THE BLACK UTOPIANS Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America

Melancholy music opens this production, underscoring the pensive nature of Robertson's extraordinary research on safe communities Black people created to remake their lives. Narrator Dion Graham's smooth baritone carries gravitas and emotion as he presents this overview with examples of settlements developed specifically by and for Black men and women from the Reconstruction era to the present day. It includes heartfelt memories of the author's ancestral home in Tennessee and descriptions of the extensive efforts to shape a utopia by Reverend Albert Cleage, Jr., through his Church of the Black Madonna in Detroit and South Carolina, along with accounts of the racism that artist Glanton Dowdell observed in Sweden, where he was living. Graham's impassioned performance of letters written by Robertson's father is icing on the cake. S.D.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2025]