All posts filed under: A Closer Book

The Mamas | Ten Questions for Helena Andrews

By Sherisa de Groot

RAISING MOTHERS:     What inspired you to tell this story?  HELENA ANDREWS:     “The Mamas” was born out of hilarity, frustration, and new mom exhaustion. When I had my first daughter in 2017 then joined the prison gang otherwise known as my neighborhood mom group, I could not get over how ridiculous and white everything was. Baby yoga? Music class for seven-week-olds? WTF and also sign me up. Since writing is the only way I know how to process things, including my personal struggle with this all consuming new identity, I began writing notes to myself about the entire experience of being an extra Black mom in gentrified spaces. I knew other women were having the same double-take moments but I’d never read anything about it, so I wrote it. RAISING MOTHERS:     What did you edit out of this book? HELENA ANDREWS:     Honestly? Not much. I’ve written four books now, including two of my own memoirs, and my literary motto is “leave it all on the page.” But because …

“We Called Ourselves A Movement” An Excerpt from LaToya Jordan’s ‘To The Woman In The Pink Hat’

By Latoya Jordan

Audio Transcript Leader Morris, Jada 10.16.2040 [Throat clearing.] …I guess a good place for me to start would be when I first saw you on the news. The station hid your identity, your face tiny brown, black, and gray boxes. Your voice staccato, like an old robot. You were already talking when we tuned in. I lost count of how many times I re-watched it, but I memorized every word of your interview. “I didn’t know they were stealing from these young girls. I would’ve never signed up if I had known. They told us these uteruses were donated from women who didn’t want children, women who wanted to help families, be part of history.” We were at our HQ in Brooklyn. It was this place that did self-defense classes and anti-violence workshops for girls, women, and anyone from the LGBTQI community. Crystal worked as the office assistant during the day, and she’d gotten them to give us the space for free after hours. There were 12 of us there. Damn, I really miss my …

“This wasn’t a Black woman thing.”: An Excerpt from Adiba Nelson’s ‘Ain’t That A Mother: Postpartum, Palsy, and Everything in Between’

By Adiba Nelson

“Everyone had always told me I was going to be such a good mother, and I had always seen myself with four or five children, but here I was faced with one and I couldn’t even handle our first day alone.” Below is an excerpt from Adiba Nelson’s memoir Ain’t That A Mother: Postpartum, Palsy, and Everything in Between, now available from Blackstone Publishing. Sliding into my matching slippers, I shuffled over to the bassinet to stare at the baby people continuously said was mine. With as much indifference as I offered her, she offered it right back to me, staring at me, blankly. Both of us assessing each other, imagining what the day had in store for us. I wondered if she had an imagination at that young age, and knew that if she did, she was most likely imagining a world where someone else was her mom. The look on her face said it all. “Ugh. God. It’s you. Fuck this up and it’s a wrap, chick.” And I knew it too. I had …