The Sunday Read: ‘The Kidnapped Child Who Became a Poet’
The Daily24 Sep 2023

The Sunday Read: ‘The Kidnapped Child Who Became a Poet’

“The weird thing about growing up kidnapped,” Shane McCrae, the 47-year-old American poet, told me in his melodious, reedy voice one rainy afternoon in May, “is if it happens early enough, there’s a way in which you kind of don’t know.”

There was no reason for McCrae to have known. What unfolded in McCrae’s childhood — between a day in June 1979 when his white grandmother took him from his Black father and disappeared, and another day, 13 years later, when McCrae opened a phone book in Salem, Ore., found a name he hoped was his father’s and placed a call — is both an unambiguous story of abduction and a convoluted story of complicity. It loops through the American landscape, from Oregon to Texas to California to Oregon again, and, even now, wends through the vaster emotional country of a child and his parents. And because so much of what happened to McCrae happened in homes where he was beaten and lied to and threatened, where he was made to understand that Black people were inferior to whites, where he was taught to hail Hitler, where he was told that his dark skin meant he tanned easily but, no, not that he was Black, it’s a story that’s been hard for McCrae to piece together.

McCrae’s new book, the memoir “Pulling the Chariot of the Sun,” is his attempt to construct, at a remove of four decades, an understanding of what happened and what it has come to mean. The memoir takes the reader through McCrae’s childhood, from his earliest memories after being taken from his father to when, at 16, he found him again.

his story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Episoder(2698)

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018

The aftermath of a mass shooting has become a familiar cycle in the United States: One side demands change, the other works to block it. But this time, it is the students who survived the assault who are pressing lawmakers to impose new restrictions on guns. Guest: Michael D. Shear, a White House correspondent for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

22 Feb 201822min

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018

The indictment secured by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, makes it clear that the most powerful weapon in Russia’s campaign to disrupt the 2016 election was Facebook. We look at how Russia used social media to sow divisions in the United States. Guest: Kevin Roose, who writes about technology for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

21 Feb 201820min

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018

In October, four American soldiers were ambushed by militants in a remote desert in Niger. What were they doing in Africa, and who were they fighting? It was all part of a shadowy war going back to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Guests: Alan Blinder, a national reporter for The New York Times; Rukmini Callimachi, who covers terrorism and the Islamic State for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

20 Feb 201828min

Monday, Feb. 19, 2018

Monday, Feb. 19, 2018

The Justice Department charged 13 Russians with illegally trying to disrupt the American political process, in a sophisticated plot to deepen the country’s divisions and turn Americans against one another. President Trump’s reaction to those charges suggests that plot is still working. Guest: Matt Apuzzo, a New York Times reporter based in Washington. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

19 Feb 201819min

Friday, Feb. 16, 2018

Friday, Feb. 16, 2018

The AR-15 rifle used in the shooting that left at least 17 people dead at a high school in Parkland, Fla., was purchased legally, according to a federal law enforcement official. How did a semiautomatic weapon originally designed for warfare become easier to buy than a handgun? Guests: C. J. Chivers, a New York Times investigative reporter and Marine Corps veteran; Richard A. Oppel Jr., a Times reporter specializing in coverage of domestic terrorism and the military. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

16 Feb 201823min

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018

President Trump has called for an overhaul of immigration that replaces a family-based system with a merit-based one. But what counts as merit? We also report on the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in which at least 17 people died. It was the 18th school shooting in the United States this year. Guests: Caitlin Dickerson, a national immigration reporter for The New York Times; Catherine Porter, Canada bureau chief for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

15 Feb 201821min

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

As a candidate, Donald J. Trump was very critical of the size of the national debt. As president, he has proposed a budget that would add $7 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. Republicans are saying nothing. Guest: Jim Tankersley, who covers taxes and the economy for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

14 Feb 201820min

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018

The House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, took to the floor for eight hours last week to protest a spending bill that did not include protections for the young immigrants known as Dreamers. Now, she says she wanted the bill to pass. What’s the risk for the Democratic Party? Guest: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who covers Congress for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

13 Feb 201817min

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