Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

"This is a book of essays and poems, collected and edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain . They asked writers to take a five-year period of history and write something about that period, so it could be anything, but it is chronological: it starts in 1619 and goes through to 2019 and contemporary history. There’s a lot of really interesting focus on specific events, on the laws that were passed, on tragic incidents. It’s about the focus a contemporary author brings to that period of history, in a way that we might not think about. There are 90 entries, so most of them are fairly short, less than 10 minutes each. In audio, we have this huge cast. Sometimes there are authors who are reading their own work, like Nikole Hannah-Jones, who also wrote 1619, another history project that has been getting a lot of attention in the US. “The books we choose give the listener something that they might not otherwise get” There is also a cast of some of the very best audiobook narrators. These professional narrators shine with their performance of these often very difficult works and tough subjects. That’s what they’re trained to do, to bring forth the emotional detail and connection that the author has. Authors can write, but sometimes they can’t always narrate a book as well as some of the professional narrators. So you have Robin Miles, Dion Graham, January LaVoy, J.D. Jackson. I think all of them are AudioFile Golden Voice Narrators . When you think of this being a community of history, you have the community that has written the history, but you also have this community of brilliant narrators who are bringing it to listeners in a way that I don’t think you could experience in the same way if you were reading it with your eyes. It’s hard listening, it’s often inspiring listening. It’s very sad, but it’s important listening. It’s powerful. I’m very glad that I listened to it. It is also not something that you have to listen to in one sitting, because it’s chronological. They did a very good job on this audiobook, because collections aren’t always as successful in audio, when they run together, without a pause, or something that breaks it into what you might see with your eyes. In this case, there are oral clues of the date, of the period of time. The five years are always announced before the poem or the essay."