NEW YORK - The Apollo Theater audience cheered and cheered for Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the readers of "Between the World and Me."

A capacity crowd at the famed New York City venue was on hand Monday night for a stage recital of Coates' prize-winning book, one met throughout with applause and calls of approval.

Coates appeared unannounced and read briefly at the end of the roughly 100-minute event, following eight scheduled readers who included Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett, the rappers Common and Black Thought and Emmy-winning "Scandal" actor Joe Morton. The others were librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and stage actors Michelle Wilson, Greg Alvarez Reid and Pauletta Pearson Washington.

"Between the World and Me," published in 2015, is a letter from Coates to his son Samori and a hybrid of memoir, history, advice and condemnation of police violence against blacks. Coates won the National Book Award for the best-seller, which remains widely read and discussed. - AP