Godmothers Gather: Jamilah Lemieux

Cultural critic and writer Jamilah Lemieux joins us to discuss “Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging,” her personal meditation on Black single motherhood, unapologetically told through poignant essays and candid interviews.

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 21 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.