Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

woke up no light

By: Leila Mottley
Narrated by: Leila Mottley
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $11.25

Buy for $11.25

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

A poignant, rousing debut book of poetry, full of life, from the former Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland, California

woke up no light is a Black girl’s saunter turned to a woman’s defiant strut. These are the hymns of a new generation of poetry. Young, alive, yearning. A mouth swung open and ready to devour. A quest for home in a world that knows only wasteland and wanting.

Moving in sections from “girlhood” to “neighborhood” to “falsehood” to, finally, “womanhood,” these poems reckon with themes of reparations, restitution, and desire. The collection is sharp and raw, wise and rhythmic, a combination that lights up each page. From unearthing histories to searching for ways to dream of a future in a world constantly on the brink of disaster, this young poet sets forth personal and political revelation with piercing detail.

woke up no light confirms Leila Mottley’s arrival and demonstrates the enduring power of her voice—brave and distinctive and thoroughly her own.

©2024 Leila Mottley (P)2024 Random House Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

“Leila Mottley writes with the introspection of Zora Neale Hurston, the righteous rage of Bobby Seales, and a lyrical wit mirroring Souls of Mischief. Each section of woke up no light is a testimony to living and thriving; and proof that one of Oakland’s mightiest heirlooms has nothing to lose. Mottley aims to free the girlchild from the bindings and blindings as she pens with such eloquent sharpness: ‘California says they might owe us a cent or two / if we can prove the cells that make us.’
woke no light is a revolution of words and worlds, readying to become. Poems centering the effect of street scriptures, gender roles, police brutality, and the humanity lost to celebritism; Mottley leaves no rock unturned and aims to set us all free.”—Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley and Vinyl Moon and poet-in-residence, Lincoln Center

What listeners say about woke up no light

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.