17 Best African American, Poetry Books
African American, Poetry is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top African American, Poetry audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 17 African American, Poetry audiobooks below.
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You Are Only Just Beginning
- By: Morgan Harper Nichols
- Length: 2 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Publish date: February 14, 2023
- Language: English
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5(3 ratings)
5(3 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDRead by the author with eleven audiobook-exclusive bonus poems! From bestselling author and beloved artist Morgan Harper Nichols, this collection of poetry empowers you to embrace your next adventure with confidence and grace. Sometimes it’sRead by the author with eleven audiobook-exclusive bonus poems!
From bestselling author and beloved artist Morgan Harper Nichols, this collection of poetry empowers you to embrace your next adventure with confidence and grace. Sometimes it’s difficult to take that first step into your future and embrace the unknown. In this collection of poetry, Morgan reimagines the classic heroine‚Äôs journey‚Äîfrom the very first call to adventure, through trials, hardships, and new relationships, all the way back home‚Äîand offers key lessons and affirmations to encourage and equip you every step of the way. As you travel your own journey of self-discovery, you’re invited to:
- Cultivate the courage you need to follow your passions
- Develop curiosity about the natural world around you
- Find comfort and inspiration for the inevitable trials on your journey
- Reflect on how your past has prepared you
- Step out in wonder and faith, knowing there is more for you
 
Look for the previous books in this series: All Along You Were Blooming and How Far You Have Come.
 
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What Noise Against the Cane
- By: Desiree C. Bailey
- Narrator: Desiree C. Bailey
- Length: 1 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: January 25, 2022
- Language: English
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4.45(156 ratings)
4.45(156 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThe 115th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, What Noise Against the Cane is a lyric quest for belonging and freedom, weaving political resistance, Caribbean folklore, immigration, and the realities of Black life in America. Desiree C.The 115th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, What Noise Against the Cane is a lyric quest for belonging and freedom, weaving political resistance, Caribbean folklore, immigration, and the realities of Black life in America. Desiree C. Bailey begins by reworking the epic in an oceanic narrative of bondage and liberation in the midst of the Haitian Revolution. The poems move into the contemporary Black diaspora, probing the mythologies of home, belief, nation, and womanhood. Series judge Carl Phillips observes that Bailey’s “poems argue for hope and faith equally… These are powerful poems, indeed, and they make a persuasive argument for the transformative powers of steady defiance.”
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Crossfire
- By: Staceyann Chin
- Length: 3 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: March 18, 2021
- Language: English
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4.37(191 ratings)
4.37(191 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDCrossfire collects Staceyann Chin’s empowering, feminist-LGBTQ-Caribbean, activist-driven poetry for the first time in a single book. According to The New York Times, Chin is “sassy, rageful and sometimes softly self-mocking.” TheCrossfire collects Staceyann Chin’s empowering, feminist-LGBTQ-Caribbean, activist-driven poetry for the first time in a single book.
According to The New York Times, Chin is “sassy, rageful and sometimes softly self-mocking.” The Advocate says that her poems “combine hilarious one-liners with a refusal to conform” and note “Chin is out to confront more than just the straight world.”
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Felon
- By: Reginald Dwayne Betts
- Narrator: Reginald Dwayne Betts
- Length: 1 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.36(1978 ratings)
4.36(1978 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.99 USDA searing volume by a poet whose work conveys “the visceral effect that prison has on identity” (New York Times).Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems– canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiencesA searing volume by a poet whose work conveys “the visceral effect that prison has on identity” (New York Times).
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Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems– canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace– and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of post-incarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person’s life. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a “felon.”
From “Night”
What she tells me: prison killed you
my love, killed you so dead that you’re not
here now, you’re never here, you’re always. -
Unraveling
- By: Brandon Leake
- Length: 1 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.23(136 ratings)
4.23(136 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDSeason 15 winner of America’s Got Talent, Brandon Leake, presents his debut poetry collection. Brandon is the first spoken word poet to compete on AGT and to receive the Golden Buzzer award in the first round, going on to win the entireSeason 15 winner of America’s Got Talent, Brandon Leake, presents his debut poetry collection. Brandon is the first spoken word poet to compete on AGT and to receive the Golden Buzzer award in the first round, going on to win the entire competition!
