Kristin Clark Taylor is a former senior White House advisor, corporate public relations executive, journalist, and author of The First to Speak: A Woman of Color Inside the White House. In Black Mothers, she has produced a beautiful book honoring the love and longevity of African American mothers. It contains intimate photographs and quotes from a host of writers, poets, and celebrities such as Toni Morrison, Marian Wright Edelman, Johnnie Cochran, Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, and Gloria Naylor. "Black mothers leave a legacy of strength and sustenance for their children," she writes. "It is part of who we are, and who our foremothers were. If we listen very closely, we can still hear their words of wisdom." Taylor unveils the full spectrum of black motherhood in nine chapters: Giver of Life, Spiritual Anchor, Powerful Protector, Comforter and Friend, Wise Teacher, Living Surrogate, Image of Beauty, Disciplinarian, and Keeper of the Flame. These chapters offer soul-stirring images: mothers nursing their babies, reading to and educating their children, and preparing meals for the family. The book also features African American folklore and anonymous sayings such as "I brought you into this world, child. And Lord knows I can take you out," and "What are the most frightening words in the English language when they come from Mama's mouth? Go out and get me a switch!" The book's overall theme is the ancestral debt the African American community owes to these women for maintaining its very existence from slavery to freedom. Maya Angelou put it best: "I lay down in my grave and watch my children grow proud blooms above the weeds of death." --Eugene Holley Jr.
From Beliefnet
Kristin Clark Taylor, whose memoir of her years as Director ofWhite House Media Relations gained a cult following, has turned her talents to black moms. Here, she has collected hundreds of photographs and readings that pay homage to mothers who teach, discipline, and comfort. Quoting Aristotle and Whitney Houston, the Bible and Queen Latifa, Taylor praises moms for being their kids' best friends, for keeping family histories alive, and for passing on religious faith. Moms, she says, are their families' spiritual anchors--and there is no more important gift mothers can give their children than a lively faith, for when we teach children that God loves them, "we teach them to love themselves and we gently nudge them toward the comforting realization that they will forever be protected by his watchful gaze."
Don't let the title fool you: this book isn't just for black mothers, but for white, green, and polka-dotted mothers, too. (Beliefnet, May 2000)
See all Editorial Reviews
