Audiobook · read by volunteers
O Southland!
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
Read by Annie Coleman Rothenberg, JemmaBlythe, Fox in the Stars, Mark F. Smith, Tyler · 5 chapters · 9 min
About the book
O Southland! is a short poem by James Weldon Johnson, addressed, as its title says, to the American South. Five LibriVox volunteers read it here, recorded in celebration of Juneteenth in June 2006. Each reader finds their own way into the poem, bringing a different tone and emphasis, so that the five versions together form a small study in interpretation. Juneteenth, observed on 19 June, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, and these readings were made for that day. At about ten minutes in total, the collection can be heard in one go, or one version at a time. Johnson, best remembered for the words of Lift Every Voice and Sing, wrote poems, songs, essays and a novel, and was also a diplomat and an activist. This is a compact, thoughtful listen, and an easy way to discover him.
Introduction
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a writer, lawyer, diplomat and civil rights activist, and a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance. He is widely remembered for Lift Every Voice and Sing, and for his novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and served as a United States consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua before devoting himself to writing and to the NAACP. As with the other poems in this series, the pleasure is in the comparison: the same lines, the same order, and a different human voice each time.
O Southland! is a short poem addressed to the American South, whose history and contradictions run through so much of the country's literature. Juneteenth, the occasion for this recording, commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were told that they were free, and it is observed on 19 June. Its name joins “June” and “nineteenth”, and in 2021 it became a federal holiday in the United States. LibriVox volunteers recorded five different versions of the poem for the weekly poetry project of 18 June 2006, so there are five short chapters, one per version, with a total of around ten minutes. Five readers took part.
Because the poem is short, repeated listening is easy, and the differences between the readings become a pleasure in themselves. You may find that a pause or a change of pace in one version reveals something you missed in another.
It is a modest recording, but a fitting one for a day of remembrance and reflection. The set is small, yet it rewards a second pass, when you stop following the words and start noticing the voices.
Public domain
James Weldon Johnson died in 1938: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text