Unity in the Community, Queen Latifah’s new Audible podcast, is giving real heroes a moment to shine. The inspiring series profiles people who are making a difference in their communities and bringing hope back to others.

“These stories brought hope to me,” The Equalizer star declares to EBONY. “In the world that we live in, we need some inspiration and uplifting. And being called Unity in the Community was perfect, the idea of using U.N.I.T.Y and tying all of it together for us, it just made so much sense.”

Those heroes include Jesusa Riveraa non-profit case worker in Northern Indiana. “He helps farmworkers attend college, get job training and secure health care,” the star shares. “It helps you really understand what farm workers and migrants go through and how important their work is to the rest of us.”

Queen Latifah Audible series
Image: courtesy of Audible.

Walter Green is also profiled. He’s the owner of Uncle Willie’s Wings in Newark, New Jersey, where Latifah hails from.

“He’s a restaurant owner who bought from local restaurants to help them stay in business during the COVID crisis and then donated all that food to people who needed it. So he helped on both sides” she says. “It really comes back to the community at the end of the day, and what we can do in our own communities to help out. It just takes one person to decide they want to see the change.”

Audible has been the perfect place to share these uplifting stories. “So many of my friends and people I know are listening to stories in their cars and homes. It's a way for us to orally paint pictures that people can see with their ears,” exclaims Latifah.“That's something that I'm very comfortable doing in terms of voiceovers and narration. To be able to partner with Audible, it's great that they can help guide us and help us grow.”

Unity in the Community isn’t the only project that the actress has with Audible. On March 9, Monumental launches on the platform. “It's basically the retelling of the story of Harriet Tubman, her life and her impact on our history, as well as the abolitionist movement in North New Jersey.” It coincides with a new Tubman monument being erected in Harriet Tubman Square (formerly known as Washington Park) in Newark, New Jersey. “It’s an immersive project. And there's this amazing design that's going up. You'll be able to hear me tell her story and it is riveting. I learned so much about Harriet Tubman and her life and what she went through: how young she was and how hard things were. There's so much more to her story.”

Listen to Unity in the Community, now available on Audible.