-
Owed
- Penguin Poets
- Narrated by: Joshua Bennett
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime member exclusive: pick 2 free titles with trial.
Owed
Buy for $9.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Study of Human Life
- Penguin Poets
- By: Joshua Bennett
- Narrated by: Joshua Bennett
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5
Across three sequences, Joshua Bennett’s new book recalls and reimagines social worlds almost but not entirely lost, all while gesturing toward the ones we are building even now, in the midst of a state of emergency, together.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Soul-Stirring Brillance
- By Amazon Customer on 03-29-23
By: Joshua Bennett
-
Spoken Word
- A Cultural History
- By: Joshua Bennett
- Narrated by: Joshua Bennett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
In 2009, when he was 20 years old, Joshua Bennett was invited to perform a spoken word poem for Barack and Michelle Obama, at the same White House "Poetry Jam" where Lin-Manuel Miranda declaimed the opening bars of a work-in-progress that would soon revolutionize American theater.
By: Joshua Bennett
-
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
- A Novel (Black Girls Must Die Exhausted, Book 1)
- By: Jayne Allen
- Narrated by: Marcella Cox
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,469
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,312
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,308
Tabitha Walker is a black woman with a plan to "have it all." At 33 years old, the checklist for the life of her dreams is well underway. Education? Check. Good job? Check. Down payment for a nice house? Check. Dating marriage material? Check, check, and check. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, a "paper-perfect" boyfriend, and even a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, everything seems to be falling into place. Then Tabby receives an unexpected diagnosis, jeopardizing the keystone she took for granted: having children.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not What I Expected
- By R. Cartwright on 10-16-21
By: Jayne Allen
-
New American Best Friend
- By: Olivia Gatwood
- Narrated by: Olivia Gatwood
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 13
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 12
One of the most recognizable young poets in America, Olivia Gatwood dazzles with her tribute to contemporary American womanhood in her debut book, New American Best Friend. Gatwood's poems deftly deconstruct traditional stereotypes. The focus shifts from childhood to adulthood, gender to sexuality, violence to joy. And always and inexorably, the book moves toward celebration, culminating in a series of odes: odes to the body, to tough women, to embracing your own journey in all its failures and triumphs.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing poetry, but the music
- By Keaira on 07-29-19
By: Olivia Gatwood
-
Black Girl, Call Home
- By: Jasmine Mans
- Narrated by: Jasmine Mans
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 242
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 206
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 208
From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself - and us - home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America - and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant Delicious
- By erica on 04-22-21
By: Jasmine Mans
-
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
- An Oprah’s Book Club Novel
- By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton, Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 29 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,469
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,210
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,196
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s problem on her shoulders.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Great American Novel is finally inclusive.
- By Margaret on 12-28-21
-
The Study of Human Life
- Penguin Poets
- By: Joshua Bennett
- Narrated by: Joshua Bennett
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5
Across three sequences, Joshua Bennett’s new book recalls and reimagines social worlds almost but not entirely lost, all while gesturing toward the ones we are building even now, in the midst of a state of emergency, together.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Soul-Stirring Brillance
- By Amazon Customer on 03-29-23
By: Joshua Bennett
-
Spoken Word
- A Cultural History
- By: Joshua Bennett
- Narrated by: Joshua Bennett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
In 2009, when he was 20 years old, Joshua Bennett was invited to perform a spoken word poem for Barack and Michelle Obama, at the same White House "Poetry Jam" where Lin-Manuel Miranda declaimed the opening bars of a work-in-progress that would soon revolutionize American theater.
