A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg died in 2016 after a long fight with diabetes and his mother Cheryl-Boyce-Taylor will release a new book on Jan. 19 sharing insights on their love and relationship. A respected poet and educator in her own right, her latest book Mama Phife Represents tells her journey as a grieving mother dealing with the loss of her son over the past two years.
Mama Phife Represents will retail for $45 for the hardback which will look good on the mantle while the soft cover will sell for $16. It’s also available for pre-order and Amazon describes that the book as “[a] tapestry of narrative poems, dreams, anecdotes, journal entries, and letters as these treasured fragments of their lives show a great love between mother and son, artist and artist, teacher and friend.
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor’s gift includes drawings, emails, hip-hop lyrics, and notes Malik wrote to his parents beginning at age eight. Both elegy and praise song, there is joy and sorrow, healing, and a mother’s triumphant heart that rises and blooms again.”
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor reads “Hand of the Midwife” and “Stone” from her poetry collection Mama Phife Represents, published in January 2021 by Haymarket B. Mama Phife Represents. In Order to Read Online or Download Mama Phife Represents Full eBooks in PDF, EPUB, Tuebl and Mobi you need to create a Free account. Get any books you like and read everywhere you want. Fast Download Speed Commercial & Ad Free.
Q-Tip also hit up Instagram announcing her memoirs last year, posting, “This is Phife’s Mom @cheryl.arrivalpoems latest book. This is her dedication to her son Malik. Please check this out!!”
(Image source: Instagram – @cheryl.arrivalpoems)
Boyce-Taylor spoke with Okayplayer about her latest work and what made her write the book. “After Malik passed away, I was losing a lot of memory. I couldn’t remember simple things [like] what day it was. I remember [asking] my partner, ‘Was my brother at Malik’s funeral service?'” she explained. “I knew that I was just confused. So more than anything else, I told myself that I had to document this so I could remember it. One of the things that I encountered was the big fear that I would forget about Malik.
Phife Dawg Funeral
“That was one of the emotional upheavals that I was dealing with. I began writing in a journal, and I was also in therapy working very hard to steady myself and get back on my feet. It was a coping skill although I could never forget my child. He was my only child. I had Malik when I was 19, so we kind of grew up together.”
Phife Dawg’s memory will be further cemented this year as well as A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 classic The Low End Theory will be inducted into The Grammy Hall of Fame.
Mama Phife Represents Man