Brilliantly rendered by Black performers, these classic works of literature deserve their place in the canon, in every school syllabus—and in your listening library.
Despite the many great works of literature by Black writers, Black voices have had a hard time entering "the canon." Worse, there have been times when Black words were miscast and read by narrators who didn't connect with the spirit of the authors.
To help rectify this, we offer our careful selection of classics by Black authors performed by gifted Black actors that truly deserve to be recognized, celebrated, and savored.
Toni Morrison skillfully and beautifully takes on a love story that's bigger and more important than boy meets girl. Tar Baby is loving but searing in its tackling of race, love, and privilege. Jadine Childs, an exquisite beauty and impeccably educated at the Sorbonne, meets Son, a Black fugitive who ends up on the Caribbean Island where Jadine’s relatives are servants. Love ensues, the road and romance are rocky, and then there’s Jadine’s rich white boyfriend, Ryk—she can’t have both, in peace. An actress known for portraying strong-willed and dignified women, Alfre Woodard performs this classic in all its aching emotion and complexity.
Malcolm X was one of the most prominent and powerful figures of the civil rights movement. A Muslim minister, he was extremely vocal in advocating for equality and opportunity for Black people in America. The Autobiography of Malcolm X chronicles his life, as told to journalist Alex Haley by the civil rights leader and activist himself, over the course of a number of interviews from 1963 until his assassination in 1965. This particular edition, available exclusively on Audible, is performed with a powerful and dignified presence by actor Laurence Fishburne.
Alice Walker's The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and it's one of the most important novels to come out of the 1980s. It is still widely read and listened to, and a new big screen adaptation of the novel—based on the musical adaptation—is set to release in 2023. Through letters, it tells the story of Celie, a woman in rural Georgia who has grown up poor, oppressed, and accustomed to making sacrifices to protect the people she loves—especially her younger sister. But when she meets Shug Avery, a jazz musician with a zest for life, Celie begins to see the possibility of life as something to be enjoyed rather than simply suffered through. This audiobook edition is narrated with heart and empathy by actress Samira Wiley, whom you might recognize from Orange Is the New Black and The Handmaid's Tale.
First published in 1929, Nella Larsen’s Passing is a gripping tale of the reality of escaping from one’s Blackness. Performed by Tessa Thompson, who also stars in the 2021 film adaptation, the story finds two women encountering each other after many years: Irene, now living the life of an upper-middle-class Black woman in a Harlem brownstone, and Clare, who is passing for white and married to a racist white man who doesn’t have a clue about her African American blood. Clare plays a dangerous game, risking everything as she insinuates herself more and more into Irene’s social circle.
A literary critic, scholar, and novelist, Ralph Ellison won the National Book Award in 1953 for Invisible Man, making history as the first Black writer to claim this literary honor. Though the novel addresses issues of identity, racism, and nationalism, Ellison was careful to avoid being pigeonholed by his peers and described his novel as more than a protest piece. Categorization aside, Ellison's compelling work deserves all the recognition it has received over the years. The audiobook is narrated with genuine emotion by Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Morton.
Originally published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is an essay collection from sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois that has become a seminal work on race and Black lives. Within this work, Du Bois coined the term “double consciousness” as well as created his metaphor of the veil Black Americans wear, ideas that illustrate how the racist, white-centering society of the United States has forced Black people to view both themselves and the world with a unique hyperawareness. In this edition, Mirron E. Willis, one of AudioFile's spotlighted narrators, breathes fresh power and spirit into Du Bois’s wise and still relevant words.
Literary great and NYC native James Baldwin was an essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, and trailblazer. His classic queer novel Giovanni's Room came out well before the gay liberation movement gained momentum, speaking to his courage as a writer and activist. His empowering yet highly vulnerable collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son speaks to race, sexuality, and classism in ways that ring true to this day—making it, along with Baldwin's entire body of work, an absolute must-listen. Bahamian-born American actor Ron Butler narrates.
