To this day my mom's unsinkable spirit is an inspiration to me. For nearly thirty years she's worked at the Library of Congress. Everyone knows Sameha simply as 'Sami.' Along with 500 miles of shelved books her closest friendships are cataloged in that library. They are as much the value of work to my mom as is the work itself.

We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor - got her master's with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

I always wanted to be a young mom but generations of women have worked so hard so we can have a career and wait to have children. So I say carpe diem - take advantage of that.

When I was 15 I worked at a dry cleaner because I wanted Abercrombie & Fitch jeans. My mom told me I could have $20 jeans not $70 jeans unless I was willing to work for them. So I did!

My mom's discipline worked out perfectly. I wouldn't change a thing.

I'd go to like six different schools in one year. We were on welfare and my mom never ever worked.

What motivated me? My mother. My mother was an immigrant woman a peasant woman struggled all her life worked in the garment center.

My mother worked in factories worked as a domestic worked in a restaurant always had a second job.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely except in books. White men adored them Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.

I worked with John but I had enough sense to walk just a little ways behind him. I could have made more records but I wanted to have a marriage.