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Black Lives, Lines, & Lyrics
- Lines, Lyrics, and Laments for Black Life, Love, Loss, & Liberty
- Narrated by: Dominique V. Nichols, Sharese Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
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Black Lives, Lines, & Lyrics
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Publisher's summary
Black Lives, Lines, & Lyrics conveys the 21st century Black experience through lines and verse. Divided into three measures, this poetry collection provides rhythmical reflections on black experiences with racial and social injustice, a poetic account of the lives lost to police brutality and racial violence, and a lyrical celebration of the beauty, resilience, and humanity of Black people.
Readers agree that this "body of art" is an "amazing book of lyrical content" and "one of the most profound books" they have read "since the likes of Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou." Author D.B. Mays "invites you to gain a better understanding of Black experiences in a three-part journey." Poems, like "AmeriKKKa", "Hypocrisy on the Hill", and "The Black Book" are "thought-provoking and liberating."
Part I, "Black Lyrics”, provides a poetic perspective of the highs and lows of living while Black in the 21st century, while Part II, "Black Lives”, is a poetic account of the lives lost to racial violence, and Part III, "Black Lines”, is a nod to Hip Hop.
One reader called the work an "overdue gem that navigates through one of civilization's most sad and challenging realities. D.B. Mays covers so many bases with tremendous grace, style and clarity. A must-read for staying connected with today's call for universal peace and justice." Others wrote that there is "such a wide variety of poetry," and "compelling storytelling". Poems, such as "Stunning", "My Grandparents' Living Room", "Goldilocks", "The Run", and "#SayHerName" evoke "emotional" responses.
The book aims to help people of all backgrounds gain an appreciation for the beauty and endurance of Black people while bringing the realities of the discrimination and racism that Black people face in America and really, around the world, to the forefront of our social consciousness, conversations, and communities.
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-
Story5 out of 5 stars 335
The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a White cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the '60s. While Floyd’s death was certainly the catalyst (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color), it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Great History Lesson
- By Debby Burton on 12-08-20
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We Want Our Bodies Back
- Poems
- By: Jessica Care Moore
- Narrated by: Jessica Care Moore
- Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story5 out of 5 stars 17
Over the past two decades, Jessica Care moore has become a cultural force as a poet, performer, publisher, activist, and critic. Reflecting her transcendent electric voice, this searing poetry collection is filled with moving, original stanzas that speak to both Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just beautiful.
- By @oil_house_ (IG) on 02-25-21
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The Fire This Time
- A New Generation Speaks About Race
- By: Jesmyn Ward
- Narrated by: Cherise Boothe, Michael Early, Kevin R. Free, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 245
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 208
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 206
National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping-off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Delusion shattering
- By Matthew A. Burnett on 06-12-20
By: Jesmyn Ward
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Patriarchy Blues
- Reflections on Manhood
- By: Frederick Joseph
- Narrated by: Preston Butler III, Novell Jordan
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story5 out of 5 stars 95
In this thought-provoking collection of essays, poems, and short reflections, Frederick Joseph contemplates these questions and more as he explores issues of masculinity and patriarchy from both a personal and cultural standpoint. From fatherhood, and “manning up” to abuse and therapy, he fearlessly and thoughtfully tackles the complex realities of men’s lives today and their significance for society, lending his insights as a Black man.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great read!
- By BlissfullyT on 11-15-23
By: Frederick Joseph
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The Mountaintop
- By: Katori Hall
- Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, Larry Powell
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 119
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. What happened inside room 306 on the evening of April 3 is the subject of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop. Hours after King's final speech, punctuated by his immortal line "I've been to the mountaintop", the celebrated reverend forms an unlikely friendship with a motel maid as they talk into the early hours of what will be his final day.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow
- By OsteoRD on 10-28-17
By: Katori Hall
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Between the World and Me
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 31,101
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27,461
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Story5 out of 5 stars 27,275
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men - bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Heartfelt Self-aware Literary Masterpiece
- By T Spencer on 07-30-15
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
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When They Call You a Terrorist
- A Black Lives Matter Memoir
- By: Patrisse Cullors, asha bandele, Angela Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Angela Davis - foreword, Angela Davis, Patrisse Cullors
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,133
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 997
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Story5 out of 5 stars 989
When They Call You a Terrorist is the essential audiobook for every conscientious American. From one of the cofounders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic audiobook memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors' story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Everyone should listen!
