MAMA

A Queer Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found

In this searing and uplifting memoir, a young Black queer woman fresh out of college adopts her baby brother after their incarcerated mother dies, determined to create the kind of family she never had.

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MAMA: A Queer Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found

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MAMA: A Queer Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found 〰️

NIKKYA

HARGROVE

Nikkya Hargrove is a graduate of Bard College and currently serves as a member of the school's Alumni/ae Board of Governors. A LAMBDA Literary Nonfiction Fellow, she has written about adoption, marriage, motherhood, and the prison system for The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, Scary Mommy, Psychology Today, Rumpus, and more. Until recently, she has spent her professional career working for social impact organizations. She is now the proud owner of her very own, independent bookstore called Obodo Serendipity Books. She lives in Connecticut with her wife and three children.

  • "Readers will be inspired."

    — Publisher’s Weekly

  • "Nonetheless, her story provides an accessible, encouraging model of how to construct a family with hope and intention. Quietly, revelatory and affirming."

    — Kirkus Review

  • "While bracing, intimate, and immensely personal, Mama is also a quintessential story of our American generation: the story of growing up in the throes of Mass Incarceration."

    – Max Kenner, executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative