WEDNESDAYS WITH DENISE: September 25, 2024
Earlier this year Norton/Liveright published Skip Tracer by Jive Poetic. I will admit my unhipness when I confess Jive Poetic was a new voice to me—I wasn’t even sure if he was one person or a collective! And while that admission is embarrassing, it also served me as I read this exciting book, a memoir-in-poems, as Jive Poetic “contain(s) multitudes” and explores identity/multiple identities. His book is formatted like a DJ’s set list. (Jive Poetic is also DJ…) Through sections that invoke cassettes, reels, turntables, 45s, and a bonus track, he invokes the poet’s family and ancestors, including his grandfather “Skip.” Jive Poetic writes in his introduction “there are beats when I am you and me, and we are all of us in the mix.” Now I can attest I’m a tiny bit hipper. Now I can attest I’m a fan. You can hear him reading the first poem “Go Home” from the collection here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg7idQLAqUM
And read a little about his process here:
https://poetrysociety.org/poems-essays/in-their-own-words/jive-poetic-on
Congratulations, Jive!

I really enjoyed reading this memoir. I love that it was a mixture of poems and prose. The poems were about Jive's ancestry and family connections to various countries. The book was also about music, which was evident from the 11 sections named after parts of a sound system (i.e. 8-track cassette, multitrack, etc.). The photographs included were great.