by Sasha Bonét
First published 2027
Sasha Bonét examines the inheritance of Black American motherhood across three generations of women in her family. Her grandmother Betty Jean grew up on a Louisiana cotton plantation. Her mother Connie was raised in the Texas bayous. Bonét herself came of age in 1990s Houston. Each generation achieved greater material success than the previous one, yet all carried forward the complicated traditions of Black motherhood rooted in slavery. These traditions included both nurturing care and harsh discipline, hands that braided hair and shelled pecans but also delivered punishment. When Bonét became mother to her daughter Sofia in New York, she decided to break this cycle. She researched the lives of historical Black women including Betty Davis, Recy Taylor, and Iberia Hampton to understand how love and pain traveled through generations. Bonét seeks to preserve the strength and resilience of her maternal lineage while rejecting the violence that shaped it. The book offers readers a new framework for understanding Black womanhood and motherhood in America.
Genres: biography, african-american, memoir, social-justice, family-drama, american-history
Vibes: emotionally-resonant, generational, intimate, reflective, thought-provoking
Tropes: breaking-the-cycle, family-secrets-revealed, generational-narrative
Setting: Louisiana, Texas, Houston, New York, America
Period: 1990s, 20th-century, 21st-century
320 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: abuse, racism, slavery