By: Joshua Bennett
-
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
- A Novel (Black Girls Must Die Exhausted, Book 1)
- By: Jayne Allen
- Narrated by: Marcella Cox
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,469
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,312
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,308
Tabitha Walker is a black woman with a plan to "have it all." At 33 years old, the checklist for the life of her dreams is well underway. Education? Check. Good job? Check. Down payment for a nice house? Check. Dating marriage material? Check, check, and check. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, a "paper-perfect" boyfriend, and even a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, everything seems to be falling into place. Then Tabby receives an unexpected diagnosis, jeopardizing the keystone she took for granted: having children.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not What I Expected
- By R. Cartwright on 10-16-21
By: Jayne Allen
-
New American Best Friend
- By: Olivia Gatwood
- Narrated by: Olivia Gatwood
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 13
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 12
One of the most recognizable young poets in America, Olivia Gatwood dazzles with her tribute to contemporary American womanhood in her debut book, New American Best Friend. Gatwood's poems deftly deconstruct traditional stereotypes. The focus shifts from childhood to adulthood, gender to sexuality, violence to joy. And always and inexorably, the book moves toward celebration, culminating in a series of odes: odes to the body, to tough women, to embracing your own journey in all its failures and triumphs.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing poetry, but the music
- By Keaira on 07-29-19
By: Olivia Gatwood
-
Black Girl, Call Home
- By: Jasmine Mans
- Narrated by: Jasmine Mans
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 242
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 206
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 208
From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself - and us - home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America - and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant Delicious
- By erica on 04-22-21
By: Jasmine Mans
-
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
- An Oprah’s Book Club Novel
- By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton, Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 29 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,469
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,210
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,196
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s problem on her shoulders.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Great American Novel is finally inclusive.
- By Margaret on 12-28-21
-
Poet Warrior
- A Memoir
- By: Joy Harjo
- Narrated by: Joy Harjo
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 123
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 110
Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A wonderful spiritual journey!
- By Amazon Customer on 02-19-22
By: Joy Harjo
-
You Are Your Best Thing
- Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
- By: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown, the Contributors, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,573
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,365
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,355
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Listen up...
- By HeyJude on 04-29-21
By: Tarana Burke, and others
-
Inciting Joy
- Essays
- By: Ross Gay
- Narrated by: Ross Gay
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 66
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 66
In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prize-winning poet and author Ross Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we expand it. In an era when divisive voices take up so much air space, Inciting Joy offers a vital alternative: What might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together, to what we love?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully told truths
- By Anonymous User on 02-16-23
By: Ross Gay
-
Between the World and Me
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 30,672
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 27,089
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 26,907
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Heartfelt Self-aware Literary Masterpiece
- By T Spencer on 07-30-15
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
South to America
- A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: Imani Perry
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 356
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 314
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 313
We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A thoughtful book with a misleading description
- By Kathleen Oldford on 02-18-22
By: Imani Perry
-
Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
- By: Warsan Shire
- Narrated by: Warsan Shire
- Length: 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 141
What elevates Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, what gives the poems their disturbing brilliance, is Warsan Shire's ability to give simple, beautiful eloquence to the veiled world where sensuality lives in the dominant narrative of Islam, reclaiming the more nuanced truths of earlier times - as in Tayeb Salih's work - and translating to the realm of lyric the work of the likes of Nawal El Saadawi.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful and Brilliant
- By Curtrice Dorsey on 03-17-18
By: Warsan Shire
-
A Fortune for Your Disaster
- Poems
- By: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 35
In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that Michael Jordan pushed off, about forgiveness, and how none of the author's black friends wanted to listen to "Don't Stop Believin'". It's about wrestling with histories, personal and shared.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable
- By MGW SR on 03-20-21
By: Hanif Abdurraqib
-
Call Us What We Carry
- Poems
- By: Amanda Gorman
- Narrated by: Amanda Gorman
- Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 310
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 264
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 261
Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by number one New York Times best-selling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
STUNNING!
- By Ciara Jones on 01-02-22
By: Amanda Gorman
-
We Are Bridges
- A Memoir
- By: Cassandra Lane
- Narrated by: Cassandra Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
When Cassandra Lane finds herself pregnant at 35, the knowledge sends her on a poignant exploration of memory to prepare for her entry into motherhood. She moves between the 20th-century rural South and present-day Los Angeles, reimagining the intimate life of her great-grandparents Mary Magdelene Magee and Burt Bridges, and Burt’s lynching at the hands of vengeful White men in his Southern town.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
We are all bridges—
- By C. Porter on 01-05-23
By: Cassandra Lane
-
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
- A Novel
- By: Ocean Vuong
- Narrated by: Ocean Vuong
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,175
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,739
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,719
Poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late 20s, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born - a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam - and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully written, but painful.
