ABSTRACT
Eleven-year-old Wenona’s anger at being ignored led her to resist invisibility. She took action, entering the game of the streets, to get what she needed. She recognized the danger, calculated the odds, and then navigated the projected violent outcomes. These choices are what she was given as a child. Her ingenuity belies the stereotypes that see the children of incarcerated mothers as passive victims who lack agency. Her rage is directed at exclusion and abandonment. Imagine a childhood in which each day demands tactics needed to survive in a war. Removing mothers from their children for nonviolent crimes leaves these children unprotected emotionally, physically and economically, even if the mother is dysfunctional, as was Wenona’s mother.
