When I enter the de la Mottes’ home—a three-floor, red brick townhouse in Harlem, around the corner from the Apollo Theater and down the block from a Verizon store—the somber thrum of a double bass echoes upstairs.
I’m greeted by Amber, 43, who looks plucked straight out of an old-timey hearth catalog in a pleated emerald skirt and white blouse, her long, red hair pinned back. She leads me to the dining room table on the first floor where five kids are bent over laptops or workbooks. Marc, 45, her husband and the patriarch of their 10-child clan, is making salsa nearby in the bright, open-plan kitchen. A toddler, Moses, crawls around his father’s feet, entertaining himself with a lime.
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