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This is fresh air.
I'm Tanya Moseley, and my guest today is award winning actress Uzo Aduba, when she won her first Emmy in 2014 for her breakout performance as Suzanne Crazy eyes Warren in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black.
Seated next to her at the awards ceremony in a regal blue nigerian headdress and gown was her mother, Nonym, whom Aduba tearfully thanked for immigrating to the US to make a better life for her family.
In a new memoir, Aduba makes clear that to know her, you must first know and understand her mother, who died in 2020 from pancreatic cancer.
A Duba's memoir takes us through her parents journey in the sixties after the nigerian civil war, settling in and raising a Duba and her siblings in the predominantly white suburb of Medfield, Massachusetts.
Intertwined with her mother's story is Aduba's journey, how she discovered acting and the pursuit of her dreams in New York City before landing her breakout role in Orange is the New Black, for which she won two Emmy awards.
Aduba is known for her ability to embody her characters.
She also won a third Emmy for her performance as Shirley Chisholm in the FX series Misses America, and she currently stars in the coming of age film as Clarice in the Supremes at Earl's all you can eat.
Her new memoir is titled the road is good, how a Mother's strength became a daughter's purpose.
And Uzo Aduba, welcome to Fresh Air.
Thank you so much for having me, Tanya.
I would love to start our discussion and grounding it in this book.
Can I have you read the first page of your memoir?
As I write this, my mother is dying for years.
This is how I imagine I'd begin my book.
That is how much the stories of our lives intertwine.