Dabrina Sandifer during a rehearsal for 'The Mother Project; at Mildred's Umbrella
What does Black motherhood look like? The easy answer is “The Mother Project: A Collaboration to Honor Black Mothers and Their Children,” a world premiere by Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company in collaboration with Esurient Arts.
As reflected in the play, which runs May 18-28 at Fifth Ward’s DeLuxe Theater, the reality is significantly more complicated. “Motherhood looks different for each person, and it should,” says director Dabrina Sandifer, who is also Esurient Arts’ executive artistic director and programming manager.
“That’s not something that’s pushed on women, no matter their kind or creed; not just Black mothers,” she continues. “That’s why a lot of mothers suffer with extended postpartum depression and all of that, because of the expectation and this formulated idea of what motherhood is. And this show kind of flips that on its head.”
The play’s creators, including Sandifer and Mildred’s Umbrella artistic director Jennifer Decker, interviewed five Black mothers and one doula about their experiences. All were from Houston except for one “Louisiana cousin” in Baton Rouge. They got some pretty raw answers; one woman still lived on the same street where her child had been murdered. But Sandifer used her background in social work to carefully word the questions so as not to reopen old wounds.
'The Mother Project: A Collaboration to Honor Black Mothers and Their Children'
Details: Pay-what-you-can ($10 minimum); 832-463-0409, mildredsumbrella.com
“Once each of them opened up, they were really happy to know that their story was going to be told, that people were interested in hearing it,” says Decker. “A couple of them seemed surprised that anyone cared to hear it. And so they were very happy that we cared and that we thought that their story was worth telling and that it was going to be told to a lot of people.”
“The Mother Project” came about in May 2020, deep into the pandemic, after Decker got off the phone with her mother, wondering if she could create a theatrical platform to honor mothers in difficult situations. She had just read a story about the murder of former Houstonian George Floyd, and one line stuck with her: “He cried for his mother.”
Decker began trading ideas with Sandifer, playwright Elizabeth Keel, Mildred’s associate artistic director Patricia Duran and company artist Rebecca Ayers. (Another creator, Houston writer Willow Curry, has since left the project; playwright Jelisa Jay Robinson helped finish the script.)
They ultimately decided to focus on Black mothers, says Decker, because “theirs are the children that are failed the most by American systems.” Those failures manifested in the interviewees’ experiences, including absent fathers, fatal run-ins with law enforcement, institutional racism and substandard health care, specifically the higher rate of difficult childbirths among Black women.
But at the same time, “I think it was very important to both Willow and Jelisa that it not be limited to the tragedy,” says Keel. “There’s so much richness and complexity and joy and humanity to be mined, and so many types of mothers, types of caretaking and being present in each other’s lives.”
They play also acknowledges the contributions of a wide range of other maternal figures: grandmothers, great-grandmothers, aunts, godmothers, mentors. Despite the wide range of experiences on hand, one line recurs continuously throughout the play, says actress Barbara Starkes: “Call your mama.” If you don’t, and if you’re anything like Starkes — the eldest of six siblings — you might hear from her anyway.
“One of the funny things that she would do sometimes is, if she didn’t hear from some of her kids in a while, she would call them and hang up on them (so) they would call her back,” says Starkes. “So the thing about, ‘Oh, I’ll call tomorrow. I’m too busy’ — I just hope (the show) reaches a lot of people to think, ‘Let me do this now: Call my mama.’”
Keel describes the play as a “metatheatrical” experience in which each woman is allowed to tell her own story while also interacting with the others onstage. Even the set is designed to feel extra-homey — like a visit to Mom’s house, as it were.
“We’ve got framed photos of the kids, it’s comfortable, there will be snacks, and we’re just going to sit and talk and listen,” says Keel. “I think it’s a lovely way to spend a night or an afternoon.”
Chris Gray is a Galveston-based writer.
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