Audiobooks narrated by Amir Abdullah

Frontline Bodies: Sports and Black Struggles for Justice since the Late Nineteenth Century

In Frontline Bodies, Nicolas Martin-Breteau argues that sports are not-and have never been-purely about entertainment for Black Americans. Instead, beginning in the 1890s during Reconstruction, Black Americans proactively used athletics as a tactic to fight racial oppression. Martin-Breteau considers the work of Edwin B. Henderson, a prominent Black physical educator, civil rights activist, and historian of Black sports. Training Black children as athletes, Henderson felt, would work both to fortify racial pride and to dismantle racial prejudices-two necessary requirements for a successful political liberation struggle. In this way, physical education became political education. By the end of the twentieth century, Martin-Breteau argues, racial uplift through sports had lost its emancipating power. The emphasis on the accumulation of wealth for professional athletes, as well as sports' ability to reinforce anti-Black stereotypes, had become a political problem for true collective liberation. For a marginalized group of people that has been physically excluded from the democratic process, however, sports remain a political resource. By studying the relationship between athletics and politics, Frontline Bodies renews the history of minority bodies and their power of action.

Nicolas Martin-Breteau (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said

Born to a wealthy family in West Africa around 1770, Omar Ibn Said was abducted and sold into slavery in the United States, where he came to the attention of a prominent North Carolina family after filling 'the walls of his room with piteous petitions to be released, all written in the Arabic language,' as one local newspaper reported. Ibn Said soon became a local celebrity, and in 1831 he was asked to write his life story, producing the only known surviving American slave narrative written in Arabic. In A Muslim American Slave, Ala Alryyes offers both a definitive translation and an authoritative edition of this singularly important work, lending new insights into the early history of Islam in America and exploring the multiple, shifting interpretations of Ibn Said's narrative by the nineteenth-century missionaries, ethnographers, and intellectuals who championed it. This edition presents the English translation of Ibn Said's Arabic narrative, augmented by Alryyes's comprehensive introduction, contextual essays and historical commentary by leading literary critics and scholars of Islam and the African diaspora and other writings by Omar Ibn Said. The result is an invaluable addition to our understanding of writings by enslaved Americans and a timely reminder that 'Islam' and 'America' are not mutually exclusive terms.

Omar Ibn Said (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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12 Years a Slave - Unabridged

'12 Years a Slave' is the harrowing, true account of a free Black man living in New York during the early 1800's who is kidnaped, transported to Louisiana and forced to work and live as a slave for over a decade. Written by the man who experienced these horrors - Solomon Northup - this book is a powerful and disturbing first-hand account of what it was like to live under the lash and chronicles the torments Northup endured in attempting to escape his captors and return home to his family in New York. Northup's book was an immediate sensation when it was first published and was often singled out by the abolitionist movement as a foundational document in the argument to end the dehumanizing and morally bankrupt practice of human slavery in America. In 2013, it was the basis for the award-winning film of the same name. '12 Years a Slave' is presented here in its original and unabridged format.

Solomon Northup (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam

In Geneologies of Religion, Talal Asad explores how religion as a historical category emerged in the West and has come to be applied as a universal concept. The idea that religion has undergone a radical change since the Christian Reformation-from totalitarian and socially repressive to private and relatively benign-is a familiar part of the story of secularization. It is often invoked to explain and justify the liberal politics and world view of modernity. And it leads to the view that 'politicized religions' threaten both reason and liberty. Asad's essays explore and question all these assumptions. He argues that 'religion' is a construction of European modernity, a construction that authorizes-for Westerners and non-Westerners alike-particular forms of 'history making.'

