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Black Me Out

By: Laura Jane Grace
Narrated by: Laura Jane Grace
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Publisher's summary

Laura Jane Grace doesn’t defy rock ‘n’ roll. She defines it. In an inspiring examination of identity and creativity, the founder and frontwoman of notorious punk band Against Me! recounts the story of her extraordinary life, her rise to fame, and the painful but powerful moments that have led her to where she is now. Accompanied by stripped-down interpretations of her most personal and political songs - including “Walking Is Still Honest”, “I Was a Teenage Anarchist", and “The Ocean” - Grace traces her intersecting narratives as a punk rock anarchist navigating the mainstream music industry, and a trans woman struggling to live as her true self. “Being a musician,” she shares early on, “is just as much who I am as being transgender. I can’t change it.”

Delivering her story with painful honesty and wicked humor, Black Me Out invites listeners to not only hear Grace’s complicated journey through gender dysphoria, addiction, mental health, and artistic integrity, but recognize the universal pursuit of our authentic selves. Track the common journey with a modern icon.

©2021 Laura Jane Grace (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.
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About the Creator and Performer

Laura Jane Grace is a major figure in today’s rock scene, the acclaimed author of Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, and a transgender icon.
In 2012, Grace went public with her gender transition in the pages of Rolling Stone. As the lead singer and founder of the band Against Me!, founded in Florida in the late 1990s, Grace has been an outspoken political critic, writing songs exploring themes of environmentalism as well as personal and social liberation. But her transition allowed her to explore music truly written from her heart and without metaphorical cloaks cast over the lyrics. The result was the group’s critically acclaimed Shape Shift With Me. In 2017, Against Me! opened for Green Day’s Revolution Radio tour, and Grace received the Icon Award from Alternative Music Press. In 2018, she released Bought to Rot on Bloodshot Records with Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers. Grace and her Against Me! bandmates are currently writing the follow-up to Shape Shift With Me. Whether solo or in collaboration, Jane’s music is based in country and folk-rock but with a penchant for noise and anarchy.
In 2020, Laura released her critically-acclaimed solo record Stay Alive, her first release for Polyvinyl Records.
Along with her music and activism, Grace has served as Music Director for MTV's Rebel Music, a series of documentary films about youth, music, and global social change, focused on youth protest movements in the most challenging and turbulent parts of the world. Additionally, along with AOL Studios, she released her 10-episode docuseries titled True Trans With Laura Jane Grace, a body of work that went on to be nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award in the New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle, Culture category.
Grace was named to OUT Magazine's annual "OUT 100" in 2014. Grace’s memoir, Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, was named one of Billboard's "100 Greatest Music Books Of All Time."

Featured Article: Audible Essentials—The Top 100 LGBTQIA+ Listens of All Time


While LGBTQIA+ creators have been around for millennia, it’s only recently that we’ve been hearing more diverse, more queer-authored, and more queer-performed stories about the entire spectrum of LGBTQIA+ experiences and identities. This list—just like the community it represents—is meant to be fluid. But most importantly, it’s meant to celebrate and reflect on the issues faced by LGBTQIA+ people everywhere.

What listeners say about Black Me Out

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A note to the author end and to your audience, A positive review

Yes thank you. … your work is both brave and needed.

As I embrace age 60 this year (many more years than you have had to muddle through this far LOL)
I Have come to believe that……
That the nuclear family – – as the gold standard – is — well I’ve been calling it evil.

The Nuclear family itself is not evil… Just The fact that for ages our civilization has enforced it againt nature to be the gold standard …
as opposed to just an option, One of many options.

We have an innate right to self creation, self discovery and definition, and the right to create the archetype for our life out of our own growing.

And that this identity may change many times in the course of ones life

The “nuclear family as gold standard“ forces every other expression, Gender, identity, role, etc to be defined against it.

Instead of just letting us… Be
(yes, to thine own self be true)

However your story is much more interesting than my rant
. I wasn’t familiar with your bone-cutting music till today
but so glad to have found this connection to your art thru to audible.
And so happy that each new generation X, millennial, Gen Z, is slowly but surely liberating us from the Tierney of definition

Eartha Vas
Theraearthheart

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just an awesome look into Laura Jane Grace

a great follow up to here other book. Any fan of Against Me, or Laura herself should listen.

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Beautiful

This was beautiful. Been a fan of her and Against Me! ever since I saw them open for the Foo Fighters in 2008. I’ve come to appreciate people’s stories and honesty about themselves over time. So cool to hear it told with serenity, too.

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LJG inspires

The sincerity in which Laura Jane Grace told her story is moving and emotive. As a long time fan of Against Me!, it was gripping to hear the stories behind great songs.
The musical performances were also a wonderful addition for any fan!

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inspiring

I love Laura Jane Grace, what an inspiration, and the reworked versions of Against Me! classics are worth the price alone.

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Learning ourselves

Laura is one of those artists who keeps digging deeper into understandings life and living, and this piece was exactly what I needed at the moment

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Honest

I don't know the first thing about the band Against Me, so all of this story was new to me. I appreciated both the artist's story and music. Some listeners are not going to like her language -- she uses a lot of profanity.

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Interesting story of searching

A lot of us spend our lives searching for who we are. The author tells interesting stories of her life as a musician and figuring out her dysphoria, her term. She talks of how being a musician is who she is as much as being transgender. I wasn’t familiar with her music before but the songs chosen for this went well with her telling her story.

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Like hearing your best friend's story

This felt like Laura Jane and I were chilling on the couch. She speaks so comfortably. The mixture between story and song was perfect.

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Spectacular honesty

Delivered by the artist with honesty and insight. Great musical samples add to the delivery. Great listen.

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