Kahlil Almustafa and Kamilah Duggins

Kahlil Almustafa and Kamilah Duggins

Interview transcript

KA: My mom, she made us feel like we were royalty of some sort. We were very important. So for example, I take her making cream of tuna. Now cream of tuna is the most cheapest meal ever. And I know there is some milk product and tuna fish and it was hot and it would be on toast. And we would cut it up with a knife and fork and eat it in like little squares but it was so fancy for us. I can remember we used to pick cans, we would go to a vacant lot and the way that my mom was there was no shame in that, that was an adventure, and that was fun. I remember I would pray a lot when she was sick and when my mom died I gave up on religion. My mom, she was cremated and she was put in an urn. And my grandmother comes from another generation did not understand cremation or my mothers ashes being in the house. And my grandmother wrapped it up in a box and wrapped it up in a plastic bag and gave it to me and said ‘Bury this in the backyard.’ I got the shovel out of the garage and I dug a hole; and I put my mom in the ground; and I covered her up. So when things would go wrong in my life or I would be a confused or questioning thing. I would go in the backyard and just sit and talk to her. And the relationship with my mom was different than the relationship with this god in the sky. I knew exactly where she was. I put here there.