People from history have been reappearing, and down-on-his-luck music producer Darnell finds himself enlisted to help Harriet Tubman make an album--a new voice for a new generation needing new roads to freedom, like Darnell himself.
A quiet personal odyssey; I confess I was expecting something more fabulous. The author's narration is surprisingly amateur, though the two songs are the end are great.
#lgbtqReads
My mother always instilled in me the importance of our history but somewhere along the way I stopped listening. I had a hard time accepting my Blackness because my Blackness had a hard time accepting me. My mother also instilled in me the fear of God, and I‘ve spent my entire life learning not to be afraid.
so-soI found this book to be fantastically camp but also filled with a lot of depth and moments of truth and reflection that gave me moments where I paused and started to reflect and think of my own experiences.
I definitely enjoyed the audiobook but I do wish there was either different narrators or that the author would switch up their voice/ tone to give each character a different voice because it's all one note so everyone sounds the same 😅🤣
Just got the audiobook today. I figured since the author is a performer, I'd probably enjoy the book most in that format. Also have Mutual Aid to read, which is nonfiction by a transgender activist.
so-soIn this book, some people from the past, famous and not, have suddenly “returned” in the future. Fun conceit, but this just ends up being them sitting there telling their stories. Those stories are valuable, but it‘s all tell and no show and it‘s just been done so much better. I found it really heavy-handed. There‘s one section of backstory that‘s really compelling, so I think Bob has potential.
pickThis storytelling is fresh and creative! It‘s the stories of Harriet Tubman and friends through their eyes but in the current world. When Harriet calls on a music producer, Darnell Williams, they meet in a studio to write a broadway musical!
I love that Darnell refers to her as The Beyonce of the railroad. Definitely a different take on historical storytelling.
pickI enjoyed this one - wish it had a soundtrack though. I'm curious to hear rhe songs.
#Adulting (getting my winter tires off) - not my car in pic my beetle baby is not as vintage.
#OffTheShelf2025
@Librariana
pickThe emancipator and freedom fighter is making a comeback! And she's doing it by releasing her first hip hop album debut and child...she ain't playin' as she spills the tea about what it's like being a historical icon! That's the premise of RuPaul's Drag Race alum Bob the Drag Queen's debut fictional satirical novel filled with social and political themes. Imagine Miss Tubman's own words in a modern contemporary setting and pulls no punches!
pickHarriet Tubman, Live in Concert, by Bob the Drag Queen (2025)
Premise: In an alternative present where figures from the past have come back to life, a queer Black music producer is confronted with his own internalized oppression when Harriet Tubman asks him to make a record with her.
Review: I really wanted this to be something special, but while it has moments of genuine insight, it didn‘t quite get there for me. Cont.
Read this today. Harriet Tubman comes back to present days and connects with a music producer to tell her story of life and slavery. Sounds weird but it worked….very good book.
pickOut March 25, 25
This is so creative I love it. I learned a ton about Tubman (googling along the way). Bob can sure tell a story even if his writing was a bit simplistic for my normal book tastes. The characters are well drawn and the story is propulsive.
I was a bit confused with how the comebacks knew about certain niche things but not more common ones. But I love that he was like " they just came back and now they are here and here we go!"
1858-1925. William Dorsey Swann was an American activist. An African-American born into slavery, Swann was the first person in the United States to lead a gay resistance group and the first known person to self-identify as a "queen of drag".
Why am I learning important American history from Bob The Drag Queen? Swann sounds amazing and I want her movie!
I am finishing this today and thinking about all the things I was never taught about Harriet Tubman.
* She was called Moses during her railroad days, but she also had a brother named Moses who she freed from the same plantation she was enslaved in.
* She lived to be 93 years old
* She was beat by her enslavers wife so badly she developed epilepsy or narcolepsy
* Most of the people she freed were her own family, she has 8 siblings
Feeling a bit indecisive for this #weeklyforecast we will see what happens!
Started the tagged ARC which is fun, also almost done with Bellies (currently in my purse in the other room, started Ours which is a bit to verbose for my current mood, and went to the bookstore and started The First Sister last night when I needed a space book 😂📚
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert: A Novel | 
