Literary Mama
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Nikkya Hargrove: Born Into My Heart
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Nikkya Hargrove: Born Into My Heart

We chat with Nikkya Hargrove, author of Mama: A Queer Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found, about raising her half sibling as her child and navigating the family court and prison systems.

Nikkya Hargrove's powerful memoir Mama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found follows her journey as she makes the decision to raise her third half sibling, Jonathan, after he was born to her mother, who had a crack cocaine addiction and spent time incarcerated while Nikkya was raised by her grandparents. The book traces Nikkya’s path toward custody and adoption, her family’s perspective on her queerness, and the way she finds love and forms a family.

Nikkya Hargrove is a 2012 LAMBDA Literary Nonfiction Fellow and has written about adoption, same-sex multi-ethnic marriage, motherhood as a gay woman, and the prison system for The Washington Post, the Guardian, the New York Times, Scary Mommy, and Shondaland, among many others. She has worked for social impact nonprofits providing support to underserved communities throughout her professional career. She graduated from Bard College and lives in Connecticut with her wife and three children.

Author website: https://www.nikkyamhargrove.com/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nikkyahargrove/