black women, many of whom were featured in the the book, led workshops on such topics as mothering, entrepreneurship, Afro-Futurism, sexual trauma and resilience.
Levingston says she is proud of how the conference fulfilled its mission. “We brought black women and white women and women of color together in a space to talk about very vulnerable things,” says Levingston. “There was a sense of community, there was quiet listening, there was a lot of respect for one another in those spaces. That, for me, was very dreamlike.”
Infamous Mothers grew out of Levingston’s Ph.D. dissertation, which looked at ways marginalized and stigmatized black mothers become agents of social change. The book includes profiles and photos of teen moms, women recovering from addiction, and formerly incarcerated women. The women tell stories in their own words. Levingston counts herself among the infamous. She raised six children while earning a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in English.
And she is determined to keep building on the success of the book.
At the conference, Levingston announced that she is working on an Infamous Fathers book, slated to publish in October. North Carolina-based Chris Charles, the Infamous Mothers photographer, attended the conference, setting up a photo shoot there for five of the 20 men of color who will be featured in the book. Charles will also be featured in the book; his photo was taken by Tanisha Pyron, a photographer/artist who is featured in Infamous Mothers.
“I felt privileged to be inside that space with women sharing intimate stories. But there would be no infamous mothers without fathers,” says Charles. “I think it’s important that the male perspective is explored as well. I’m surrounded by really strong infamous
Tanisha Pyron
Photographer Chris Charles.
mothers — from my own mother to my ex-wife — it’s important that we get insight into how men exist inside their space.”
Levingston says she is still working out the book’s direction. Does she let the men’s stories stand on their own, or will she connect them to the issues that emerged in Infamous Mothers?
Levingston will also launch two more projects as an outgrowth of the Infamous Mothers book. In April, Infamous Mothers Membership, a program that piloted at the YWCA last year, will offer “infamous women in the Madison area and beyond” opportunities for community engagement, entertainment and “me-time escape.” The program will include opportunities to focus on personal growth in such areas as financial literacy and professional development. The organizers will provide confidentiality for women who are surviving domestic violence or have other needs to remain anonymous.
In August, Levingston plans to launch Infamous Mothers University. The program will reach out to new mothers, including mothers in the court system struggling to keep their children, and adjudicated youth. Using an online and in-person platform, Levingston wants to bring in professionals trained to deal with the circumstances and trauma that result from those situations.
“When we started this, I didn’t think beyond the first book,” says Levingston. “But it became apparent we needed to build a suite of services and products around these women. I had naysayers and people that were constantly checking my dream. But here we are, seeing my dream to fruition.”
