“tending to” is an on-going care history exhibition by Andrea Yarbrough - in c/o: Black women that collects stories of Black women and the exploration of their relationships to care.
“Identidad” is a photographic study by Kayla Reefer that examines the intricacies of familial Afro-Panamanian heritage and identity.
together in collaboration, “tending to: identidad” explores the correlation of Black women’s relationship to care and the richness of their Afro-Latine identity. tending to: identidad was held as a public exhibition from October 2024 to July 2025 at 5958 S Carpenter, Chicago, IL.
to listen to their full care histories, please visit incareofblackwomen.com/tendingto
Jordan Stewart-Curet
“I would say the food was my fondest memory around care, because we were always fed. and sometimes you had to eat even when you didn’t want to eat... they would try to integrate the things that we eat traditionally now... it was a lot of catering around the food that I was eating. making sure I was beyond stuffed, there was never a moment where my stomach was rumbling. and I felt like that was just a space of intentionality that felt cyclical.”
“I’m still learning what care looks like personally for me. I’m learning what I desire within care, what can I support myself in and how am I willing to receive, and then reciprocate, give care. but it’s constantly changing... it changed into a sense of reciprocity or desiring reciprocity... and now care for me is really just looking like being able to experience small things consistently… now in this point it’s just ritual and consistency around small stuff that I want to experience and give to myself. ”
Ashley Falcon
“the Cuban women in my family, in particular, continuously practice self-care.. so I think in a lot of ways, particularly when I was little it was very aspirational, it was just an aspirational thing I would like to have... the good smelling lotions, the perfumes, the clothes that they would wear, just generally how they would carry themselves.”
“as I got older I also saw that most of the men in my family can also cook, so that was an interesting dichotomy as well. to see my grandfather, my own father, my uncles, step in and being able to practice self-care on behalf of their partners, and being able to provide them with a meal that was made with tender love and care”
Qurissy
“I feel like my idea of care is a lot about the experience of people. whether that is me taking them with me somewhere or someone taking me somewhere or just having the experience when you’re together... how can we build the experience in this moment?”
“with the idea of experience, I think one of my favorite moments of care is when I can bring people into my world... I call them Qurissy things... I like people to just come with me... if you can be with me, like quality time, which is probably why experience is so important to me because it feels like quality time. and quality time, it assures me that you are my people.”
Alyssa Martinez
“the first time I entered my grandma’s living room... she until the last few years would go every year (to the Dominican Republic) to visit her home and there was a picture of me and her from my sweet sixteen that was in the living room, it felt like she was greeting me. I was so shocked to see that photo, that she would have that in her living room, it felt like she was thinking of me, I felt her there.”
“I wanna be seen as loving, loving through things that are apparent, always remembering to say the things that I love about people, using my words to care for people, letting people know I’m thinking about them... and also trying to shift this generational narrative of making sure that I’m caring for myself as an act of care to other people.”