A Note from the Authors
Excerpt from "In Conversation: Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam"
Salaam: There’s a certain kind of nurturing and caring that you brought to the story—a mother’s perspective. Mothers are the first teachers and healers. My mother was my rock. She was there before anyone else showed up. In situations like mine, mothers have to become warriors. My mother had to fight for me. She trained me to become our ancestors’ wildest dreams despite having gone through the system. My mother leaned on a power larger than herself while I was incarcerated so that I was able to lean on her. You brought that warrior mother energy to the story. That was Amal’s mother, too. She fought for him like my mother fought for me.
Zoboi: Thank you! Our society tends to leave women out of the conversation, even though we are the mother warriors, sisters, aunts, cousins. We’re not just fighting for the boys and men in our lives, we are fighting for our community and our people.