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From famous spoken word poet, artistic educator, and founder/CEO of “Called to Move” Brandon Leake comes his debut poetry collection Unraveling. In an era of self love, the ability to love oneself is only as effective as the ability to know oneself. Throughout his collection, Leake asks readers to look at something beautiful, yet still see its flaws. On the flip side, he encourages readers to look at something evil, and yet still see the beauty it holds.
Universally relatable, surprisingly educational, and all around powerful, Unraveling is a collection of poetry inspiring us to slow down, breathe, and read between the lines. -
The New Negro
- By: Alain Locke
- Narrator: York Whitaker
- Length: 13 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Public Domain
- Publish date: December 14, 2021
- Language: English
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4.1(786 ratings)
4.1(786 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.007.99 USDThis anthology edited by the American writer, philosopher, and patron of the arts Alain Locke brings together some of the most influential pieces of African American works from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Featuring the voicesThis anthology edited by the American writer, philosopher, and patron of the arts Alain Locke brings together some of the most influential pieces of African American works from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Featuring the voices of Zora Neale Thurston, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes, Locke included commentary on the emergence of the New Negro Movement, also known as the Harlem Renaissance. The New Negro is considered to be the definitive text on the movement.
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The Malevolent Volume
- By: Justin Phillip Reed
- Length: 1 hours 51 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: April 07, 2020
- Language: English
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4.1(251 ratings)
4.1(251 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDThe Malevolent Volume explores the myths and transformations of Black being, on a continuum between the monstrous and the sublime. Subverting celebrated classics of poetry and mythology and examining horrors from contemporary film and culturalThe Malevolent Volume explores the myths and transformations of Black being, on a continuum between
the monstrous and the sublime.Subverting celebrated classics of poetry and mythology and examining horrors from contemporary film and cultural
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fact, National Book Award winner Justin Phillip Reed engages darkness as an aesthetic to conjure the revenant animus
that lurks beneath the exploited civilities of marginalized people. In these poems, Reed finds agency in the otherthan-human identities assigned to those assaulted by savageries of the state. In doing so, he summons a retaliatory,
counterviolent Black spirit to revolt and to inhabit the revolting. -
The Poetry of K.Y. Robinson: The Chaos of Longing and Submerge
- By: K.Y. Robinson
- Length: 2 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4(13 ratings)
4(13 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDThe Poetry of K.Y. Robinson: The Chaos of Longing and Submerge is an audio collection of K.Y. Robinson’s work, including unabridged narration of her first two books, interwoven with author commentary and musical accompaniment. This bundledThe Poetry of K.Y. Robinson: The Chaos of Longing and Submerge is an audio collection of K.Y. Robinson’s work, including unabridged narration of her first two books, interwoven with author commentary and musical accompaniment. This bundled audiobook allows readers to access all of Robinson’s poetry in one place, and to gain insight into her development as a poet.
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Vulnerable AF
- By: Tarriona Ball
- Length: 41 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.94(741 ratings)
3.94(741 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDAvailable as an Audie Award-nominated audiobook!The debut poetry collection from Grammy-nominated recording artist and slam poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball about infatuation, love, and heartbreak.The real-life story of a relationship in theAvailable as an Audie Award-nominated audiobook!
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The debut poetry collection from Grammy-nominated recording artist and slam poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball about infatuation, love, and heartbreak.
The real-life story of a relationship in the author’s past told in verse and short prose pieces. Relatable and honest, with Tank’s signature mix of whimsy and realness, Vulnerable AF is about the difference between love and infatuation, the danger and confusion of losing yourself in the idea of someone else, and coming out on the other side of heartbreak with your sense of self-worth–and your sense of humor–stronger for it. -
Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart
- By: Alice Walker
- Narrator: Alice Walker
- Length: 2 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.93(891 ratings)
3.93(891 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDWinner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry Alice Walker, author of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple–“an American novel of permanent importance” (San FranciscoWinner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry
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Alice Walker, author of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple–“an American novel of permanent importance” (San Francisco Chronicle)–reads the English-language editions of the poems in her new bi-lingual collection, a collection that is both playfully imaginative and intensely moving.