- By NB on 06-10-19
By: Ocean Vuong
-
I Had a Brother Once
- A Poem, A Memoir
- By: Adam Mansbach
- Narrated by: Adam Mansbach
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 16
I Had A Brother Once is a brilliant, genre-defying work - both memoir and epic poem - about the struggle for wisdom, grace, and ritual in the face of unspeakable loss. Adam is forced to re-remember a brother he thought he knew and to reckon with a ghost, confronting his unsettled family history, his distant relationship with tradition and faith, and his desperate need to understand an event that always slides just out of his grasp.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing
- By vanishday on 08-09-22
By: Adam Mansbach
-
Memorial Drive
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Natasha Trethewey
- Narrated by: Natasha Trethewey
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,561
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,377
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,366
At age 19, Natasha Trethewey had her world turned upside down when her former stepfather shot and killed her mother. Grieving and still new to adulthood, she confronted the twin pulls of life and death in the aftermath of unimaginable trauma and now explores the way this experience lastingly shaped the artist she became. With penetrating insight and a searing voice that moves from the wrenching to the elegiac, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey explores this profound experience of pain, loss, and grief.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
poetic
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-20
Publisher's Summary
From a 2021 Whiting Award and Guggenheim Fellow recipient, a “rhapsodic, rigorous poetry collection, which pays homage to everyday Black experience in the U.S.” (The New Yorker)
Gregory Pardlo described Joshua Bennett's first collection of poetry, The Sobbing School, as an "arresting debut" that was "abounding in tenderness and rich with character", with a "virtuosic kind of code switching". Bennett's new collection, Owed, is a book with celebration at its center. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form - from elegy and ode to origin myth - these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair. What's more, they ask that we turn to the songs and sites of the historically denigrated so that we might uncover a new way of being in the world together, one wherein we can truthfully reckon with the brutality of the past and thus imagine the possibilities of our shared, unpredictable present, anew.
Critic Reviews
“Themes of praise and debt pervade this rhapsodic, rigorous poetry collection, which pays homage to everyday Black experience in the U.S.... Bennett conjures a spirit of kinship that, illuminated by redolent imagery, borders on mythic, and boldly stakes claim to ‘some living, future / English, & everyone in it / is immortal." (The New Yorker)
“Not only are these poems eloquent but also lyrical, intelligent, and, occasionally, funny. Most reflect upon and communicate the pain, joy, and intensity of the current Black experience ... In a time when many confront and protest the racism prevalent in our society, Bennett’s new book is vital.” (Library Journal starred review)
"[A]stonishing poems that explore the past, childhood, family relationships, identity, and memory among many other themes, all expertly rendered through a mixture of forms ... [Bennett] has a gift for building and setting vivid scenes and complex stories within the small frames of his stanzas.” (Booklist)
More from the same
What listeners say about Owed
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Maya
- 05-23-23
another beauty
it’s always a joy to consume a work by joshua bennett, and this one was no exception. stunning from beginning to end
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris Caldwell
- 04-03-22
Phenomenal poet
Joshua has been a very powerful prolific poet for many years I am happy to call him a friend. His words always motivate me and remind me it is a gift to be black.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kasey M Cooper
- 09-23-21
Poetry that makes you feel...
I loved this collection of poetry. I felt like I was with Me. Bennett in every scene and every moment.
