I AM, I WILL BE, ALIVE TO TELL: The Anatomy of Being Black in America
By Vernon Snell
Length2h 48m
About this audiobook
I AM, I WILL BE, ALIVE TO TELL: The Anatomy of Being Black in America is Vernon Snell’s Poetic Cinema testimony of memory, survival, identity, love, trauma, race, and transformation. Raised fatherless in Washington Heights, Benson learned to read people, danger, culture, and the streets long before he learned to understand the forces shaping his mind. Across 50 chapters, Benson speaks the lived experience, Vernon examines its meaning, and the Curator places that testimony into a larger human and cultural archive. From childhood and the War on Drugs era to relationships, Albany, addiction, emotional survival, awakening, and reflection, this is more than memoir. It is the record of a man who survived long enough to examine the world that made him—and declare: I am still here. I am alive. And I am alive to tell.
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir, Education and Learning
Length2 hrs 48 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJun 16, 2020
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Front Matter
2Chapter 1 - I AM, AND I WILL BE
3Chapter 2 - The Children We Love, the Children We Survive
4Chapter 3 - Love Soured by Life, Sweetened by Survival
5Chapter 4 - Anger Lives in the Body Before It Speaks
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 5 - When the Body Speaks Before the Mouth Does
7Chapter 6 - The Negative Switch Inside the Human Soul
8Chapter 7 - The Sadness Behind the Eyes
9Chapter 8 - When Pain Mistakes Love for Danger
10Chapter 9 - The Frequency of a Human Soul
11Chapter 10 - The Body Remembers What the Mind Denies
12Chapter 11 - The Moment Someone Stops Hearing You
13Chapter 12 - When the Heart Gets Tired Before the Mouth Can Say It
14Chapter 13 - Love Don’t Mean You Supposed to Stay
15Chapter 14 - Hurt People Don’t Heal — They Harden
16Chapter 15 - Survival Teaches People to Control What They Can’t Trust
17Chapter 16 - Hungry Hearts Bite the Hands That Feed Them
18Chapter 17 - Some People Are Afraid of Their Own Reflection
19Chapter 18 - People Don’t Listen — They Translate You Into Their Wounds
20Chapter 19 - Some Souls Change Like Weather
21Chapter 20 - Pain Can Feel Like Home When That’s Where You Grew Up
22Chapter 21 - Real Love Scares People Who Only Survived With Walls
23Chapter 22 - Some People Don’t Know What to Do When You Finally Treat Them Right
24Chapter 23 - Silence Is What People Choose When Speaking Never Helped
25Chapter 24 - Excuses Are the Stories People Tell to Protect Their Ego
26Chapter 25 - The Ones Who Make You Laugh Are Often Dying Inside
27Chapter 26 - ‘I Don’t Care’ Is What People Say When They Care Too Much
28Chapter 27 - Anger Is What People Show When Sadness Has No More Space Left
29Chapter 28 - Some People Don’t Trust Love Because They Learned Love Leaves
30Chapter 29 - Overthinking Is What Happens When the Brain No Longer Feels Safe
31Chapter 30 - People Pull Away Not Because They Don’t Care — But Because They’re Overwhelmed
32Chapter 31 - Self-Sabotage Is What Happens When Pain Teaches You Not to Trust Joy
33Chapter 32 - People Settle When They Were Taught They Don’t Deserve More
34Chapter 33 - Letting Go Hurts Because You’re Releasing Who You Were With Them
35Chapter 34 - Self-Deception Is a Shelter People Build When the Truth Is Too Heavy
36Chapter 35 - We Don’t Choose Who We Love — Our Wounds Do
37Chapter 36 - Some Hearts Love So Deeply They End Up Wounding Themselves
38Chapter 37 - People Say ‘I’m Fine’ When They’re Carrying More Than They Can Hold
39Chapter 38 - People Don’t Disappear Because They Don’t Care — They Disappear Because They’re Drowning
40Chapter 39 - The Heart Isn’t Stupid — It’s Familiar With the Fire
41Chapter 40 - Sometimes We Break Our Own Hearts Because We Don’t Know How to Receive Better Love
42Chapter 41 - Alive to Tell
43Chapter 42 - Alive to Tell: The Anatomy of Being Black in America
44Chapter 43 - Alive to Tell: The Weight a Black Man Isn’t Allowed to Put Down
45Chapter 44 - Alive to Tell: The Cost of Being Needed by Everybody but Saved by Nobody
46Chapter 45 - Alive to Tell: The Day I Finally Heard My Own Voice
47Chapter 46 - Albany — Part I: The Run
48Chapter 47 - Albany — Part II: Inside the Life
49Chapter 48 - The Awakening — What Albany Taught Me That the World Never Understood
50Chapter 49 - The Truth — The DNA of Survival, The Blueprint They Tried to Hide
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