Ilyasah Shabazz has narrated 3 audiobooks on Listento.it by 3 authors, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is Growing Up X.
Growing Up X
Summary
February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. June 23, 1997: After surviving for a remarkable 22 days, his widow, Betty Shabazz, dies of burns suffered in a fire. In the years between, their six daughters reach adulthood, forged by the memory of their parents’ love, the meaning of their cause, and the power of their faith. Now, at long last, one of them has recorded that tumultuous journey in an unforgettable memoir: Growing Up X. Born in 1962, Ilyasah was the middle child, a rambunctious live wire who fought for - and won - attention in an all-female household. She carried on the legacy of a renowned father and indomitable mother while navigating childhood and, along the way, learning to do the hustle. She was a different color from other kids at camp and yet, years later as a young woman, was not radical enough for her college classmates. Her story is, sbove all else, a tribute to a mother of almost unimaginable forbearance, a woman who, “from that day at the Audubon when she heard the shots and threw her body on [ours, never] stopped shielding her children.”
©2002 Ilyasah Shabazz (P)2020 Audible, Inc.
Betty Before X
Summary
Activist, motivational speaker, and daughter of Malcolm X Ilyasah Shabazz celebrates her mother's idealism and strength of character in a touching new YA audiobook. Betty Before X is the story of Dr. Betty Shabazz before she became a figurehead for the Civil Rights Movement. In Detroit, 1945, 11-year-old Betty's house doesn't quite feel like home. She believes her mother loves her, but she can't shake the feeling that her mother doesn't want her. Church helps those worries fade, if only for a little while. The singing, the preaching, the speeches from guest activists like Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall stir African Americans in her community to stand up for their rights. Betty quickly finds confidence and purpose in volunteering for the Housewives League, an organization that supports black-owned businesses. Soon, the American civil rights icon we now know as Dr. Betty Shabazz is born.Inspired by Betty's real life - but expanded upon and fictionalized through collaboration with novelist Renée Watson - Ilyasah Shabazz illuminates four poignant years in her mother's childhood with this audiobook, painting an inspiring portrait of a girl overcoming the challenges of self-acceptance and belonging that will resonate with young listeners today.
©2018 Ilyasah Shabazz (P)2018 Macmillan Audio
X
Summary
Co-written by Malcolm X's daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world. I am Malcolm. I am my father's son. But to be my father's son means that they will always come for me. They will always come for me, and I will always succumb. Malcolm Little's parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's nothing but a pack of lies - after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There's no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm's efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory when what starts as some small-time hustling quickly spins out of control. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he's found is only an illusion - and that he can't run forever. X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.
©2015 Ilyasah Shabazz, original book published by Candlewick Press (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.