Malcolm and Me Audiobook By Ishmael Reed cover art

Malcolm and Me

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Malcolm and Me

By: Ishmael Reed
Narrated by: Ishmael Reed
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About this listen

In 1960, Ishmael Reed, then an aspiring young writer, interviewed Malcolm X for a local radio station in Buffalo, and the encounter cost Reed his job and changed his life. In Malcolm and Me, Reed, the author of such classic novels as Mumbo Jumbo and the winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, reveals a side of Malcolm X the public has never seen before, and explores how the civil rights firebrand influenced his own views on working and living and speaking out, and left a mark on generations of artists and activists.

Malcolm X was one of the most influential human rights activists in history and his views on race, religion, and fighting back changed America and the world. Reed gives a clear-eyed view of what the man was really like - beyond the headlines and the myth-making. Malcolm and Me is also an intimately observed look at the development of an artist, and how chance encounters we have in our youth can transform who we are and the world we live in.

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Our favorite moments from Malcolm and Me

Malcolm X was both denounced and praised.
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Ishmael Reed talks about interviewing Malcolm X.
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"When it came to the black past, Malcolm was way ahead of us."
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  • Malcolm and Me
  • Malcolm X was both denounced and praised.
  • Malcolm and Me
  • Ishmael Reed talks about interviewing Malcolm X.
  • Malcolm and Me
  • "When it came to the black past, Malcolm was way ahead of us."

About the Creator and Performer

Ishmael Reed is the author of more than 30 books, including his essay collection, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico (Baraka Books, 2019); his 11th novel, Conjugating Hindi (Dalkey Archive Press, 2018); and his 11th nonfiction work, The Complete Muhammad Ali (Baraka Books, 2015). In 2019, New York’s Nuyorican Poets Café premiered his ninth play, The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, which garnered three AUDELCO Awards. His poetry collection, Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues: Poems 2007-2019 (Dalkey, 2020), features "Just Rollin' Along," a poem about the 1934 encounter between Bonnie and Clyde and Oakland Blues artist L.C. "Good Rockin'" Robinson, which was chosen for The Best American Poetry 2019. In addition, Reed has edited numerous magazines and 14 anthologies, including Black Hollywood Unchained (Third World Press, 2015). He is also a publisher, songwriter, cartoonist, public media commentator, lecturer, teacher, and founder of the Before Columbus Foundation and PEN Oakland, nonprofit organizations run by writers for writers.

After teaching at the University of California, Berkeley for more than 30 years, he retired in 2005. Now a Distinguished Professor at California College of the Arts, he also taught a spring 2019 creative writing class at UC Berkeley. He is a MacArthur Fellow and the recipient of many other honors, including a National Book Award, the 2018 Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History Award, the 2017 AUDELCO Pioneer Award for the Theater, the University of Buffalo’s 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, San Francisco LitQuake’s 2011 Barbary Coast Award, and Pulitzer Prize nominations. Reed was also named 2008 Blues Songwriter of the Year by the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame, and his collaborations with jazz musicians spanning 40 years were recognized by SFJazz Center with his appointment, from 2012 to 2016, as San Francisco’s first Jazz Poet Laureate. Additionally, in 2016 he became the first recipient of the Alberto Dubito International Award in Venice, Italy, recognized as "a special artistic individual who has distinguished himself through the most innovative creativity in the musical and linguistic languages."

Photographed by Jason Henry

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Featured Article: The top 100 memoirs of all time


All genres considered, the memoir is among the most difficult and complex for a writer to pull off. After all, giving voice to your own lived experience and recounting deeply painful or uncomfortable memories in a way that still engages and entertains is a remarkable feat. These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don't just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you'll hear exactly what we mean.

What listeners say about Malcolm and Me

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

not as much as Malcolm X as I hoped.

Mister Reed is a good writer and speaker. but, the book itself didn't get into Malcolm X as much as I hoped it would. on that basis alone I was a bit disappointed.

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45 people found this helpful

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pretty good

It's a good story but there were so many dates and names being thrown around I kind of got lost several times during the book. It's probably just my adhd but this one was especially difficult to keep up.

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17 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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enlightening

great history story with original facts in a refreshing lively way. malcolm x brought home

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13 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Some history you don't know

In the 1960's Ishmale Reed interviewed Malcom X for a local radio station in Buffalo and right after that interview his show was canceled and he lost his job. From then on his life was changed and goes on a personal journey to discover the civil rights and how the movement left lasting impressions not just on millions of young African American men but also influenced his own life. In this book he tells different stories about Malcom X that the public didn't get to witness, stories from his own encounters that you can't read in any newspaper article or in any published book. It was interesting hearing this book and hearing a bit of history that I never knew about, I am not a big history buff, but I can say when history is told from the eyes of a person who was there and witnessed different events, those are the stories that I really find interesting to listen to and those are the stories that I like to read.

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4 people found this helpful

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More information thank I expected

I sought this book wondering what else it could tell me about Malcolm X that I didn’t already know. And there it was a greater awareness of how this iconic man influenced the lives and thinking of those who had the privilege of knowing him personally

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2 people found this helpful

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Great story poor performance

Great story poor performance. Information was very interesting and moving at times but the reader seemed to get carried away and read too quickly and words became indistict. A very lofty vocabulary was used so when words became indistinct and mushy the story became hard to follow.

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Unknown to Me

At first I didn’t understand why this wasn’t about M.X, later I understood the author’s purpose. I had never considered that I learned very little about MX and the civil rights movement, as well as his time as a radical Muslims. I did not know he was killed by a member of his own race. I will end up listening to this several times in order to look up some people he mentions. He dedicated this to all the unsung hero’s of the civil rights movement, which I applaud. Thank you.

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Fascinating story

Quick listen, fascinating story, and pretty informative. I kinda want more details, because it highlighted so much!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Production values low

This is more about Ishmael Reed than Malcolm X, which is fine. The problem is understanding the narration. Reed reads his own book . . . way too fast. It's muddy too, almost as if he taped it at home and mailed it in. Not to Audible's standards.

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Great History Lesson

Great historical references and poignant remarks on historical figures long gone but not forgotten. The story was good, but the narrator lost me at times as he spoke to fast and his words seemed to jumbled together. Ishmael Reed would then catch himself, speak slower in almost a monotone in which his sentence would run on. I finished listening to it, but I became frustrated while listening to him tell his story. Overall, the historical significance and storytelling was good.

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