This collection provides a necessary humanizing and intimate portrait in the scholarship on Black lives. Here, we move beyond slogans and stories of acts of state violence to center mothering, the family, and the Black experience of human yearning as a point of departure. The use of long form scholarship, poetry, and visual art offers an understanding of social movement through a matricentric frame. A timely addition to the scholarship of these turbulent times.

- Zaje Harrell, Principal, Conscious Endeavor LLC

Bravo to the editors for assembling such a magnificent group of authors to tell stories about the many compartments of Black lives in multiple countries. There is something here for everyone – children to elders. The narratives of Black women parenting during tough, scary times – carrying out their motherwork- comes through clearly, intimately, and emotionally, showing the legacy, agency, and devastation inherent in being Black mothers and their mothering. The chapters are captivating; they take you on a journey of grief, sadness, regret, fear, loss and hope. The stories are raw and gripping leaving the reader no alternative but to engage with the text.

- Dr. Delores V. Mullings, School of Social Work, Memorial University and editor of African, Caribbean and Black People’s Resilience During COVID-19

Haile Eshe Cole has a B.A. in Sociology and African-American Studies and a M.A. and PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. Over the years, Haile has conducted research on alternatives to incarceration for mothers and their children in both Texas and New York as well as maternal and infant mortality for Black women. She has served on the faculty at a number of academic institutions teaching courses on reproductive health, film/media and various other social justice topics. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at Central Connecticut State University.

Shana Calixte Pitawanakwat lives on the unceded territory of the Anishinaabe peoples in northern Ontario, Canada. She is the Director of Health Equity at Ontario Health and has experience in the public health and mental health sectors. She has a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University and an M.A. and PhD (ABD) from York University. A former sessional lecturer at Thorneloe University, she focused on gender studies, embodied research, and mothering pedagogies. Following the university's closure in 2021, she became an Honorary Fellow. With over 25 years of community leadership, Shana uses her lived experience to drive her work and has been recognized as one of Canadian Living Magazine’s 40 Women Change Makers.

Luciane O. Rocha has a B.A. in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and M.A. and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in African & African Diaspora Studies and Gender & Women's Studies. Her PhD dissertation, titled “Outraged Mothering: Black Women, Racial Violence and the Power of Emotions in Rio de Janeiro’ African Diaspora," examines the activism of mothers whose lives have been affected by violence in Brazil. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor and program coordinator for the Black Studies program at Kennesaw State University.