Arts & Culture Queer Black Voices The 1969 Stonewall Uprising was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in America, and was largely started and led by queer Black men and women. But queer Black Americans still live at the intersection of racism, homophobia, and transphobia, and face the most risk and discrimination within the LGBTQIA+ community. These stories aim to highlight some of the many inequalities faced by queer Black folks, while simultaneously acknowledging and celebrating the diversity of the queer Black experience. By Staff No Ashes in the Fire stop Principles By Darnell L Moore Narrated by Darnell L Moore 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. From a leading journalist and activist comes a brave memoir. When Darnell Moore was 14, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. In No Ashes in the Fire, he shares the journey taken by that scared, bullied teen who not only survived, but found his calling.... Don't Call Us Dead stop Principles By Danez Smith Narrated by Danez Smith 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Award-winning poet Danez Smith is a groundbreaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don't Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police.... Unapologetic stop Principles By Charlene Carruthers Narrated by Charlene Carruthers 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, Unapologetic challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist.... You Should See Me in a Crown stop Principles By Leah Johnson Narrated by Alaska Jackson 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Liz Lighty has always believed she’s too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small Midwestern town. But it’s okay - Liz has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana: attend the uber-elite Pennington College, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor.... Redefining Realness stop Principles By Janet Mock Narrated by Janet Mock 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Narrated by the author herself, Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness is meant to be heard. In the memoir, Mock, a transgender activist, details her progression from coming out as gay to coming out later in life as transgender. What makes the book so powerful is that Mock’s story and path, while unique, is universally empowering. In an era when gay rights are advancing, it’s all the more important to listen to the stories and voices that remain on the fringe, notably within the LGBTQ community itself, across racial and gender identities. Giovanni's Room stop Principles By James Baldwin Narrated by Dan Butler 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. In this classic novel by a literary great, David is a young American man living in Paris whose girlfriend has just left him for Spain, where she will contemplate whether or not she wants to marry him. Meanwhile, David takes up an affair with an Italian man named Giovanni, and must reckon with his attraction to both sexes and his personal history while navigating his own desires and his family’s expectations for him. Giovanni's Room is a classic LGBTQIA+ novel, with a sensitive performance by narrator Dan Butler. Freshwater stop Principles By Akwaeke Emezi Narrated by Akwaeke Emezi 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side".... All Boys Aren't Blue stop Principles By George M. Johnson Narrated by George M. Johnson 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.... Native Country of the Heart stop Principles By Cherríe Moraga Narrated by Cherríe Moraga 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Native Country of the Heart is the writer and activist Cherrie Moraga's love letter to her "unlettered" mother. It begins with her mother, Elvira Isabel Moraga, who as a child, along with her siblings, was hired out by her own father to pick cotton in California's Imperial Valley.... An Unkindness of Ghosts stop Principles By Rivers Solomon Narrated by Cherise Boothe 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South.... MotherStruck! stop Principles By Staceyann Chin Narrated by Staceyann Chin 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Meet. Love. Break. Recover. That’s been the routine of Staceyann Chin’s romantic life. But at 35, after yet another devastating breakup and overcome by an urgent and all-consuming desire to have a child, Chin realizes she’s running out of time.... How We Fight for Our Lives stop Principles By Saeed Jones Narrated by Saeed Jones 00:00 05:00 Update RequiredTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. In this moving memoir, award-winning poet Saeed Jones tells of his childhood in the South and his coming of age as a gay Black man. Full of vignettes from his life, this memoir covers everything from his contentious relationship with his mother to his travels across the country. At its heart, Jones’s personal story is about the lengths we go to discover ourselves and who we really are, and then fight to be ourselves. Jones narrates his memoir, which is only appropriate—it’s powerful to hear his words in his own voice. Recommended The Best Black Audiobook Narrators to Listen To Right Now Escape From Our Echo Chambers Starts With Listening Greatness Claire Adam's Debut Novel 'Golden Child' Shows That No Person Is An Island, Even When Living On One 7 Ways You Can Enjoy The Baby-Sitters Club Up Next Black Voices in Romance Black women have been pioneers in the romance genre for generations. Romance, historically, has not been an inclusive genre, but many have been working to change that and the revolution is underway. This list celebrates popular (and a some classic!) romances from Black writers that are beloved by fans.
