Mar 12, 2025 - In Conversation with CSUSB Alum and Author, Dr. Keeonna Harris, discussing her new memoir, "Mainline Mama" (HarperCollins/Amistad, 2025)

Conversations on Race and Policing - California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB)

Join us on Zoom for a conversation with author and CSUSB alum (Sociology), Dr. Keeonna Harris about her new book, Mainline Mama: A Memoir (HarperCollins, 2025). Dr. Harris recounts her experience as a “mainline mama, a parent facing the impossible task of raising a child—while still growing up herself—with an incarcerated partner." Learn more about Dr. Harris here.

From the memoir publisher's website: "In this devastating and triumphant memoir, Keeonna recalls her harrowing journey as a Mainline Mama, from learning to overcome the exhausting difficulties of navigating the carceral system in the United States, to transforming herself into an advocate for other women like her—the predominantly Black and brown women left behind to pick up the pieces of their families and fractured lives. Keeonna speaks frankly about the depression and suicidal thoughts that threatened to defeat her, how she learned to rebuild her broken relationship with a mother that lost trust in her, and how time eased the shame, guilt, and stigma of being a young Black teen mom with a partner behind bars. She offers inspiration and solace, showing how to create moments of beauty, humanity, and love in a place designed to break spirits, such as picking the perfect wedding dress for a ceremony in a state prison visiting room. Mainline Mama is about creating self-love and community—crucial acts of radical resistance against a prison industrial complex that is designed to dehumanize and to separate and shut away incarcerated individuals and their loved ones from the world."

Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link).