Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation

Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation

Edwidge Danticat’s picture book Mama’s Nightingale (2015), illustrated by Leslie Staub, features a Haitian family in the U.S. dealing with separation caused by the detention of undocumented immigrants. Saya’s mother has been taken to the “Sunshine Correctional” because of her immigration status. Struggling with the separation, Saya finds comfort in listening to recordings of her mother telling stories and eventually writes her own. Danticat’s writing weaves in Haitian Creole and demonstrates the liberating power of storytelling, while Staub’s illustrations feature birds and birdcages as visual motifs that emphasize freedom and incarceration. Both word and image work together in Mama’s Nightingale as a testament to the difference that art in various forms can make.

-NK