Legacy by Nikki Grimes, Read by Bahni Turpin, Karole Foreman, Zakia Young, and Janina Edwards

Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens.

With Legacy, four narrators create a striking collection of voices that explore and celebrate little-known poems of Black women from the Harlem Renaissance. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this collection from poet Nikki Grimes that alternates a Harlem Renaissance poem with an original poem based on the work, using the golden shovel composition form. Bahni Turpin narrates Grimes’s poems, as well as her introduction, with a lively and youthful voice. Karole Foreman, Zakia Young, and Janina Edwards alternate reading the historical poems. Turpin’s light tones for Grimes’s poems serve as a contemporary counterpoint to the deeper, more somber tones of the historical works. Both Emily and Jo highly recommend seeking out the print book to listen and read along, as the print book is packed with original illustrations from Black women artists. An excellent book for classrooms and families to explore.

***

To listen to the whole archive of Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine, subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. 

Support comes from Oasis Audio, publisher of The Last Queen. Simon Vance narrates a revelatory new biography of Queen Elizabeth and the royal Windsor family.