Alice Walker shares a timely volume of nearly seventy works of passionate and powerful poetry that bears witness to our troubled times, while also chronicling a life well-lived. From poems of painful self-inquiry, to celebrating the simple beauty of baking frittatas, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult, and liberating world of activism, love, hope and, above all, gratitude. Whether she’s urging us to preserve an urban paradise or behold the delicate necessity of beauty to the spirit, Walker encourages us to honor the divine that lives inside all of us and brings her legendary free verse to the page once again, demonstrating that she remains a revolutionary poet and an inspiration to generations of fans. -
Sacarse La Flecha del Corazon
- By: Alice Walker
- Narrator: Yara Liceaga-Rojas
- Length: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.93(2 ratings)
3.93(2 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDAlice Walker, the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple–“an American novel of permanent importance” (San Francisco Chronicle)–offers the Spanish-language editions of poems in her newAlice Walker, the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple–“an American novel of permanent importance” (San Francisco Chronicle)–offers the Spanish-language editions of poems in her new bi-lingual collection, a collection that is both playfully imaginative and intensely moving.
... Read more
Alice Walker shares a timely volume of nearly seventy works of passionate and powerful poetry that bears witness to our troubled times, while also chronicling a life well-lived. From poems of painful self-inquiry, to celebrating the simple beauty of baking frittatas, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult, and liberating world of activism, love, hope and, above all, gratitude. Whether she’s urging us to preserve an urban paradise or behold the delicate necessity of beauty to the spirit, Walker encourages us to honor the divine that lives inside all of us and brings her legendary free verse to the page once again, demonstrating that she remains a revolutionary poet and an inspiration to generations of fans. -
Submerge
- By: K.Y. Robinson
- Length: 1 hours 27 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.92(345 ratings)
3.92(345 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDOrganized in three sections, Submerge explores immersion in and release from trauma, mental illness, and loss. Part one, “Immerse,” reflects on birth and beginnings while exploring themes of love, self-discovery, and cultural history.Organized in three sections, Submerge explores immersion in and release from trauma, mental illness, and loss. Part one, “Immerse,” reflects on birth and beginnings while exploring themes of love, self-discovery, and cultural history. Part two, “Drown,” examines mental illness, trauma, and loss. Part three, “Emerge,” takes lessons from water and begins a journey toward healing through self-care and gratitude. Throughout the collection, Robinson’s disarming candor, vivid imagery, and supportive message inspire and empower.
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Indecency
- By: Justin Phillip Reed
- Length: 1 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: August 17, 2021
- Language: English
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3.92(560 ratings)
3.92(560 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDIntricate, intimate, difficult, and confrontational poems that push at the boundaries of selfhood, skin, culture, sexuality, and blood. Indecency is boldly and carefully executed and perfectly ragged. In these poems, Justin Phillip ReedIntricate, intimate, difficult, and confrontational poems that push at the boundaries of selfhood, skin, culture, sexuality, and blood.
Indecency is boldly and carefully executed and perfectly ragged. In these poems, Justin Phillip Reed experiments with language to explore inequity and injustice and to critique and lament the culture of white supremacy and the dominant social order. Political and personal, tender, daring,
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and insightful–the author unpacks his intimacies, weaponizing poetry to take on masculinity, sexuality, exploitation, and the prison industrial complex and unmask all the failures of the structures into which society sorts us. -
Every Good Boy Does Fine
- By: Calvin Arsenia
- Length: 1 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.78(127 ratings)
3.78(127 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USD“Glowing with warmth, vulnerability, and a heavy heart, Arsenia’s intimate reflections depict the past and present wrestling within the individual as he endeavors to chart his own course in the world.”–Atwood MagazineBoth a“Glowing with warmth, vulnerability, and a heavy heart, Arsenia’s intimate reflections depict the past and present wrestling within the individual as he endeavors to chart his own course in the world.”–Atwood Magazine
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Both a journey of individual healing and a call for action, these poems show that, with a little love and acceptance, anyone can flourish.
