really well done and interesting. what a class this must have been to be a part of. so many terrible stories of false convictions (not that prisoners who are guilty largely deserve to be treated the way these men are treated) and lives lost. this is moving, both for the stories we learn of these men, and the way they relate to literature. (there's a good reading list built in, as well.)

the audio reader is very good.

"White women suffered, and continue to suffer, discrimination in patriarchal America. But they have always had the power to weaponize white hatred toward black men."

"'We know what they don't want you to know. We know the control of black bodies been seamless from slavery to the black codes to convict leasing to the Jim Crow laws to the so-called War on Drugs. We know promotions, quotas, money from the Feds. The money they take off of us is what makes prisons a business. A body ain't worth nothing on the street, but once inside, once you locked in a cage, you worth 50 thousand a year to all them prison contractors, food service companies, phone companies, medical companies, and prison construction companies. And they got to keep them cages full if they gonna make their money. And once you get out, once you done your time, they make sure you got no job, no food stamps, no public housing, so you end up right back in where you can make them some more money. People say the system don't work. That's cause they don't get it. The system works the way it designed to work. Inside, you meant to be a slave.'"

"'You go to schools like the one I went to and you enter a pipeline straight to jail. When I walked into the mess hall in prison, it looked like my old school lunchroom, including the fights. When I walked into the yard in prison, it looked like my old playground, including the fights. When I was in the projects, it looked like prison. When guys get to prison, the scenery is familiar. If you grow up poor, then prison is not a culture shock. You have been conditioned your whole life for prison.'"

"There are issues of personal morality, and they are important. But they mean nothing without a commitment to social morality." ( )

Fiction is my favorite genre - it's a great escape to get lost in a book. That being said, I do also like to read non-fiction titles that challenge my beliefs, expose me to lives outside of my own perspective and have an impact on society. It is books about people that draw me in the most. Chris Hedges' new book, Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison is my latest listen - and its powerful.

Hedges is a Presbyterian minister, a former war correspondent and a Pulitzer prize winning author. In 2013 he started teaching in the college degree program offered by Rutgers University at the East Jersey State Prison. In that first class at the prison, the students started reading Black American playwrights, poets and leaders, with the goal being to write and stage their own play.

The students share their own histories, hopes, dreams and disappointments and these experiences form the basis of the play. Their recounting of life in the prison system are hard to listen to. The treatment inside the prison walls is degrading, cruel, racist, appalling and dehumanizing. The writing of the play, the learning, the discussion, the interior soul searching and being part of a dynamic group with the same goal, and the continued success of those who took part is a testament to the program and the ideology behind it. And cathartic for the participants.

I enjoyed hearing each man's story - they are raw and powerful. Hedges weaves other articles, history and other leader's lives into the book. "It exposes the terrible crucible and injustice of America’s penal system and the struggle by those trapped within its embrace to live lives of dignity, meaning, and purpose."

I've said it before and I'll say it again - there are times when listening draws me deeper into a book, rather than reading a physical copy. Our Class is one of those cases. Prentice Onayemi was the reader and his performance was excellent. Onayemi has a rich, full, resonant tone to his voice that is so pleasant to listen to. His speaking is modulated and his pacing is perfect. There are many emotional elements to this audiobook and Onayemi captures them without losing that resonance or becoming strident. Instead, that low tone seems to underline and emphasize the work with quiet power. He was the perfect choice for the narrator. ( )