Talal Asad (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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Purple Rising: Celebrating 40 Years of the Magic, Power, and Artistry of The Color Purple

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece The Color Purple—as well as the acclaimed 1985 film from Steven Spielberg, the Tony-winning Broadway musical, and the all-new film adaptation with this gorgeously designed exploration of the novel's enduring legacy, featuring contributions from Alice Walker, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Colman Domingo, Fantasia Barrino, Danny Glover, and more. Since its publication in 1982, The Color Purple has resonated with generations of readers across the globe. The novel catapulted author Alice Walker to international fame, brought Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg acting acclaim in the 1985 film adaptation, and inspired theatrical productions around the world, including the Tony Award–winning Broadway musical. This cultural touchstone—which so profoundly touches on race, family, survival, spirituality, sisterhood, and love in all forms—continues to beget new iterations, most recently a feature film. Now, an in-depth exploration celebrates The Color Purple's ever-expanding legacy as never before: Purple Rising features oral histories and fresh anecdotes based on more than fifty original interviews, as well as vibrant, never-before-seen images. It reveals the crucial real-life experiences that inspired the novel, and the transcendent humanity of its themes that continue to connect with audiences, each new adaptation speaking to the changing times and cultural contexts. Creators, actors, producers, activists, cultural critics, and well-known fans comment on the power of Walker's story and how it has affected their lives and artistic choices, including Whoopi Goldberg, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey, Blitz Bazawule, Jon Batiste, H.E.R., Salamishah Tillet, Ricky Dillard, Gabrielle Union, and many more. An insightful and vivid celebration of an enduring classic, Purple Rising is the ultimate gift for fans of all ages and a true celebration of Black joy, storytelling, and achievement.

Lise Funderburg (Author), Amir Abdullah, Daniel Henning, Eunice Wong, Janina Edwards, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Karise Yansen, Kevin R. Free, Ramón De Ocampo (Narrator)

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Nubia: The Reckoning

The sequel to Nubia: The Awakening, the epic fantasy from actor and producer Omar Epps and writer Clarence A. Haynes! A powerful saga of three teens, the children of refugees from a fallen African utopia, who must navigate their newfound powers in a climate-ravaged New York City. Zuberi, Uzochi, and Lencho were among the first of a new generation of Nubians to awaken to extraordinary powers-gifts their parents lost when they fled their island home decades ago. And now that Uzochi has been declared a Nubian catalyst, everyone expects him to lead. But what should be a time of rebirth and celebration is instead one of turmoil. The so-called sky king, Krazen St. John, is bent on harnessing Nubian gifts for himself, and he has assembled a special, superhuman militia to do his bidding, putting a ruthless Lencho in charge. Facing down his cousin feels insurmountable for Uzochi, even with Zuberi at his side, but now there's more at stake than the hostile government of Tri-State East. Uzochi's training has led him to discover an ancient, forgotten force hungry for conquest-and it won't stop until all of Tri-State East . . . and possibly the world . . . is under its control.

Clarence A. Haynes, Omar Epps (Author), Amir Abdullah, Emana Rachelle, Jeorge Bennett Watson (Narrator)

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Democracies in America: Keywords for the 19th Century and Today

Ask someone their thoughts about 'democracy' and you'll get many different responses. Some may presume it a thing once established yet now under threat. Others may believe that democracy has always been compromised by the empowered few. In the contemporary United States, marked by constituencies across the political spectrum believing that their voices have gone unheard, 'democracy' gets wielded in so many divergent directions as to be rendered nearly incoherent. Democracies in America reminds us that this reality is nothing new. Focusing on the various meanings of 'democracy' that circulated in the nineteenth century, the book collects twenty-five essays, each taking up a keyword in the language we use to talk about democracy. The essays consider the relationship between 'America' and 'democracy' from multiple disciplinary angles and from different moments in a major historical period-amidst the vitality of the revolutionary epoch, in the contentious lead-up to the Civil War, and through the triumphs and failures of Reconstruction and the early reforms of the Progressive Era-while making both forward and backward glances in time. This volume cultivates, for students and teachers in classrooms, as well as citizens in libraries and cafes, a language to deliberate about the possibilities and problems of democracy in America.

