Mixed with these professional successes, we begin to see that Lewis’ rise to stardom was not all wine and roses. This segues nicely to her progress into performing - moving to and winning her first roles in New York City mounting the first of many outrageous, career-defining cabaret shows earning industry cred on tours. Next, we travel with our heroine back to her early days as a diva-in-development, joining her as she delivers her first church solo – complete with big belting, back-bends, and a congregation going wild. She uses every inch of it in reading her extraordinary memoir, which turns out to be way more gay than I ever would have guessed – but I’ll get back to that.Īfter a brief flashback to her childhood, Lewis starts us off fairly close to the present day: she’s already a diva at the height of her powers, heading off on a European vacation (which she describes in delicious detail), and she is about to return to the states to be offered the role of Ruby, the indomitable matriarch of Black-ish. If you’ve ever seen an episode of her hit ABC sit-com Black-ish, you know that stage and screen star Jenifer Lewis has a voice that’s rich as warm caramel, expressive as an art gallery, and resounding as an echo in a mountain pass. The first thing that struck me about Lewis’ presentation of memoir is her one-of-a-kind voice. I dove into the audiobook version of Jenifer Lewis’ Mother of Black Hollywood without realizing what a fierce ally of the LGBTQ community she has been all along, but I’m pretty sure I would have gone wild for it anyway.

The mother of black hollywood