An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World

Black Lives Matter cofounder Cullors’s guide encourages listeners to follow 12 clearly outlined steps filled with bold and innovative action in order to become everyday activists. The audiobook opens with a foreword written and read by writer and activist adrienne maree brown and an introduction read by the author. Each detailed step includes suggested courses of action and inspirational narrative examples, both intentional and spontaneous, of activists from the past. To reach the ultimate goal of abolition requires measures such as turning actions away from reaction and toward response, making justice joyful, and organizing governments to work toward abolition at all levels. Guiding questions are included at the end of each chapter. The audio closes with a conversation featuring the author and brown. Narrator Ariel Blake brings a fresh, youthful voice and tone to this powerful audiobook, reading with authority, dignity, care, and respect, and making excellent use of pacing and pauses, word emphasis, and volume. This is an impassioned reading, more like a lecture or speech before an engaged crowd.