“Can I kick it?”
“Yes you can!”
—A Tribe Called Quest
Situated squarely in the oral traditions of hip-hop and BreakBeat Poetry, Idris Goodwin’s work bridges the divide between the reader and the poet. Combining the tongue-in-cheek and the irreverent with the melancholy and incisive, Goodwin’s poetry samples and re-purposes pop-culture—from Back to the Future to Prince, Missy Elliot to Dominique Wilkins—in order to reflect and remix the stories we tell ourselves and each other in order to live.
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Praise for Idris Goodwin’s plays:
“Goodwin makes a strong case for hip hop culture as a crucible where issues of racial identity, gender inequity, career ambition, and friendship converge and collide in illuminating ways.”
—The Boston Globe on Hype Man: A Break Beat Play“A grimmer-than-Grimm fairy tale for adults, set up like a rap energized topical cross between Waiting for Godot and No Exit.”
—San Francisco Chronicle on Blackademics