How to Live Free in a Dangerous World

A Decolonial Memoir

By: Shayla Lawson

Narrated by: Shayla Lawson

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

“Phenomenal.... A memoir that opens into the world, with brilliance, courage, and elegant prose.... This is a book to read, read again, and remember.”—Imani Perry, New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner South to America

Poet and journalist Shayla Lawson follows their National Book Critics Circle finalist This Is Major with these daring and exquisitely crafted essays, where Lawson journeys across the globe, finds beauty in tumultuous times, and powerfully disrupts the constraints of race, gender, and disability.

One of Esquire's Best Memoirs of 2024

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Elle, Them, Book Riot, LitHub, Stylecaster, and Chicago Review of Books

In their new book, Shayla Lawson reveals how traveling can itself be a political act, when it can be a dangerous world to be Black, femme, nonbinary, and disabled. With their signature prose, at turns bold, muscular, and luminous, Shayla Lawson travels the world to explore deeper meanings held within love, time, and the self.

Through encounters with a gorgeous gondolier in Venice, an ex-husband in the Netherlands, and a lost love on New Year’s Eve in Mexico City, Lawson’s travels bring unexpected wisdom about life in and out of love. They learn the strength of friendships and the dangers of beauty during a narrow escape in Egypt. They examine Blackness in post-dictatorship Zimbabwe, then take us on a secretive tour of Black freedom movements in Portugal.

Through a deeply insightful journey, Lawson leads listeners from a castle in France to a hula hoop competition in Jamaica to a traditional theater in Tokyo to a Prince concert in Minnesota and, finally, to finding liberation on a beach in Bermuda, exploring each location—and their deepest emotions—to the fullest. In the end, they discover how the trials of marriage, grief, and missed connections can lead to self-transformation and unimagined new freedoms.

©2024 Shayla Lawson (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Lawson is an insightful and unfailingly open-handed writer: eager to share what they’ve learned, sharp but never jaded, honest about their trials, unafraid to be vulnerable. Though their book is structured like a travel memoir, it defies easy categorization. Bursting with humor and life, it will do more than transport readers; for many, it will be transformative.”—Esquire, Best Memoirs of 2024 (So Far)

“Phenomenal. Shayla Lawson’s How to Live Free in a Dangerous World is luminously intimate. It is a memoir that opens into the world, with brilliance, courage, and elegant prose. Lawson is at once marvelously and unapologetically Black, incisive, and vulnerable. They are an unflinching observer of the world who takes us on a journey that is both wide and deep. This is a book to read, read again, and remember.”—Imani Perry, New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner South to America

“Some writers have the gift of talent. Some writers’ talent is a gift to others, namely the reader. Then there are those writers who fall into both categories. Shayla Lawson is one such author. Thought provoking, raw, honest, funny, moving. This book is a treasure. Shayla is a marvel. I’m so grateful for what they and the book have given us.”—Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can’t Touch My Hair

An Extraordinary Travel Memoir

This is a truly extraordinary travel memoir that I've been recommending all my friends read immediately. Written with exquisite prose, it will grab you on page 1, draw you into its world, and take you on a incredible journey that will leave you thinking about the book for quite a while afterwards. Having traveled to 50+ countries, Shayla's vivid travel stories of experiencing the world through the lens of being Black, Femme, Nonbinary, and Disabled leads to uniquely profound insights on race, femininity, pronoun usage, privilege, solidarity, decolonizing ourselves, seeking liberation in the world, and the emotional inner journey towards self love. Highly recommended!