Skip Tracer

An innovative memoircomposed of poems, prose, and photographsthat engages with the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, cultural identity, music, and masculinity, by a poetry legend.Blending poetry and prose, music, and genealogy, Jive Poetics Skip Tracer is a memoir structured as a hybrid sound system (complete with records, tracks, decks, and channels), expertly curated to convey the complexity of Blackness in the Americas. In this ancestral and cultural excavation, Jive conducts archival and oral-history research into his familys connections to Jamaica, Panama, Brazil, and Cuba to explore the impact of culture, environment, and family on first- and second-generation Black Americans in the United States. He also traces the profound influence that hip-hop, soul, R&B, reggae, and other popular musical genres have had on himall the while performing a dynamic re-creation of his legendary onstage persona on the page. A raw and affecting indictment of police violence and racism in the United States, Skip Tracer is also a searingly honest exploration of personal identity, power, and privilegeall expressed in the unmistakable language, rhythm, and style that characterizes Jives live performances.