Roots
grow in the dark
before they break ground.
MOTHERROOT
Underground Studio + Press
1556 Chase Avenue — Northside, Cincinnati
A working studio, a press, a classroom, and a gathering space. Where mother is a verb, and transformation begins beneath the soil.
Core Pillars
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philosophy ✦
Mother as a Verb
Not a metaphor. An action, available to any person, any community, any movement willing to do the work. -
place ✦
A hub in a Corridor
We sit at the southern entry point of the Hamilton Avenue Road to Freedom, in the basement of a building for storytellers. -
Politics ✦
Decoloniality
Dismantling the hierarchies of the "white cube" in favor of a community-rooted basement. -
Practice ✦
Studio + Press
Paper, ink, and the printed word as tools for subversion and legacy. Art and dialogue as tools for cultural change. -
Lens ✦
Intersectional Feminism
Black feminist thought + the Black Radical tradition as the primary lenses through which we make, teach, and organize. -
Belief ✦
The Soil
Transformation begins in the dark, in the quiet, and in the collective.
upcoming EVENTS
What We Are
We gather here, we teach here, we make art here, and we continue the work of liberation.
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MotherRoot is a matriarchal working artist studio, press, and gathering space where mother is a verb and transformation begins in the soil.
Located in the basement of Northside Cincinnati's WordPlay Building, we are a community-rooted underground built on the belief that creativity is a tool for transformation — not decoration.
The space is a blank palette for large-scale art, a classroom for radical learning, and a sanctuary for dialogue and community storytelling. We gather here. We teach here. We print here. We make art here. We continue the work of liberation.
WHAT WE believe
To "mother" is an active, creative, and sustaining force. It is the labor of nurturing a community, a craft, and a future.
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Mother as a verb is not a metaphor. It is a framework.
To “Mother” is to take action. The work of tending the ground, feeding what is growing, teaching without hierarchy, holding contradiction, and letting things rise.
To mother is to provide labor that predates capitalism, patriarchy, imperial rule, and every system that tried to privatize it. It is something any person, any community, any movement can choose to do, or refuse.
Here, mother is not a noun. Not a category, a credential, or a moral obligation.
MotherRoot is where that practice lives in physical form. In paper and ink. In open doors and sliding scales. In the pressed mark of a human hand. We do not just occupy space — we tend to it.
This is the philosophy underneath everything at MotherRoot.
“Mother as a Verb” is an original theoretical framework developed by Jeni Jenkins, first proposed in 2024.
© 2026 Jeni Jenkins / Renegade Babe Creative LLC
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Inspired by the feminist studio traditions of Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, and the visual truth-telling of Carrie Mae Weems and Faith Ringgold, MotherRoot is a site for socially engaged art.
The Artist Studio: A private workspace for the founder, Jeni Jenkins, (Renegade Babe) to create large-scale works and host studio visits.
The Press: A place where paper is pressed, printed, and hung. We use the printed word and image as tools for legacy.
Community Engagement: A hub for print workshops, resistance potlucks, feminist film screenings, protest poster making, anti-fa dance parties, clothing swaps, seed plantings, and collaborative programs where the music gets loud and the work gets deep.
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MotherRoot is the primary site for the development and teaching of original curricula created by Jeni Jenkins.
Third Consciousness: This is an original theoretical framework developed by Jeni Jenkins the founder of MotherRoot. It explores the space where ancestral memory and radical future-building meet in the present body. This space serves as the incubator for this theory ahead of its formal publication.
Here in the Middle: Third Consciousness signature workshop series designed to facilitate community-engaged art and internal exploration.
The Black Radical Tradition: The studio is rooted firmly in the Black Radical Tradition—a secular, decolonial lens focused on total liberation.
Where We Are
We carry the lineage for freedom forward, shifting the energy from the flight for survival to the labor of liberation.
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The Corridor of Freedom
Located at 1556 Chase Ave, along the documented Hamilton Avenue corridor of the Underground Railroad, MotherRoot sits in the literal path where freedom seekers once moved north toward liberation.
Blocks from our door:
The Hall of Free Discussion, where seminary students illegally taught Black students to read. Teaching as resistance.
Wesleyan Cemetery, where the Escape of the 28 began — twenty-eight freedom seekers disguised as a funeral procession who passed through those gates in April 1853 and kept walking north toward Canada.
Robert S. Duncanson, the first African American artist to achieve international fame, made his work commissioned by the abolitionists who lined this very road.
We carry that lineage forward, shifting the energy from the flight for survival to the labor of creative freedom.
A Sanctuary for Storytellers
We are housed in a building that breathes story, adorned with murals of icons like Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou. We draw inspiration from their brilliance as we build a home for the next generation of poets, photographers, and mark-makers.
What We Do
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Printmaking + Press We make prints, zines, and editions here. Paper, ink, and the pressed mark of a human hand. The underground press has always been a tool for subversion and legacy.
Here in the Middle An ongoing inquiry into biracial and mixed race identity through art and printmaking. Grounded in the theory of third consciousness — the place that belongs to neither circle alone.
Signal Fire Art as Resistance. A six-session community art series.
The Witch Doesn't Burn Here Visual Culture, Gender, and the Art of Resistance Magic. A six-session community art series.
Sit + Draw Bi-weekly open drawing sessions. By donation. No experience required.
Youth Art Programming Kids learn to make marks here. That is not a small thing.
Mural Projects Public art rooted in community authorship and neighborhood history.
Clothing Swaps Tending each other's material needs is also a form of mothering.
Studio Visits MotherRoot is a working artist studio. Visits by appointment.
Collaborator Events The space is designed to be shared.
How We Work
Matriarchy is inclusive or it is nothing.
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We believe in radical accessibility. Mothering does not withhold nourishment from those who need it most.
Many workshops are available at low cost or free through donations and grants. Paid workshops always hold two free, zero-barrier seats. The sliding scale is not a pricing strategy, it is a value made material.
The door opens regardless of what you can pay.
Access facts: — Fully wheelchair accessible via elevator — Flat front entry — no steps, no barriers — Free parking in the lot and on the street — Northside, served by public transit — 1556 Chase Avenue, WordPlay Building, lower level