These stories highlight Black voices, culture, and history. Most are available on audio CD or eaudiobook, so have a listen!
Nonfiction
Finding Me by Viola Davis, read by the author (who just won
a Grammy for the performance, achieving acclaimed EGOT status!!!)
Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love
letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up
your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the
world put a label on you.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones,
Read by a full cast, including:
Nikole Hannah-Jones, January LaVoy, Claudia Rankine, Nikky Finney, Janina
Edwards, Dorothy Roberts, Shayna Small, Terrance Hayes, Khalil Gibran Muhammad,
Yusef Komunyakaa, Eve L. Ewing, Karen Chilton, Aaron Goodson, Reginald Dwayne
Betts, Erin Miles, Dominic Hoffman, Adenrele Ojo, Matthew Desmond, Tyehimba
Jess, Tim Seibles, Jamelle Bouie, Cornelius Eady, Minka Wiltz, Martha S. Jones,
Darryl Pinckney, ZZ Packer, Carol Anderson, Tracy K. Smith, Evie Shockley,
Bryan Stevenson, William DeMeritt, Jasmine Mans, Trymaine Lee, A. Van Jordan,
Yaa Gyasi, Linda Villarosa, Danez Smith, Terry McMillan, Anthea Butler, Rita
Dove, Camille T. Dungy, Wesley Morris, Natasha Trethewey, Joshua Bennett,
Chanté McCormick, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Ron Butler, Kevin M. Kruse, Bahni
Turpin, Gregory Pardlo, Ibram X. Kendi, JD Jackson, Jason Reynolds, and Sonia
Sanchez
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of
Virginia bearing a cargo of 20 to 30 enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival
led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that
would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the
country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much
that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine’s
award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American
history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our
national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving
together 18 essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America
with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression,
struggle, and resistance.
The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by
Kerri K. Greenidge (audiobook not yet available)
A stunning counternarrative of the legendary abolitionist Grimke sisters that finally reclaims the forgotten Black members of their family. The Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina, have been highly revered figures in American history, lauded for leaving behind their lives as elite slave-owning women on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand abolitionists in the North. Yet the focus on their story has obscured the experiences of their Black relatives, the progeny of their brother, Henry, and one of the enslaved people he owned, a woman named Nancy Weston. In The Grimkes, award-winning historian Kerri K. Greenidge recovers the larger Grimke clan, demonstrating that the Black Grimke women—including Angelina Weld Grimke and Charlotte Forten—created a vast network of friends, kin, and lovers as they reimagined Blackness and womanhood in terms far more radical than their white relatives would have allowed.
Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hall (audiobook not yet available)
For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers
lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile
police, and potentially violent encounters almost everywhere, in both the South
and the North. From 1936 to 1967, millions relied on The Negro Motorist Green
Book, the definitive guide to businesses where they could safely rest, eat, or
sleep. Most Americans only know of the guide from the 2018 Green Book movie or the 2020 Lovecraft Country TV show. Alvin
Hall set out to revisit the world of the Green Book to instruct us
all on the real history of the guide that saved many lives.
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry, read by the author
We all think we know the South. Even those who have never
lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War,Gone
with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow,
slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region
are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge.
In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning
of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our
understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation
as a whole.
Fiction
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, read by
Ruby Dee
This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in Black folk
traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates boldly and brilliantly
African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing
narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a Black woman who, though constricted by
the times, still demanded to be heard.
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department. Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, read by Kim Staunton
The first science-fiction written by a Black
woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of African-American
literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction
is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th
birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and
inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a
drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a
shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her
life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man,
she realizes the challenge she's been given: to protect this young slaveholder
until he can father her own great-grandmother. Author Octavia E. Butler
skilfully juxtaposes the serious issues of slavery, human rights, and racial prejudice
with an exciting science-fiction, romance, and historical adventure. Kim
Staunton's narrative talent magically transforms the listener's earphones into
an audio time machine.
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, read by William
DeMeritt
With candor and sympathy, debut novelist Nathan Harris
creates an unforgettable cast of characters, depicting Georgia in the violent
crucible of Reconstruction. Equal parts beauty and terror, as gripping as it is
moving, The Sweetness of Water is an epic whose grandeur locates
humanity and love amid the most harrowing circumstances.
Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall (not available on audiobook)
An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to
Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and
politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and
imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and
Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings.
Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola, read by Weruche Opia
Breakout author Bolu Babalola pens her vibrant debut novel,
full of passion, humor, and heart, that centers on a young Black British woman
who has no interest in love and unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a fake
relationship with the man she warned her girls about.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride, read by Dominic Hoffman
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon
known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing
project in South Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of
everybody, shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons
for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it
lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's funny, moving novel
and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird.
In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by
the shooting: the victim, the African American and Latinx residents who
witnessed it, the White neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the
members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the
neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens,
it becomes clear that the lives of the characters - caught in the tumultuous
swirl of 1960s New York - overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does
emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the
best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie
in hope and compassion.
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, read by Bahni
Turpin
In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and
sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive
and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American
psyche.
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