From one of Kansas City’s most exciting singers Calvin Arsenia, comes a debut book of poetry and prose Every Good Boy Does Fine. Named for the classic mnemonic used to teach the lines of the treble clef (EGBDF), his collection speaks to his passion as a musician and also his deep and tumultuous history in the Evangelical community.
Arsenia includes elements of queer poetry, writings on racial awakening, Christian de-conversion, and sexual awakenings in a homophobic community with the hopes that, when finished reading, readers will feel ready to start their own journey of self-expression through music and performance.
A profoundly thoughtful and enlightening work, Arsenia uses his lyrical talent to show that there is always somewhere to go no matter where you are coming from. -
Maps for the Modern World
- By: Valerie June Hockett
- Length: 1 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.75(190 ratings)
3.75(190 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDA poetic call for mindfulness, creativity, and analog real-world connection in an increasingly disconnected world from singer-songwriter Valerie June.Maps for the Modern World is a collection of poems and original illustrations about cultivatingA poetic call for mindfulness, creativity, and analog real-world connection in an increasingly disconnected world from singer-songwriter Valerie June.
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Maps for the Modern World is a collection of poems and original illustrations about cultivating community, awareness, and harmony with our surroundings as we move fearlessly toward our dreams.
I love you
Like a fall leaf dancing
And twirling in the wind
Softly landing,
Returning to the warm earth
Rest
Make new
Begin
Again
-comfortably
This audiobook contains a PDF supplement of selected illustrations and poems. -
The Chaos of Longing
- By: K.Y. Robinson
- Length: 1 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.63(5105 ratings)
3.63(5105 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDOrganized in four sections – Inception, Longing, Chaos, and Epiphany – K.Y. Robinson’s debut poetry collection explores what it is to want in spite of trauma, shame, injustice, and mental illness. It is one survivor’sOrganized in four sections – Inception, Longing, Chaos, and Epiphany – K.Y. Robinson’s debut poetry collection explores what it is to want in spite of trauma, shame, injustice, and mental illness. It is one survivor’s powerful testimony, and a love letter “to those who lie awake burning.”
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Vida en Marte (Life on Mars)
- By: Tracy K. Smith
- Length: 2 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: BookaVivo
- Publish date: April 27, 2021
- Language: Spanish
Regular Price:Try for $0.0010.99 USDEn Vida en Marte, reconocido por el New York Times Book Reviewcomo uno de los poemarios mas destacados del 2001 y galardonado en 2012 con el prestigioso Premio Pulitzer de Poesia, Tracy K. Smith imagina una banda sonora para el universo. Su poesia,En Vida en Marte, reconocido por el New York Times Book Reviewcomo uno de los poemarios mas destacados del 2001 y galardonado en 2012 con el prestigioso Premio Pulitzer de Poesia, Tracy K. Smith imagina una banda sonora para el universo.
Su poesia, con referencias tomadas de David Bowie y de la ciencia ficcion, acompana a los hallazgos y fallos de la existencia humana para sugerirnos que lo importante no es tanto descubrir los enigmas del universo, sino asumir su misterio.
No obstante, todos buscamos respuestas, en la religion, en la ciencia, en el arte; pero la interrogacion continua viva, no se cierra, especialmente cuando nos enfrentamos a la perdida y al duelo. Es por ello que Smith, que escribio estos poemas tras la muerte de su padre (ingeniero en el Telescopio Hubble), construye su metafora marciana: el espacio exterior, sinonimo de lo que puede llegar a conocerse, en el que su padre se ha desvanecido. Reivindica el poder de la ciencia como medida de reflexion en tiempos en que nada alcanza a ser lo que es pues todo es eternamente cambiante, eleva la vista a las estrellas, pero enfoca la lente de su telescopio en lo concreto, lo intimo, incluso lo domestico.
Vida en Marte consolida a Tracy K. Smith como una de las mejores voces de su generacion.
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