Related to this topic
-
Counting Descent
- By: Clint Smith
- Narrated by: Clint Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 60
Clint Smith's debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming of age story that seeks to complicate our conception of lineage and tradition. Smith explores the cognitive dissonance that results from belonging to a community that unapologetically celebrates black humanity while living in a world that often renders blackness a caricature of fear. His poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful Landscape
- By Crescent~Star on 06-26-21
By: Clint Smith
-
Breathe
- A Letter to My Sons
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: Imani Perry
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 93
Breathe explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African-American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Delightful peek into the heart & soul of a mother
- By Treesey on 10-08-19
By: Imani Perry
-
A Fortune for Your Disaster
- Poems
- By: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 35
In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that Michael Jordan pushed off, about forgiveness, and how none of the author's black friends wanted to listen to "Don't Stop Believin'". It's about wrestling with histories, personal and shared.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable
- By MGW SR on 03-20-21
By: Hanif Abdurraqib
-
The Beautiful Struggle
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,178
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,026
Ta-Nehisi Coates' debut is an infectious, reflective memoir - a lyrical saga of surviving the crack-stricken streets of Baltimore in the '80s. Son of Vietnam vet and black awareness advocate Paul Coates - a poor man who set out to publish lost classics of black history - Ta-Nehisi drifts toward salvation at Howard University, while his ominous brother Big Bill finds his own rhythm hustling.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting glimpse into a life so unlike my own
- By Stacey on 01-26-15
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Black Girl, Call Home
- By: Jasmine Mans
- Narrated by: Jasmine Mans
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 242
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 206
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 208
From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself - and us - home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America - and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant Delicious
- By erica on 04-22-21
By: Jasmine Mans
-
We Want Our Bodies Back
- Poems
- By: Jessica Care Moore
- Narrated by: Jessica Care Moore
- Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 17
-
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Just beautiful.
- By @oil_house_ (IG) on 02-25-21
-
Counting Descent
- By: Clint Smith
- Narrated by: Clint Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 60
Clint Smith's debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming of age story that seeks to complicate our conception of lineage and tradition. Smith explores the cognitive dissonance that results from belonging to a community that unapologetically celebrates black humanity while living in a world that often renders blackness a caricature of fear. His poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful Landscape
- By Crescent~Star on 06-26-21
By: Clint Smith
-
Breathe
- A Letter to My Sons
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: Imani Perry
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 93
Breathe explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African-American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Delightful peek into the heart & soul of a mother
- By Treesey on 10-08-19
By: Imani Perry
-
A Fortune for Your Disaster
- Poems
- By: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 35
In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that Michael Jordan pushed off, about forgiveness, and how none of the author's black friends wanted to listen to "Don't Stop Believin'". It's about wrestling with histories, personal and shared.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable
- By MGW SR on 03-20-21
By: Hanif Abdurraqib
-
The Beautiful Struggle
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,178
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,026
Ta-Nehisi Coates' debut is an infectious, reflective memoir - a lyrical saga of surviving the crack-stricken streets of Baltimore in the '80s. Son of Vietnam vet and black awareness advocate Paul Coates - a poor man who set out to publish lost classics of black history - Ta-Nehisi drifts toward salvation at Howard University, while his ominous brother Big Bill finds his own rhythm hustling.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting glimpse into a life so unlike my own
- By Stacey on 01-26-15
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Black Girl, Call Home
- By: Jasmine Mans
- Narrated by: Jasmine Mans
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 242
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 206
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 208
From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself - and us - home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America - and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant Delicious
- By erica on 04-22-21
By: Jasmine Mans
-
We Want Our Bodies Back
- Poems
- By: Jessica Care Moore
- Narrated by: Jessica Care Moore
- Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 17
-
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Just beautiful.