D. Berton Emerson, Gregory Laski (Author), Amir Abdullah, James Babson, Kyla García, Lisa Larsen, Mia Ellis, Vyvy Nguyen (Narrator)

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Against Decolonization: Taking African Agency Seriously

Decolonization has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West's direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing 'morality' or 'authenticity;' it suffocates African thought and denies African agency. Olúfemi Táiwò fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of 'decolonization' to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine. He argues that the decolonization industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. He finds 'decolonization' of culture intellectually unsound and wholly unrealistic, conflating modernity with coloniality, and groundlessly advocating an open-ended undoing of global society's foundations. Worst of all, today's movement attacks its own cause: 'decolorizers' themselves are disregarding, infantilizing and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers. This powerful, much-needed intervention questions whether today's 'decolonization' truly serves African empowerment. Táiwò's is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesizers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance

You might be the kind of person who stands up to online trolls. Or who marches to protest injustice. Perhaps you are #DisabledAndCute and dancing around your living room, alive and proud. Or perhaps you are the trans mentor that you wish you had when you were younger. Maybe you call out false allies or stand up to loved ones. Maybe you speak your truth and drop the mic, or maybe you take it with you when you leave. This anthology features fictional stories-in poems, prose, and art-that reflect a slice of the varied and limitless ways that listeners like you resist every day. Take the Mic's powerful collection of stories features work by literary luminaries and emerging talent alike, including Newbery-winner Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestseller Samira Ahmed, anthologist and contributor Bethany C. Morrow, Darcie Little Badger, Keah Brown, Laura Silverman, L.D. Lewis, Sofia Quintero, Ray Stoeve, Yamile Mendez, and Connie Sun, with cover and interior art by Richie Pope.

Bethany C. Morrow, Connie Sun, Darcie Little Badger, Jason Reynolds, Keah Brown, L.D. Lewis, Laura Silverman, Ray Stoeve, Samira Ahmed, Sofia Quintero, Yamile Saied Méndez (Author), Adenrele Ojo, Amir Abdullah, Kyla García, Sarah Beth Goer, Soneela Nankani (Narrator)

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The Black Boom

Economic inequality continues to be one of the most hotly debated topics in America, but there has been relatively little discussion of the fact that black-white gaps in joblessness, income, poverty, and other measures were shrinking prior to the pandemic. Why was it happening, and why did this phenomenon go unacknowledged by so much of the media? In The Black Boom, Jason L. Riley-acclaimed Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute-digs into the data and concludes that the economic lives of black people improved significantly under policies put into place during the Trump administration. Less inequality is something that everyone wants, but disapproval of Trump's personality and methods too often skewed the media's appraisal of effective policies advocated by his administration. If we want to make real progress in improving the lives of low-income minorities, says Riley, we must look beyond our partisan differences at what works and keep doing it. Unfortunately, many press outlets were unable or unwilling to do that.

Jason L. Riley (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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Reconsidering Reparations

Reparations for slavery have become a reinvigorated topic for public debate over the last decade. Most theorizing about reparations treats it as a social justice project-either rooted in reconciliatory justice focused on making amends in the present; or, they focus on the past, emphasizing restitution for historical wrongs. Olúfemi O. Táiwò argues that neither approach is optimal, and advances a different case for reparations-one rooted in a hopeful future that tackles the issue of climate change head on, with distributive justice at its core. This view, which he calls the 'constructive' view of reparations, argues that reparations should be seen as a future-oriented project engaged in building a better social order; and that the costs of building a more equitable world should be distributed more to those who have inherited the moral liabilities of past injustices. This approach to reparations, as Táiwò shows, has deep and surprising roots in the thought of Black political thinkers such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nkechi Taifa, as well as mainstream political philosophers like John Rawls, Charles Mills, and Elizabeth Anderson. Táiwò's project has wide implications for our views of justice, racism, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, 2nd Edition

Beginning with antiquity, Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora captures the essential political, cultural, social, and economic developments that shaped the black experience. In this second edition, Michael A. Gomez updates the text to include the most recent research on the African Diaspora. Continuing to pay particular attention to the lives of the working classes, the second edition expands its temporal boundaries to include developments into the twenty-first century, as well as integrating women and feminist perspectives more thoroughly. It also widens the geographical span to include Latin America, while incorporating more on African experiences in Europe, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Assessing the impact of religion, global trade, slavery and resistance, and the challenges of modernity, this edition further connects the experiences of Africans and their descendants over time and space, attending to both convergences and divergences, while explaining how the deep past informs subsequent developments.

Michael Gomez (Author), Amir Abdullah (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Amir Abdullah