How to be Many Mothers?

Part of the second edition of 'How to be Many Mothers' at NTGent, is a unifying afternoon combining reflection, debates, rituals and music on March 6.

What ideas and ideals do we have about ‘motherhood’, mostly defined by patriarchal systems, and what is the difference with ‘mothering’, a practice in which care itself is central? In 2027, NTGent is organising the second edition of its focus program How to be Many Mothers. This time, it centers on the city and urban space as a landscape defined by gender. 

In Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World, author Leslie Kern shows how cities are built around male experiences and how this makes the daily lives of women, and mothers and carers in particular, structurally more difficult. For many, moving around the city is not simply going from a to b. It means manoeuvring with a pushchair along narrow pavements, looking for a spot to feed the baby, or walking faster down a poorly lit street. The city makes care work invisible and pushes motherhood into the private sphere. Then how to we collectively turn the tide? 

Part of this second edition is an afternoon on March 6 with an exciting programme of lectures, performances, discussions, workshops, rituals and powerful imagination. More information to follow soon on this website.