Exhibit J: Remembering mother's laundry

At the table with me today is Dr. Monifa Love Asante who shares memories of the basement of her childhood home, which was divided between her father’s dental office and her mother’s laundry room. The house was located near Howard University in Washington, DC.  Dr. Love Asante reflects on the ways that African American women have traditionally used laundry and dress as a means of imposing a sense of order and design on an often chaotic world. She remembers the ways that her mother used laundry to pass down cultural values learned from her own childhood in Danville, Virginia.