On Friday I put up a new exhibit for Duke’s Sanford Institute for Public Policy. Duke hired Peter to help me hang the exhibit which was wonderful. What a treat to have someone who has extensive experience with exhibits take care of the technicalities of finishing an exhibit.
I am currently putting together an opening event that will take place on April 8th from 6 to 8. There will be a speaker coming from the National Campaign for Teen Pregnancy Prevention and a panel of people with different perspectives and experiences with teen pregnancy and young parenthood. I will put up a post with more details this week.
I am always incredibly impressed with Radio Rookies podcasts. They are short audio documentaries created by teens in New York City. They almost always are about an issue that is prevalent in impoverished neighborhoods (parents being at work all the time, financial difficulties, academic difficulties, pregnancy, gun control.) It’s incredible to listen to teens work through some of the larger problems in the neighborhoods where they live. So often we forget how incredibly smart and knowledgeable young people are–in particular about issues pertinent to their everyday lives.
Here is this week’s podcast. It certainly reminds me of some of the girls in Chelsea. Jacuyra talks about the difficulties she encounters as if she has few choices about her present and future. This podcast made me care about Jacuyra and want to hear more from her but it also made me feel quite sad.
Another inauguration post. Slightly randomly I ended up meeting Bill Clinton and talking with him about poverty. A whole bunch of people shook his hand and he seemed to love the attention. I thought quickly, “Shit, if I could say one thing to Bill Clinton in my life, what would it be?” So I came up with something like, “Thanks for all of the work you did to combat poverty. I worked in Chelsea, MA, and could see the positive effects of your decisions.” And then he ended up talking to me about how he’s working with Obama right now specifically on poverty issues. It’s high up on their agenda. It was a very good statement for him to elaborate on.
It was a nice moment. I believe that Clinton did make incredibly positive changes to the “welfare” system. I used to talk with the young moms about these changes and even though the changes often made it more difficult for them to access benefits, they were in favor of the regulations and job requirements. Although, obviously there are many more changes that need to take place. I was always incredibly frustrated by the lack of an easy transition out of welfare.
My mom shaking Bill's hand.
Eli, Becca, Erica and I slept overnight in my dad's office and woke to a beautiful cold morning.
The crowds gathered around the reflecting pool.
Keeping it safe.
We watched from the balcony and from inside the office. No cameras allowed on the balcony though or the secret service said they might shoot at us.
And he's suddenly president.
My parents share their thoughts.
Maria taking photos.
Love Obama.
People and a statue in front of the Capital.
After the inauguration people took advantage of the frozen over reflecting pool.
Reflecting pool again.
And again...
Bush's exit strategy.
Obama's in there I think.
Then we watched a boy watch the people below.
Crowds.
We are in DC and despite horrible traffic and a bit of stress, I am now finally overlooking the Capital. It’s an incredibly cold day, but the coldness makes for lovely photographs. I am camping out on the floor of my Dad’s office overnight along with Eli, my cousin Erica, my friend Becca, and my little sister Maria. My Dad’s office is having a party tomorrow and there will be quite a number of people here tonight. The restaurant downstairs is catering and staying open late because all of their employees are sleeping over as well. It is just easier not to have to navigate DC in the morning. I am expecting a memorable Inauguration’s Eve.
Some photos from today.
Eli, the Capital and a balloon.
Obama.
Before the bridge.
Capital and people.
Obama in Georgetown.
Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a talk by Kathryn Edin about unmarried fathers in low-income neighborhoods. She is the author of the book Promises I Can Keep which I have written about before and would recommend to anyone interested in poverty. She currently is a professor of Public Policy and Management at Harvard, but is a trained sociologist. She conducts her work by combining ethnographic studies, qualitative data and quantitative data. With her unmarried mothers study, she moved into the low-income neighborhood of Camden, PA where she both raised her two young children, and conducted her research. She felt it was important to be a member of the community to fully understand the issues she investigated.
The findings she discussed the other day that I found the most interesting were that unmarried fathers tend to be incredibly excited about having children and tend to be intensively raising at least one child at any given time. In opposition to the idea that unmarried fathers impregnate women and leave, these fathers want these children and want to raise them. They idealize this experience and make a concerted effort to be a part of their children’s lives. In fact 80% of fathers come to the hospital for the child’s birth. Although fatherhood is of paramount importance in these neighborhoods, the fragile relationships between parents are often the downfall of a father’s relationship with his child. With the average unmarried couple in the area Edin studied becoming pregnant only 6-7 months into their relationship, the relationship falters during the first few years of the child’s life. However the need to raise children is a part of these men’s identities and throughout their lives they continue to raise at least one child at any given time whether or not this child is a biological child.
To see Edin’s powerpoint on this topic click below.
http://www.childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu/calendar/jan09.html
In unrelated news, my Hasselblad is completely jammed. The shutter won’t open so it will soon be sent to the shop to be opened up and lubricated and hopefully returned as functional as it was for it’s first owner (back before I existed.) It is a bit of a bummer mainly because I want to start taking photographs and interviewing 20, 30, and 40 something new moms in the triangle.
Here is a lovely photograph Mark Schueler took of me while I was photographing in his home.
Amanda and her Hasselblad
The negatives have finally uncurled enough to be workable. Another digital contact.
I think this article on teenage pregnancy and young motherhood is fascinating. So many beliefs about teen pregnancy are not backed by research. How often have you heard this claim?
Teenage motherhood may actually make economic sense for poorer young women, some research suggests. For instance, long-term studies by Duke economist V. Joseph Hotz and colleagues, published in 2005, found that by age 35, former teen moms had earned more in income, paid more in taxes, were substantially less likely to live in poverty and collected less in public assistance than similarly poor women who waited until their 20s to have babies. Women who became mothers in their teens — freed from child-raising duties by their late 20s and early 30s to pursue employment while poorer women who waited to become moms were still stuck at home watching their young children — wound up paying more in taxes than they had collected in welfare.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-males13-2008jul13,0,4392044.story
