Academic, author and TV personality Marc Lamont Hill recently welcomed a bundle of joy. The news was announced by his partner, Melissa M. Valle, PhD, a Rutgers University – Newark assistant professor. The little one’s name is Malcolm Kamau Valle-Hill, and according to Valle, “Mau Mau” was born on April 10, nine weeks before his due date.
“Malcolm Kamau is our quiet warrior, our teacher, our rebel who has traversed from womb to the world on his own time, in his own special way,” she wrote about their son on Instagram. “My heart is bursting with a love supreme, while it is also heavy as we wait anxiously for the day when Mau Mau can leave the NICU and be home with me and Marc. These are beautiful and difficult days and I ask for all of your patience and grace as we navigate what it means to be a #NICUmom and #NICUdad.”
Valle shared in a separate post that she had a whole plan for how to share the news that they were expecting, but at 29 weeks, her water broke.
“I planned to reveal that we’re pregnant using babymoon pics on the beach (cuz come on, it’s Valle) that we were going to take during our trip to LA next week. As an alternative, I planned to reveal that we’re pregnant with the pics from our maternity shoot scheduled for April 15th. I planned to keep it under wraps until I felt I was well into my third trimester. But plans are tricky bastards, ain’t they?” she wrote.
“I was minding my business by myself in Target on Thursday, at 29 weeks, looking at bathing suits for this babymoon, when SPLASH (just like on TV). My water broke—-Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM).”
She waited four days before Malcolm was brought into the world.
Hill hasn’t shared info about the birth of Malcolm Kamau publicly. And for the record, they chose those two names for their powerful connections and meanings. “Malcolm” pays homage to Malcolm X, while Valle says “Kamau” means “quiet warrior” to the Kikuyu people of Kenya.
Congratulations to Hill and Valle on the arrival of their son. He, as well as his parents, now await the opportunity to head home as a family soon enough.