Jenifer Lewis Of ‘Black-ish’ Reflects On Her Role As Black Hollywood’s Mother

Her career spans decades in film, television and theater. She’s worked with the biggest names in Hollywood and on Broadway. Along the way, she has become one of them.

Jenifer Lewis’ new memoir The Mother of Black Hollywood details her journey to the spotlight. It comes out next week. Lewis spoke with NPR’s Noel King about the book and how her career began.

Unlike many young actresses from the Midwest who might’ve jumped on a Greyhound bus bound for the Big Apple with what little cash they had, Lewis booked a first-class flight to New York.

“I had taken a few trips to New York while in college to visit my boyfriend, and when I said, ‘OK, I’m leaving for New York,’ I was like, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to go first class,'” she says. “And I didn’t — you know, I didn’t have a pot to piss in. But I got up there because I felt that’s where I belonged. And I landed in New York with 10,000 songs in my heart. And I wanted to sing every one of them.”

A complete unknown in the city, Lewis made it to Broadway relatively quickly. That is, 11 days after she arrived.

“I tell you, I called my mother a week before, and I was sobbing,” she recalls. “I was like, momma, this city is so big, and everybody wants to be a star. I’m going to come home. It’s too hard.”

Since then, she’s starred in a number of television shows and movies, including The Preacher’s Wife, What’s Love Got to Do With It and Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. The title of Lewis’ memoir pays tribute to her role as a mother figure in several …

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