Baby Mamas Day Notes on Longing and Belonging from a Black Single Mother

by Lemieux, Jamilah

• ISBN13: 9780593447543
• ISBN10: 0593447549
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-06-17
• Publisher: Roc Lit 101

Summary

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.

Through her signature candid, humorous and yet often biting takes, Lemieux suffers no fools while also courageously revealing the scars of her own parenting journey and search for self-acceptance in a world that doesn’t see the full worth of women like her. With a particular verve and relatability—honed, in part, from her many years among “Black Twitter’s” most prominent voices—Lemieux puts the lived reality of Black single motherhood: uncertainty, fierceness, and sensuality on full display. Interspersed with beautifully written personal narrative, readers will find cultural and historical analysis, and interviews with single mothers from all walks of life, telling it how it really is. 

Baby Mamas Day is a bold testament to the multifaceted Black single mother and an invitation to all readers to finally recognize this powerful figure for who she is—not bad, but so, so good.

Author Biography

Jamilah Lemieux is a renowned cultural critic and writer with a focus on issues of race, gender, and sexuality, A leading feminist thinker, social influencer, and game-changing media maverick, 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 critically acclaimed docuseries Surviving R. Kelly and Surviving R. Kelly 2: The Reckoning. She also appeared in A&E's Secrets of Playboy. She 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 publication's Mom and Dad Are Fighting podcast. She resides in Los Angeles.