Show exhibits outcast mothers and children

BY ADAM MISCH

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 6:19 PM EDT

Art work depicting mothers and children who were seen as outcasts are put on display at Queens College.

On August 25 and running through September 27, the display of photographs will be shown at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College.

This display will give the audience a view into the lives of mothers and children on the margins of society. The exhibition features works by such renowned American photographers as Susan Meiselas, Eli Reed, Mel Rosenthal, Clarissa Sligh, Corky Lee, Deb Willis, Roland Freeman, Taryn Simon, Stephen Shames, and Joseph Rodriguez.

The show highlights individuals whom numerous politicians and policymakers regard as too young, too poor, too gay, too disabled, too not-white, or too foreign to be legitimate mothers. This display, which is titled Beggars and Choosers show women being mothers, with strength, dignity, and determination.

Beggars and Choosers also includes two photo-based books, and six text panels examining public policies—in education, health care, housing, incarceration, and other areas—that create and sustain poverty in the United States.

“This is a particularly important exhibition at this moment in time, when we are seeing the largest divisions and disparities in social classes in our society since the Great Depression,” says Godwin-Ternbach Director Amy Winter.

Beggars and Choosers is co-sponsored by the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College’s Division of Arts and Humanities, Division of Social Science, and political science and history departments, spearheaded by the latter’s Professor Premilla Nadasen. This event is designed to stimulate new thinking and conversation about motherhood, public policy, media, and politics.