Heads of the Colored People

Narrator Adenrele Ojo has the vocal dexterity to keep up with the many stories in this collection. Presented together, they are a meditation on black identity in contemporary America. Ojo switches effortlessly between humor, anger, and despair, mirroring the characters' range of emotional experiences. She brings us snippy young mothers and depressed teenagers with equal measures of grace and realism. Her tone is knowing, arch, and calculated--as smart as most of the characters. Ojo's inflections help us laugh whenever possible as she highlights the sarcasm sprinkled throughout each story. Listeners will lose themselves in this collection as the narratives resonate with their own struggles or intrigue them to experience perspectives different from their own. M.R. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine