Showing results by narrator "Leon Nixon" in All Categories

Experience music history with this memoir by one of the last of the genuine old-school blues and R&B legends, the Grammy-winning dynamic showman Bobby Rush. Considered by many to be the greatest bluesman currently performing, this book will give listeners unparalleled access into the man, the myth, the legend.

Addict, thief, pimp, pusher, player—and most notably, groundbreaking writer. Donald Goines was all of these. As a kid, Donald Goines was the product of a middle-class family. After high school, he joined the Air Force—and discovered the heroin that would rule the remainder of his life. On the streets, he turned to writing when he was straight enough to keep at it. He used the language of the streets and he wrote of its people. Goines's success was immediate and exciting. But eventually those same streets claimed him.

Kin is a story and a celebration of Black womanhood, of resistance, and of perseverance—while simultaneously an indictment of American history. Kin is a tree—alive in places, broken in others—that offers shelter for women seeking respite in the midst of family-making. This tree depicts family grafted together by blood, law, or choice; its stories are voiced through blues-infused poetry, one-act plays, oral history, and reportage that are combined to form an orchestra of Black history and re-memory.

Charles Adams is a product of the Minneapolis’s North Side, the city’s poorest neighborhood, and of North High, the state’s poorest school. After graduation he joined the Minneapolis Police Department, overcoming racial prejudice within its ranks to become his alma mater’s resource officer. Then something magical happened. Adams stepped in as football coach, and transformed a winless team into state champions. As North High began to thrive, Adams was hailed as a model of what a Black man from a Black neighborhood might be. That lasted until Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

The most feared ship in Britain’s West Africa Squadron, His Majesty’s brig Black Joke was one of a handful of ships tasked with patrolling the western coast of Africa in an effort to end hundreds of years of global slave trading. Sailing after the spectacular fall of Napoleon in France, yet before the rise of Queen Victoria’s England, Black Joke was first a slaving vessel itself, and one with a lightning-fast reputation; only a lucky capture in 1827 allowed it to be repurposed by the Royal Navy to catch its former compatriots.

By the time you’ve finished listening this audiobook, you’ll be charging through your to-do list like a sumo wrestler on crack. Time Management is one of the most important factors that influence how successful you will become. The ability to efficiently manage your time is very important not only for those who want to advance in their careers or in their education, but also for everyone who wants to get the most out of life. With proper time management, you can expect to become a more productive person.

Unspoiled by her beauty or wealth, Sarah Clarke travels an arduous journey by stagecoach to inherit the Arrow C cattle ranch left to her by the grandfather she never knew. However, the ranch foreman, a half-breed Indian called Storm, also claims legal ownership.

Even though he's best known for his successful PBS series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Fred Rogers never dreamed of working in television. In fact, he hated the very first program that he ever watched! Join author Diane Bailey as she takes listeners through the journey that brought Mister Rogers into our living rooms. From his childhood interest in puppet-making and music, to his courageous visit to Russia during the Cold War, this audiobook details Mister Rogers' quest for kindness and his gentle appeal to be more neighborly.

Activists, pundits, politicians, and the press frequently proclaim today's digitally mediated racial justice activism the new civil rights movement. As Charlton D. McIlwain shows in this book, the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and varied than most people know. Beginning with the simultaneous rise of civil rights and computer revolutions in the 1960s, McIlwain, for the first time, chronicles the long relationship between African Americans, computing technology, and the Internet.

In this powerful essay, the mother of Trayvon Martin shares her grief, reflections, anger, and hope in the wake of a single unforgivable moment that catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement.

One of the first studies of the organization, life, and meaning of the Nation of Islam and, by extension, all Black Nationalist movements, this classic work dispels the still-common conception that the movement functioned primarily for political purposes. By observing the daily life of its members, Essien-Udom demonstrates that the Nation of Islam served primarily as a means for poor urban Blacks to attain a national identity, a sense of ethnic consciousness, and empowerment in a society that denied them these privileges.

Amara, a determined professional from New York, finds herself at a crossroads in her career. As she prepares for the next phase of her life, she is suddenly faced with unexpected feelings for Jordan, a proud Atlantan who has always known what he wants—Amara.

Let Stephen Curry, Charles Barkley, Grant Hill, Reggie Miller, and more tell you what it was like to take the floor against one of the greatest of all time. With a foreword by Jerry West and a new tribute from the author about Kobe’s tragic death.

Josiah Henson was born into slavery in Maryland in 1789, and although he endured incredible cruelty and abuse in the years that followed, he was eventually able to earn enough money to purchase his freedom. In fact, he made multiple such attempts, but those efforts were thwarted by swindles and broken deals, and Henson was forced to plot a dangerous escape instead. Under the continual threat of recapture, he, his wife, and their four children made their way north to Canada, where Henson threw himself to the ground, overwhelmed with joy and relief.

Since his election to the US Senate in 2006, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown has sat on the Senate floor at a mahogany desk with a proud history. In Desk 88, he tells the story of eight of the Senators who were there before him. Despite their flaws and frequent setbacks, each made a decisive contribution to the creation of a more just America. Together, these eight portraits in political courage tell a story about the triumphs and failures of the Progressive idea over the past century.

Luis Tiant is one of the most charismatic and accomplished players in Boston Red Sox history - a cigar-chomping maestro who was the heart and soul of Boston's teams in the 1970s. Nobody was a tougher competitor on the diamond, and few were as successful. There may be no more qualified pitcher not yet enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In Son of Havana, Tiant puts his huge heart on his sleeve and describes his road from fields strewn with rocks and rubbish in Havana to the pristine lawns of Major League ballparks.

In this rambunctious satire, Wallace Thurman, one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance, takes his fellow artists and critics to task. The setting is a buzzing apartment building in 1930s Harlem, where avatars for the likes of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and Thurman himself come together to push past old boundaries and test out new ideas. But the heat of this collective energy soon threatens to consume them all, as wild parties, jealous rages, and intellectual conflicts turn the literary circle into an out-of-control hothouse of personal drama.

New York Times best-selling author David Talbot and New Yorker journalist Margaret Talbot illuminate “America’s second revolutionary generation” in this gripping history of one of the most dynamic eras of the 20th century - brought to life through seven defining radical moments that offer vibrant parallels and lessons for today.

The ultimate guide to help Black families navigate the college admissions process. Finding the right college is a challenge for all students. But Black families face additional challenges and questions while navigating the admissions process. In The Black Family's Guide to College Admissions, veteran admissions experts Timothy L. Fields and Shereem Herndon-Brown share provocative insights and demystify this complex process to answer important questions from where to apply to how to get in.

In this thought-provoking and heartbreaking memoir, an award-winning writer tells the story of his father, John Stanley Ford, the first Black software engineer at IBM, revealing how racism insidiously affected his father’s view of himself and their relationship.