Langston Hughes was only 24 when he published his debut collection of poetry, The Weary Blues. The poems included here blend vernacular speech and musical rhythms to offer a bracing perspective on the African American experience. Traversing a wide range of settings—including the jazz clubs of Harlem, expansive natural landscapes, and seaside taverns—Hughes’s voice as a poet ties these various places together, exploring the depth of the soul in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” the pain of endurance in “Mother to Son,” and death in the title poem’s haunting requiem for a weary blues singer. This audiobook is read by acclaimed performer Dion Graham.
Audre Lorde, who self-identified as "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," was one of the first writers to center Black queer women in her moving speeches and her soul-shaking poetry. Edited by the brilliant contemporary feminist Roxane Gay, this selection of Lorde’s most essential works, including "I Am Your Sister" and excerpts from her American Book Award-winning A Burst of Light, is not to be missed. Actress and producer Mia Ellis captures both the haunting beauty and power of Lorde's words in her narration.
This novel, an American classic, is performed brilliantly by legendary stage and film actress, playwright, and civil rights activist Ruby Dee. "Zora Neale Hurston’s prose is life-changing, and her words have passed the test of time with flying colors. The themes of race and gender roles—particularly those of women—that abound in Their Eyes Were Watching God are as important now as they arguably have ever been. I am a little upset with myself for not checking this out earlier in my life; maybe I would have been inspired to be more of a fiction listener than the nonfiction obsessive I am—that’s how good she is." —Kyle S., Audible Editor.
Marking the debut of Octavia E. Butler, the genre's "Grand Dame," this novel, which interweaves time travel and a slave memoir, made history as the first work of science fiction written by a Black woman. "I approached Kindred about a year ago knowing it was a classic. I don’t usually do well with classics—I get impatient with old-fashioned language and plodding plots—but this wasn’t like that at all. I was thrown off my expectations from chapter one. This story is gripping and fast-paced and uncomfortable and every bit as genius as when it was first released 40 years ago. Listening with Kim Staunton’s narration made it, if possible, even more hauntingly real. This one stays with you." —Melissa B., Audible Editor
Steve Harmon stands accused of felony murder. He is only 16 years old. Labeled a monster by the prosecutor and facing the terrifying possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars, Steve tells his own story as if it were a Hollywood film. Written by Printz Award-winning author Walter Dean Myers and narrated by a full cast, this listen's unconventional and concise yet compelling storytelling make Monster one of the best short YA audiobooks of all time.
First published in 1946, The Street was an instant hit—making Ann Petry the first Black author to sell more than a million copies of a book. The searing novel, centering on a single Black mother struggling in World War II era Harlem, exposes the truth of a horribly unjust society and raises questions that remain unanswered to this day. Narrated by Danielle Deadwyler, an actress whose recent roles include the screen adaptation of Station Eleven, this edition features an introduction by Tayari Jones, acclaimed author of An American Marriage.
Set in a fictional city in the American South, Toni Cade Bambara's debut novel captures the despair of Black life and the fierce determination of a community of Black women faith healers. Her portrayal of its members—some timid, some eccentric, and some daring—is affectionate, funny, and sharp. What makes The Salt Eaters compelling is how the members rally together when a young Black woman is driven to a suicide attempt by the pain of living in a racist, sexist society. The accomplished Mia Ellis lends her voice to this story of trauma and healing.
Beloved is widely considered the greatest work written by acclaimed novelist Toni Morrison—partly because it won a Pulitzer, partly because of its film adaptation, and partly because it is, indeed, incredible, delivering an unflinching look at the horrors of slavery. Sethe is an escaped slave living in Ohio with her daughter after her teenage sons have run away. She believes they fled because of a malevolent spirit that inhabits their home, which she knows to be the ghost of her dead baby, who is buried in a grave with a tombstone that only reads 'Beloved.' This gripping and utterly important tale is not to be missed, and neither, of course, is Morrison, who narrates Beloved with strength and care.
