Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging
Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging
Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging
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Description
Description
A personal meditation on, examination of, and tribute to Black single motherhood, unapologetically told through poignant essays and candid interviews by a celebrated cultural critic "Jamilah Lemieux is one of the most important feminist writers of the twenty-first century."--Brittney Cooper With her signature candid, humorous, and sometimes biting takes, Jamilah Lemieux suffers no fools while also courageously revealing the scars of her own parenting journey and search for self-acceptance in a world that hates "baby mamas." With a particular verve and relatability--honed in her many years among Black Twitter's most prominent voices--Lemieux centers the complex reality of Black single motherhood: uncertainty and fierceness alike. Black. Single. Mother. combines riveting personal essays, infused with whip-smart cultural and historical analysis, with twenty-one intimate first-person testimonies from a spectrum of Black single mothers. A long-overdue offering in celebration of the American matriarch most often maligned, Black. Single. Mother. sets out to inspire a new cultural and community dialogue about this powerful figure as one profoundly deserving of love, support, and respect.
About the Author
About the Author
Jamilah Lemieux is a cultural critic and writer with a focus on issues of race, gender, and sexuality. A leading feminist thinker, social influencer, and millennial media darling, Lemieux has written for a host of platforms, including the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Essence, Playboy, The Cut, The Guardian, Colorlines, The Washington Post, Wired, Self, Refinery29, and The New York Times. She was prominently featured in Lifetime's docuseries Surviving R. Kelly and Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning. She also appeared in A&E's Secrets of Playboy. Lemieux penned the forewords for the anniversary editions of Michele Wallace's Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman and Ann Petry's Miss Muriel and Other Stories. Currently, she writes a weekly advice column for Slate's "Care and Feeding" parenting section and is a co-host for the podcast of the same name. She resides in Los Angeles with her daughter, Naima.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Celebrating the strength required to be a matriarch and challenging ignorant tropes."--W magazine "Jamliah Lemieux's love letter to Black single motherhood casts light on the pernicious systems that conspire to ostracize women . . . featuring vulnerable personal insights interwoven with testimonies of single mothers from all walks of life."--Glamour "[Black. Single. Mother.] is funny and beautiful and insightful and sentimental and sharp and soft and will teach you things. . . . If you're the kind of person who reads books or . . . has a mother, you'll love this book."--Michael Harriot, New York Times bestselling author of Black AF History "This book mixes essays and interviews to celebrate and center Black single mothers, some of the most maligned people in the American consciousness."--She Reads "I'm eager to read [Lemieux's] insights, critiques, and perspectives on this much-misunderstood and maligned [identity]."--Ms., "The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2026" "One of the most powerful Black feminist voices on the internet is finally coming to bookshelves. . . . Lemieux has been instrumental in reframing attitudes toward Black women and calling out misogynoir. . . . [This book] is exploring what it looks like to embrace motherhood on your own."--Hello Beautiful, "26 Black Books We Can't Wait to Curl Up And Read In 2026" "I did not know Lemieux would make us reconsider everything that has ever been uttered, read, and made about the nation and women who are Black and single. We will understand freedom differently after experiencing this book."--Kiese Laymon "It's about time someone held a lighter to the sky for Black single moms. This book is incisive, endearing, and laugh-out-loud funny at the same damn time."--Brittney Cooper "What makes Lemieux such a significant and virtuosic public intellectual is her distinct synthesis of the academic with the real. She fuses genius-level theory and a woman-inspired racial politic with a bravery to reveal and conjure entire curricula from the dirt. Y'all should be scared of her."--Damon Young "Jamilah Lemieux is a fearless and brilliant writer and thinker, and an indispensable voice in today's cultural climate. Whatever she writes, put it in your brain, agree or disagree--you'll be smarter. I promise."--Van Lathan "[Lemieux] brings depth, humor, and humanity to one of the most defining roles in our communities. This is a book for single mothers, for those raised by them, and for anyone ready to see this narrative in full color."--Tiffany D. Cross "Without exaggeration, Lemieux has produced one of the most important books of this young century. She has also cemented her reputation as one of the most important voices of our generation."--Marc Lamont Hill "Black. Single. Mother. is an incredibly personal, deeply honest look at the complexities of Black single motherhood. It is, at its heart, a courageous love letter to Black single mothers and the children they've raised."--Jemele Hill "This book reminds us that motherhood is not defined not by who is absent but by the abundant love, resourcefulness, and community that show up again and again. It's a tender, unflinching portrait of motherhood that deserves to be widely read."--Glory Edim, author of Well-Read Black Girl and Gather Me "Lemieux challenges readers to cultivate community support and respect for Black single mothers in this collection of captivating essays . . . [creating] a nuanced conversation around the cultural perception of 'baby mamas'--a 'loaded' term--and the endlessly multifaceted reality of Black single motherhood."--Booklist
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Roc Lit 101
Pub date:
2026-03-10
Length:
352 pages
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