Mothership Hackermoms Create Art, Not Just Babies
The Mothership Hackerspace opened in April of this year, marking the latest rite of growth for a small group of “hackermoms” in Oakland. The group began with an email from founder Sho Sho Smith to a few women she had met through another hackerspace, a community-built and run space where people come together to build, make, tinker and learn, usually with a creative “hacker” twist. The focus of any particular hackerspace is usually dictated by the membership, but can often involve technological or dangerous equipment for soldering or circuitry, making them generally adults only.
Before deciding to open the space, Smith had just given birth to her second child and her husband was in cancer treatment.
“I really needed a large creative life and understanding community to replenish my energy of the terribly draining effects of caring for two young children and a husband with cancer,” Smith said. “As a result, I was a better mother, caregiver and individual because I had this life of my own where I could build something in the midst of potential death and destruction. Good news: he just beat cancer.”
The group grew from there, meeting in living rooms for the first nine months or so. Sometimes the women would pool their money to hire childcare, sometimes their kids would play with each other under supervision from the older kids, and often their kids would do their own projects alongside their moms. Soon, the women were looking to find their own space to keep equipment and branch out. They now have about 20 paying members, who have access to the space 24/7. Many members have Etsy accounts to sell Hackermom Art such as “booby” hats (knitted beanies that make breastfeeding kids look “anatomically correct”), linocut prints and “O-BAM!-a” superhero onesies. They also offer workshops to the community in all sorts of creative pursuits, from screenprinting to sport hooping to terrarium gardening to pallet-gate building.
Founding member Samantha Matalone Cook makes it clear that the women built this space for their specific needs, and that while this may seem exclusive, they do not apologize for building a space with their own desires in mind.
“There is possibly a finite number of families interested enough in what we do to join us,” Cook said, “but that is true of any group. So, like in motherhood, we make it work.”
Many of the members, in fact, still belong to the original group in which they met. Right now, their membership only includes women, but they do not specifically forbid male or non-mothers from using the space. Still, the nature of the group remains true to the fact that there are children playing and learning alongside the adults.
“I’d love to see a hackerspace in every neighborhood and in every school,” Cook said. “Ours in particular brings back the village for women. I have seen the incredible benefit in our space among the women with infants and young children. The mental break, the time to focus on oneself in the flurry of hormones and constant feedings and feeling overwhelmed has too many benefits to mention. You walk in to MSHM and everyone understands.”
Visit www.mothership.hackermoms.org to find out more about the Hackermoms, their art, and workshops.
About the Author
Alicia Coombes Alicia Coombes is a dramaturg, director and writer. Growing up in rural Oklahoma as an outsider with a flair for the dramatic, she wasn’t exposed to very much art or theatre outside of rodeos and Halloween Hell Houses. Luckily as a teenager her family returned to the Bay Area and she quickly immersed herself in more arts and culture than she had imagined was possible. She still has a particular soft spot for the dramatic (and clowns, perhaps from the rodeo days). She graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Theatre with an emphasis in Dramaturgy. She was Aurora Theatre Company’s Literary Manager and Artistic Assistant for four seasons and served as resident dramaturg for the 2011-2012 Season. She has worked in many aspects of the theatre with several other Bay Area companies including Crowded Fire Theater, Marin Theatre Company, Z Space/Word for Word, Golden Thread, Woman’s Will, and CalShakes and is currently the Company Manager for San Francisco’s foolsFURY Theater.
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You gals should talk with the Webgrrls. there may be some synergy there. http://www.webgrrls.com
Personally, I can crash any computer: PC, Mac, Amiga. It’s about pushing the limits.
Way to go! As a mother in the
’50’s…before computers(!) we languished alone at our typewriters with our lonely babies and longed for a village life full of women and children inevitably delighting in each other’s company! You are on to something great! Good for you and your kids…