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The Swans of Harlem
- Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History
- Narrated by: Karlya Shelton-Benjamin, Sheila Rohan, Lydia Abarca Mitchell, Marcia Lynn Sells, Khadija Tariyan McKinney G., January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history—until now.
“This is the kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!”—Misty Copeland, author of Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy
“Utterly absorbing, flawlessly-researched…Vibrant, propulsive, and inspiring, The Swans of Harlem is a richly drawn portrait of five courageous women whose contributions have been silenced for too long!”—Tia Williams, author of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black company ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells.
These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world.
Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.
Critic reviews
A Most Anticipated Book from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Goodreads, The New York Post,Town and Country, Oprah Daily, AARP, Cosmopolitan, The Week, The Millions, Book Riot, and Arlington Magazine
“If [The Swans of Harlem] were just a quest for cultural redress, the result might have been a dusty scroll of the Swans’ ballet bona fides. It’s by getting personal that it leaps high…Valby skillfully maps the ugliness of a segregated art form…All of this [history] is absorbing. Yet it’s the odd details that shine brightest…There’s so much meaning and humanity in this kind of minutiae…The moral of this important and tear-stained book is actually a reminder: Bare oneself, fly into the grandest of jetés and live free.”—New York Times Books Review
“Karen Valby’s The Swans of Harlem brings to life the stories of Black dancers whose contributions to the world of ballet were silenced, marginalized, and otherwise erased. Karen introduces readers to important figures of our past, while inspiring us to courageously chase our dreams. This is the kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!”—Misty Copeland, New York Times-bestselling author of Black Ballerinas: My Journey To Our Legacy
“These five original Dance Theatre of Harlem ballerinas fell in love with an art form that most of America believed was white and should remain so. Upon Arthur Mitchell’s founding of an all-Black company in 1969, they eagerly took their places at the barre and challenged themselves to the utmost. They triumphed. They showed that Blacks could not only excel at classical ballet but could also shape the art in their own vibrant image. Karen Valby weaves their stories together as a choreographer would: the women form an ensemble, yet each gets her own riveting solo. It’s thrilling to watch as they join forces at last and claim their unique place in American ballet’s past, present and future.”—Margo Jefferson, author of Constructing a Nervous System
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- A Memoir in 4-Part Harmony
- By: M.K. Asante
- Narrated by: M.K. Asante, Dion Graham, Adenrele Ojo, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Waiting in the emergency room at Temple University Hospital in North Philadelphia where his eighteen-year-old nephew, Nasir, lay unconscious after being shot nine times, MK Asante began pouring his heart and soul into a series of letters to a beautiful, dying Black boy so full of life. As Nasir fought for survival, MK realized there was so much—too much—that he had kept from his nephew, starting with the truth about his father, MK’s brother, Uzi, whom Nasir had never met. MK could no longer remain silent because in many ways, his nephew was repeating the mistakes of the past.
By: M.K. Asante
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When Women Ran Fifth Avenue
- Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion
- By: Julie Satow
- Narrated by: Karen Murray
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, journalist Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three visionaries who took great risks, forging new paths for the women who followed in their footsteps. This stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, captures the department store in all its glitz, decadence, and fun, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round.
By: Julie Satow
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The Way You Make Me Feel
- Love in Black and Brown
- By: Nina Sharma
- Narrated by: Nina Sharma
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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When Nina Sharma meets Quincy while hitching a ride to a friend’s Fourth of July barbecue, she spots a favorite book, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, in the back seat of his cramped car, and senses a sadness from him that’s all too familiar to her. She is immediately intrigued—who is this man? In The Way You Make Me Feel, Sharma chronicles her and Quincy’s love story, and in doing so, examines how their Black and Asian relationship becomes the lens through which she moves through and understands the world.
By: Nina Sharma
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In Universes
- A Novel
- By: Emet North
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus, Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Raffi works in an observational cosmology lab, searching for dark matter and trying to hide how little they understand their own research. Every chance they get, they escape to see Britt, a queer sculptor who fascinates them for reasons they also don’t—or won’t—understand. As Raffi’s carefully constructed life begins to collapse, they become increasingly fixated on the multiverse and the idea that somewhere, there might be a universe where they mean as much to Britt as she does to them…and just like that, Raffi and Britt are thirteen years old, best friends and maybe something more.
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Stunning
- By Eric on 05-04-24
By: Emet North
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The Mango Tree
- A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony
- By: Annabelle Tometich
- Narrated by: Annabelle Tometich
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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When journalist Annabelle Tometich picks up the phone one June morning, she isn’t expecting a collect call from an inmate at the Lee County Jail. And when she accepts, she certainly isn’t prepared to hear her mother’s voice on the other end of the line. However, explaining the situation to her younger siblings afterwards was easy; all she had to say was, “Mom shot at some guy. He was messing with her mangoes.” They immediately understood.
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This story touched me for many reasons, my favorite Philippine boss, I thought of her so many times listening to this book
- By Caroline on 06-05-24
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Skin & Bones
- A Novel
- By: Renée Watson
- Narrated by: Zenzi Williams
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life—between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away, she’s happy in love and in friendship—until a confession on her wedding day shifts her world.
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Strong, accomplished women.
- By Anonymous User on 05-28-24
By: Renée Watson
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Cracking the Nazi Code
- The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code
- By: Jason Bell
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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As an MI6 spy—known as secret agent A12—in Berlin in 1919, he evaded gunfire and shook off pursuers to break open the emerging Nazi conspiracy. His reports, the first warning of the Nazi plot for World War II, went directly to the man known as C, the mysterious founder of MI6, as well as to various prime ministers. But a powerful fascist politician quietly worked to suppress his alerts. Nevertheless, Dr. Bell’s intelligence sabotaged the Nazis in ways only now revealed in Cracking the Nazi Code.
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World war 1 never ended.
- By Kurt Carlson on 05-20-24
By: Jason Bell
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What listeners say about The Swans of Harlem
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Tee
- 06-03-24
Superb! Well written and informative
This was a great book which provided background and did s full circle from describing early black ballerina treatment to current day.
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