This exhibition highlights the disparity in infant mortality rates between black and white infants in Kalamazoo, with black infants being 4.5 times more likely to die. It aims to strengthen the identity and illustrate the stigma experienced by black women who have lost infants. Through personal stories and images of models representing quotations from affected women, it draws attention to the deep roots of this stigma and encourages the audience to consider their role in eliminating it.

1. Didactic Panel:
There exists a great disparity in infant mortality in Kalamazoo with respect to
race. Black infants are currently 4.5 times more likely to die than white infants. While
infant mortality rates in Kalamazoo have improved overall in the past ten years, the
black infant mortality rate has almost tripled in the past twenty years.
This exhibition is intended to strengthen the identity and illustrate the stigma
experienced by women affected by black infant mortality in Kalamazoo. In giving the
stigma character representation, the exhibition highlights personal stories to elicit a
motivated response from the audience.
The quotations are from women in Kalamazoo who have been affected by
black infant mortality. The images are of models representing each quotation. I
encourage you to consider the deep roots of this experienced stigma and consider
your personal role in its elimination.

2. “I lost my baby, and I’m sitting in a room and all I
hear are babies crying. That is traumatic. Because
you’re trying to figure out: What would my baby’s cry
sound like?”
“My daughter just turned twenty-five—may she
rest in peace…I think about her every day of my
life, especially on her birthday. I’ve still got
pictures of my baby. I got her hat. I got her
bracelet. I got her certificate of baptism because I
still got her baptized after she was stillborn.”

3. “The psychiatrist is putting you on these other
pills but you can’t be on this medication when
you got this baby because then you’re gonna
have a neglect charge because you fell asleep on
the baby. The baby could have choked—you
don’t know how the baby died now because
you’re doped up on what they gave you.”
“They throw your babies out in the street like
‘Who gives a damn about you? Another black baby
gone—Bye-bye. We ain’t gotta worry about that baby
growing up, carrying a gun or being a hoe on the
corner.’ Because if it was a Caucasian baby, a
middle class baby, that baby would have been
taken care of.”

4. “Didn’t nobody help me. It was my mind
that carried me and God carried me into the
resources or finding somebody to talk to
about my situations. That’s, that’s all—that’s
all. And I just thank God that I’m one of
those that made it.”
“After a while you can’t show a sign of
weakness because there are so many things
that are already built and designed to break
you. So you can’t let the things that you can
control break you.”

5. “I honestly feel like: it takes a village to raise
a child. We need to come together as a
community.”