The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing

The nickname “Mama Love” symbolizes the author’s reimagined life during and after her incarceration. Hardin takes the name Mama Love while in G Block. This name is given to her after she reads Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and advises inmates to stop fighting. Likewise, she diffuses a fight by telling the prison’s de facto leader that true power is quiet, rather than loud. This takes off in G Block, and Hardin gains status and power among her peers, rising to a co-leader position. Her meteoric rise can be attributed in part to her friendliness and ability to communicate clearly and in part to her being educated far beyond the other inmates. Leveraging these assets, Hardin finds an audience among the young, impressionable women and relishes her position as their den mother.

When Hardin is released and gains fame as a writer and literary agent, she uses the name Mama Love in the title of her memoir, showing that this persona is integral to her self-concept. The name encompasses the identities that are core to Hardin’s being: her role as a mother and her love for her family.