- By @oil_house_ (IG) on 02-25-21
-
Between the World and Me
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 30,672
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 27,089
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 26,907
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Heartfelt Self-aware Literary Masterpiece
- By T Spencer on 07-30-15
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
New American Best Friend
- By: Olivia Gatwood
- Narrated by: Olivia Gatwood
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 13
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 12
One of the most recognizable young poets in America, Olivia Gatwood dazzles with her tribute to contemporary American womanhood in her debut book, New American Best Friend. Gatwood's poems deftly deconstruct traditional stereotypes. The focus shifts from childhood to adulthood, gender to sexuality, violence to joy. And always and inexorably, the book moves toward celebration, culminating in a series of odes: odes to the body, to tough women, to embracing your own journey in all its failures and triumphs.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing poetry, but the music
- By Keaira on 07-29-19
By: Olivia Gatwood
-
Life of the Party
- Poems
- By: Olivia Gatwood
- Narrated by: Olivia Gatwood
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 60
Lauded for the power of her writing and having attracted an online fan base of millions for her extraordinary spoken-word performances, Olivia Gatwood now weaves together her own coming-of-age with an investigation into our culture’s romanticization of violence against women. At times blistering and riotous, at times soulful and exuberant, Life of the Party explores the boundary between what is real and what is imagined in a life saturated with fear. Gatwood asks, How does a girl grow into a woman in a world racked by violence? Where is the line between perpetrator and victim?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I have no words
- By Nic on 08-30-19
By: Olivia Gatwood
-
Shout
- By: Laurie Halse Anderson
- Narrated by: Laurie Halse Anderson
- Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
Best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about and advocates for survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published 20 years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A touching story that resonates with all those hurt
- By KyTheTransGuy on 10-05-19
-
In the Beauty of the Lilies
- A Novel
- By: John Updike
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Faith ultimately bursts into flame as Updike's major new novel, charting the lives of one family through four generations, shows listeners an America whose dream of perfection is translated into an obsession with God and the moving picture. Paterson, New Jersey, 1910: When a Presbyterian minister suddenly loses his faith and leaves the pulpit to become a salesman, he becomes a movie addict as well.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
In the Beauty of the Lillies
- By linda on 08-15-20
By: John Updike
-
I Had a Brother Once
- A Poem, A Memoir
- By: Adam Mansbach
- Narrated by: Adam Mansbach
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 16
I Had A Brother Once is a brilliant, genre-defying work - both memoir and epic poem - about the struggle for wisdom, grace, and ritual in the face of unspeakable loss. Adam is forced to re-remember a brother he thought he knew and to reckon with a ghost, confronting his unsettled family history, his distant relationship with tradition and faith, and his desperate need to understand an event that always slides just out of his grasp.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing
- By vanishday on 08-09-22
By: Adam Mansbach
-
Fire Shut Up in My Bones
- A Memoir
- By: Charles M. Blow
- Narrated by: Charles M. Blow
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 479
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 438
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 434
A gorgeous, moving memoir of how one of America's most innovative and respected journalists found his voice by coming to terms with a painful past. New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow mines the compelling poetry of the out-of-time African-American Louisiana town where he grew up - a place where slavery's legacy was felt astonishingly close, reverberating in the elders' stories and in the near-constant wash of violence.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Authors should NOT read their books.
- By Dan on 10-04-14
By: Charles M. Blow
-
Aftershocks
- By: Nadia Owusu
- Narrated by: Nadia Owusu
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 224
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 195
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 195
Young Nadia Owusu followed her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and back again. Just as she and her family settled into a new home, her father would tell them it was time to say their goodbyes. The instability wrought by Nadia’s nomadic childhood was deepened by family secrets and fractures, both lived and inherited. Her Armenian American mother, who abandoned Nadia when she was two, would periodically reappear, only to vanish again. Her father, a Ghanaian, the great hero of her life, died when she was 13.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Struggled with author’s writing style
- By AF on 06-22-21
By: Nadia Owusu
-
The Tradition
- By: Jericho Brown
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Jericho Brown's daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown's poetic concerns are both broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Poetry
- By writingdiva on 04-02-22
By: Jericho Brown
-
Don't Let It Get You Down
- Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body
- By: Savala Nolan
- Narrated by: Savala Nolan
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 24
A powerful and provocative collection of essays that offers poignant reflections on living between society’s most charged, politicized, and intractably polar spaces - between Black and White, rich and poor, thin and fat.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Provocative and beautifully written
- By Lily's Mom on 08-13-21
By: Savala Nolan
-
Tomboyland
- Essays
- By: Melissa Faliveno
- Narrated by: Melissa Faliveno
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
Flyover country, the middle of nowhere, the space between the coasts. The American Midwest is a place beyond definition, whose very boundaries are a question. It's a place of rolling prairies and towering pines, where guns in bars and trucks on blocks are as much a part of the landscape as rivers and lakes and farms. Where girls are girls and boys are boys, where women are mothers and wives, where one is taught to work hard and live between the lines.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Embrace the Quirk
- By Lorraine S. on 07-26-22
By: Melissa Faliveno
