I was one of those children forced into fighting at the age of 13, in my country Sierra Leone, a war that claimed the lives of my mother, father and two brothers. I know too well the emotional, psychological and physical burden that comes with being exposed to violence as a child or at any age for that matter.
I was born and raised in Liberia in West Africa. My mother is Sierra Leonean, and my father's Liberian. I grew up at a time when there was a lot of civil unrest in both countries, so when something would happen in Liberia, we'd go to Sierra Leone, and when something would happen in Sierra Leone, we'd go back to Liberia. We moved to save our lives.
My mother's brother is a very good singer. My grandfather took up classical singing lessons and learnt to play the harmonium.
My mother gave me singing lessons; that was totally painful, because I couldn't do what she wanted to hear. She used to say: there's more there, there's more voice but I just didn't want to give it to her.
My mother had a gorgeous singing voice, and she'd play these amazing vinyls. My favorite was 'But Not for Me,' on the 1954 album 'Chet Baker Sings.'
There is no single individual greater than a mother. They are the great keepers of our society and heads of our households.
My mother was a single mom, and most of the women I know are strong.
You know, I don't think any mother aims to be a single mom. I didn't wish for that, but it happened.
My mother was a single mom, and she was a claims adjuster at an insurance company. She actually dropped out of school - she was going to become a registered nurse - because she had to take care of me and my brother.
My mother's a Peruvian Indian from Lima who raised me and my four brothers and sisters as a single mom.
My mom was essentially a single mother raising three boys. If anyone could have had any reason to give up, it was her. But she didn't, and neither did we.
I find it fascinating how hip hop as a culture mirrors every mythology from the beginning of mythology. The concept of the single mother and child - the Madonna concept. Hip-hoppers were raised in that.
I was raised by a strong single mother.
I grew up with a single mother, and I wasn't out shooting too many guns.
When I joined 'Essence,' I was a young, single mother. I was 24. I hadn't gone to college. I wasn't making any money at 'Essence' - what was it, $500 a month - and I was struggling. So I was always looking down the road, always hoping for a better, you know, tomorrow.
I've been an activist since I was a teenager. I was always curious about what we would now call social justice. I remember just trying to navigate growing up poor in an overpoliced environment with a single mother and a father who was in and out of prison.
I'm a single mother. It's silly to turn down work.
I was raised by a great single mother. I grew up in rural Kentucky, and she's just a really compassionate woman.
Basically, I was a kid growing up with a single mother in Brooklyn.
Being a single mother in the late 1950s was a very shocking thing - and dreadful thing - for people.
