Bingo Row 5 – arts
What if Harriet Tubman somehow came back from the past to the modern world? What would she do? Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen says that Harriet Tubman would be the MC in a hip-hop band with some people she led to freedom and a stoned Benjamin Lay.
The book is told in the first person by Darnell, Harriet Tubman’s producer. He works with Harriet to put her stories to music. They gossip about Frederick Douglass (he’s uppity). As Darnell learns about historic figures like John Brown and William Dorsey Swann, the historical figures learn about Darnell’s experience with being outed on live TV. Then Harriet forced him to confront his trauma at gunpoint.
I started listening to the audiobook early in the workday, assuming that I’d listen to a bit as I warmed up. I’m very bad at listening to audiobooks and usually can only listen in 10-15 minute sessions before I tune out and stop listening. This did not happen. It was so easy and compelling.
It was conversational in a way that might not translate if I read the book in print.
This was either charmingly amateur or written to make it seem that way (I suspect it’s the former but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter). For example – if you took a shot of booze every time Darnell described Harriet as “tiny,” you’d be dead. But it worked because it sounds like how someone might talk.
Some parts of the book felt educational. It’s hard to believe the narrator didn’t know a lot of the history that he didn’t know, considering that he already admired Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass and was raised by an African American studies teacher. Some parts of the book felt like the author was telling people to go learn about John Brown.
It worked. And as I listened, I was taught histories that I did and didn’t already know.
The audiobook has two songs that I’m sure can be found somewhere online, which is the reason I choose audiobook instead of text. The songs make it feel like a stage adaptation is on its way. I hope so.