A Thousand Threads

A Memoir

De: Neneh Cherry

Narrado por: Neneh Cherry

*Named a Most Anticipated Book by New York magazine, The Associated Press, Town and Country, The Guardian, The BBC, and more*

A vibrant memoir from Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry who shares an inside look at her fascinating career and globe-traversing journeys in a life of love and music.

Born in Sweden in 1964, Neneh Cherry’s father Ahmadu was a musician from Sierra Leone. Her mother, Moki, was a twenty-one-year-old Swedish textile artist. Her parents split up just after Neneh was born, and not long afterwards Moki met and fell in love with acclaimed jazz musician Don Cherry. Eventually, the strong pull New York City in the 1970s drew him them there, but they made a home wherever they traveled. Neneh and her brother Eagle-Eye experienced a life of creativity, freedom, and, of course, music.

In A Thousand Threads, Neneh takes listeners from the charming old schoolhouse in the woods of Sweden where she grew up, to the village in Sierra Leone that was birthplace of her biological father, to the early punk scene in London and New York, to finding her identity with her stepfather’s family in Watts, California. Neneh has lived an extraordinary life of connectivity and creativity and she recounts in intimate detail how she burst onto the scene as a teenager in the punk band The Slits, and went on to release her first album in 1989 with a worldwide hit single “Buffalo Stance.”

Neneh’s inspiring and deeply compelling memoir both celebrates female empowerment and shines a light on the global music scene—and is perfect for anyone interested in the artistic life in all its forms.

©2024 Neneh Cherry (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Woman Power Indeed

Food, family, unity, love and art all woven together in one creative existence of the beautiful Neneh Cherry. Amazing story of this powerful woman continuing to influence new generations of women / artists. Praise to her ancestors, and the "village" that
beautifully shaped her. What great inspiration between these pages!

Amazing!

A real life…lived! I feel honored to know so much more about such an amazing woman.

A Fascinating Creative and Personal Journey

I’m really enjoying listening to this. So many aspects of Nenehs life resonate with me. I remember coming of age in art school in Europe and Buffalo Stance was the song of the time. Even today. Her creative and untraditional upbringing by artist parents, still figuring out their way, molded a fierce wise grounded woman. A must read for the creative souls .

I Wanted to Love This Book

I wanted to love this book. I wanna applaud Cherry and anyone who completes and publishes a memoir. I wanna toast women who successfully combine motherhood and a career in the arts. I want to hold up women who run with the wolves, who are unique and have something to say, and don’t fit the mold laid out by the patriarchy. Cherry is kinda these things. But she also comes across as bratty, entitled, smug, elitist, and out of touch with her own immense privilege. What I found missing most from the memoir is an honest appraisal of her role in the musical industrial complex. Cherry’s pop stardom was more a result of being the scion of two global arts figures, rather than a function of her own talent, tenacity and hard work. And being cute and skinny and lighter complected than many of her peers in hip-hop got her on MTV and on magazine covers while countless female lyricists who were true pioneers in the art form languish in obscurity (and would not be able to get a handsome book deal like Cherry, three decades after her biggest hit). Yeah, we know the music industry is fickle and sexist and corrupt and not at all meritocratic. But it’s off putting to hear Cherry criticize the industry whose evil policies made her famous and rather wealthy despite quitting school at 14, getting pregnant by 17, and then staying home with her kids for 15 years and not releasing a single album. Her most genuine moment of clarity occurs toward the end of the book, after her mother’s passing, when she struggles with her own mental health. Then the smug satisfaction—of being the pretty rebel girl who always finds herself in the right place at the right time with the cool kids—falls away and she is raw and honest. I should mention that this book has gotten excellent reviews from everyone everywhere, so don’t take my critique as gospel—give it a listen and decide for yourself.