- By Mary J. Bunker on 01-26-18
By: Patrisse Cullors, and others
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While the World Watched
- A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Carolyn Maull McKinstry
- Narrated by: Felicia Bullock
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Story5 out of 5 stars 67
Fifteen-year-old Carolyn Maull McKinstry was just a few feet away when the Klan - planted bomb that killed four of her friends exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was one of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history…and the turning point in a young girl's life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Look Back and Live With Greater Understanding
- By jerrie Will on 05-07-21
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Shoutin' in the Fire
- An American Epistle
- By: Danté Stewart
- Narrated by: Danté Stewart
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 164
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 150
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Story5 out of 5 stars 148
In Shoutin’ in the Fire, Danté Stewart gives breathtaking language to his reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy - both the kind that hangs over our country and the kind that is internalized on a molecular level. Stewart uses his personal experiences as a vehicle to reclaim and reimagine spiritual virtues like rage, resilience, and remembrance - and explores how these virtues might function as a work of love against an unjust, unloving world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Poetic. Narrative. Vulnerable. Heartbreaking. Hopeful.
- By A. Smith on 10-13-21
By: Danté Stewart
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No Name in the Street
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 398
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 341
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Story5 out of 5 stars 337
This stunningly personal document and extraordinary history of the turbulent '60s and early '70s displays James Baldwin's fury and despair more deeply than any of his other works. In vivid detail he remembers the Harlem childhood that shaped his early consciousness, the later events that scored his heart with pain - the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns in Europe and in Hollywood, and his return to the American South to confront a violent America face-to-face.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A strange and terrible vehicle
- By Darwin8u on 02-07-20
By: James Baldwin
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How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
- Essays
- By: Kiese Laymon
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 222
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story5 out of 5 stars 194
Author and essayist Kiese Laymon is one of the most unique, stirring, and powerful new voices in American social and cultural commentary. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America is a collection of Laymon's essays, touching on subjects ranging from family, race, violence, and celebrity to music, writing, and coming of age in the rural Mississippi Gulf Coast. Laymon's writing is unflinchingly honest, while also being smart, lacerating, and unexpectedly funny.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I'm Stunned By This Collection
- By Rachel on 10-17-17
By: Kiese Laymon
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Righteous Troublemakers
- Untold Stories of the Social Justice Movement in America
- By: Al Sharpton
- Narrated by: Al Sharpton
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story5 out of 5 stars 23
Righteous Troublemakers shines a light on everyday people called to do extraordinary things—like Pauli Murray, whose early work inspired Thurgood Marshall, Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus months before Rosa Parks did the same, and Gwen Carr, whose private pain in losing her son Eric Garner stoked her public activism against police brutality. Sharpton also gives his personal take on more widely known individuals, revealing overlooked details, historical connections, and a perspective informed by years of working in the social justice movement.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thank God for this book knowledge is power
- By JOAN REID on 02-23-22
By: Al Sharpton
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Defining Moments in Black History
- Reading Between the Lies
- By: Dick Gregory
- Narrated by: James Shippy
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,979
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,455
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,456
With his trademark acerbic wit, incisive humor, and infectious paranoia, one of our foremost comedians and most politically engaged civil rights activists looks back at 100 key events from the complicated history of Black America. Defining Moments in Black History is an essential, no-holds-bar history lesson that will provoke, enlighten, and entertain.
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3 out of 5 stars
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How we see the world matters to how we tell storie
- By Adam Shields on 10-03-18
By: Dick Gregory
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Terraform
- Building a Better World
- By: Propaganda
- Narrated by: Propaganda
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
In this deep, challenging, and thoughtful book, Propaganda looks at the ways in which our world is broken. Using the metaphor of terraforming - creating a livable world out of an inhospitable one - he shows how we can begin to reshape our homes, friendships, communities, and politics.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My favorite audio book!
- By RobsRecs on 06-20-21
By: Propaganda
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The Beast Side
- Living (and Dying) While Black in America
- By: D. Watkins
- Narrated by: Brandon Rubin
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 144
To many in the age of Obama, America had succeeded in "going beyond race", putting the divisions of the past behind us. And then 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot by a wannabe cop in Florida; and then 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; and then Baltimore blew up; and then gunfire shattered a prayer meeting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Suddenly the entire country awakened to a stark fact: Young Black men are an endangered species.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Bruce Cline on 03-28-23
By: D. Watkins
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We Gon' Be Alright
- Notes on Race and Resegregation
- By: Jeff Chang
- Narrated by: Jeff Chang
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang (Can't Stop Won't Stop, Who We Be) takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism, We Gon' Be Alright links #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington, DC, and more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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a conversation that needs to happen
- By Angie B on 03-11-17
By: Jeff Chang
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Cunt (20th Anniversary Edition)
- By: Inga Muscio
- Narrated by: Inga Muscio
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
In this fully revised anniversary edition of the classic testament to women's empowerment, Muscio explores with candidness and humor such traditional feminist issues as birth control, sexuality, jealousy between women, and prostitution with a fresh attitude for a new generation of women. Sending out a call for every woman to be the "Cuntlovin' Ruler of Her Sexual Universe", Muscio stands convention on its head by embracing the provocative and celebrating womanhood.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best book ever
- By Paula Daniels on 07-28-19
By: Inga Muscio