On the season finale of In the Telling, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor shares poems and memories from her recent book of poetry, Mama Phife Represents, honoring her son, Hip-Hop Legend, Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest aka Malik Taylor.

Mama Phife Represents is a verse memoir of a poet, mother and teaching artist who suddenly loses her son to type 1 diabetes. It is a story of loss, love, and courage.

Boyce-Taylor’s work has appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and The Chicago Review of Books. She holds an MFA in creative writing/poetry from Stonecoast/The University of Southern Maine. Cheryl is the author of several books including Raw Air, Night When Moon Follows, Convincing the Body, and Arrival: Poems, and the forthcoming, We Are Not Wearing Helmets: Poems (February 2022).

For more information about Cheryl and her work, check out her website. Purchase Mama Phife Represents here. 

Music by Sean Bempong.