Citizen cover art

Citizen

An American Lyric

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Citizen

By: Claudia Rankine
Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
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About this listen

Claudia Rankine's bold new audiobook recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in 21st-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV - everywhere, all the time. The cumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship.

©2014 Claudia Rankine (P)2015 Tantor African American Essays Poetry Sports Nonfiction

Critic Reviews

"Combining poetry, essay, and images from media and contemporary art, Rankine's poetics capture the urgency of her subject matter." ( Publishers Weekly)
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Really enjoyed this, I did find the narrators voice slightly jarring as a non American but the performance was good. Really interesting listen and I enjoyed it so much that I think I’ll also buy a hard copy to read along with the narrator on my next listen. Would recommend!

Citizen

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I listened to this in one sitting, finding it both poetic and heartbreaking.

This book reminds me of my white privilege and gives me hope that I'll continue to be part of the solution and not the problem.

Thank you Claudia Rankine

Beautifully executed and sometimes difficult to face

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.