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BreakBeat Poets
Can I Kick It?
Award-winning poet and playwright Idris Goodwin interrogates and remixes our cultural past in order to make sense of our present and potential futures.
“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.
“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.
72 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2019
3 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Idris Goodwin
24 books34 followersIdris Goodwin is an multi award-winning writer and storyteller whose work spans stage, screen, audio, and page. From his widely produced breakbeat plays and historical dramas such as How We Got On, Hype Man: A Break Beat Play, This is Modern Art and Bars and Measures to books for young readers including Your House is Not Just a House (Harper/Clarion) and King of the Neuro Verse (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum) Goodwin’s been commissioned and or produced by The Kennedy Center, The Eugene O'Neill Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Arena Stage. A United States Artist Fellow and seasoned educator, he has created content for HBO Def Poetry, Sesame Street, and NPR. Idris is an Associate Professor of Dramatic Writing at Arizona State University.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 23, 2021
LITTTY! Yo, honestly - every poem was fire. I know that seems like hyperbole, but it's not.
Idris Goodwin is fantastic at distilling Black life, art and culture. He sends it back to us in verses that praise elements quintessential to our non-monolithic Black experience. In Can I Kick It? Goodwin talks about the beauty of Afrocentric names that melt resumes and disrupt the roll call, the strength and skill of our hip hop artists ie. MF Doom & Wu-Tang. He's not above ridiculing the sometimes the idiocy of our hip hop artists: Harriet Tubman to Kanye "slavery was a choice" West. He highlights the necessity for skincare maintenance in the form of liberally applying vaseline and lotion to keep your skin ash-free in one of my favourite pieces: Ashy to Classy: An Ode to Lotion and he talks about the things that were stolen from Black and Indigenous folks/culture, and all the things that can't be stolen from us ever again inTaken.
Two of my absolute favourite pieces are 1) an Ode to the Gospel Queen herself: Naomi Shelton called How To Listen to Gospel: An Ode to Naomi Shelton and 2) Lil Nas X Brings the Country Together - HE REALLY DID!! - think about it!
Anyway, Can I Kick It is so lit. It's only made better by the fact that he has a mixtape for this book where you can listen to some of the poetry read over beats and it's fantastic. It's quite an experience to listen to/read.
You can check out the mixtape here and you can read this book on Scribd!
Idris Goodwin is fantastic at distilling Black life, art and culture. He sends it back to us in verses that praise elements quintessential to our non-monolithic Black experience. In Can I Kick It? Goodwin talks about the beauty of Afrocentric names that melt resumes and disrupt the roll call, the strength and skill of our hip hop artists ie. MF Doom & Wu-Tang. He's not above ridiculing the sometimes the idiocy of our hip hop artists: Harriet Tubman to Kanye "slavery was a choice" West. He highlights the necessity for skincare maintenance in the form of liberally applying vaseline and lotion to keep your skin ash-free in one of my favourite pieces: Ashy to Classy: An Ode to Lotion and he talks about the things that were stolen from Black and Indigenous folks/culture, and all the things that can't be stolen from us ever again inTaken.
Two of my absolute favourite pieces are 1) an Ode to the Gospel Queen herself: Naomi Shelton called How To Listen to Gospel: An Ode to Naomi Shelton and 2) Lil Nas X Brings the Country Together - HE REALLY DID!! - think about it!
Anyway, Can I Kick It is so lit. It's only made better by the fact that he has a mixtape for this book where you can listen to some of the poetry read over beats and it's fantastic. It's quite an experience to listen to/read.
You can check out the mixtape here and you can read this book on Scribd!
February 29, 2020
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
January 13, 2021
This was such a fun read and listen. Check out the band-camp to listen to the spoken word poetry over boom bam beats aswell as some techno sounds. An enjoyable but heavy hitting series of poems.
October 1, 2019
Can I Kick It? is part homage to rap and sampling in hip hop, part celebration of Black art and life, and part indictment of the difficulties of living in a Black body in America. It is funny and fierce and powerful. “Wu Tang is for the Children: An Ode to the Clean Version” is a great anthem for parents who want to share rap with their kids but not with all the curse words. “Break Down” riffs on Kurtis Blow’s song “The Breaks” and admonishes the use of blackface. “Lost in Space, August 23, 2016” is a difficult and moving poem about the kinds of bodies that are allowed to take up space and feel safe in public. A wonderful book, you’ll want to read these poems multiple times. I know I did.
November 26, 2019
All of Idris Goodwin’s, ‘Can I Kick It?’ is written with the backdrop of history as well as current social divisions. These issues are throughout North America and won’t be examined in any new way in this review but if you “get it”, you’ll get most of this book. One is only attempting to give a broad overview in Idris, ‘Can I Kick It?’, to clarify what the reader can expect while reading. If you are uncomfortable with racial issues, you definitely don’t have to read this essay or Goodwin’s book. However, if you’re a little bit cool, you will.
I begin Idris Goodwin’s, ‘Can I Kick It?’ 3 weeks ago during a down time at my job as a delivery driver for a garage. It is read while listing to the radio while waiting for car parts. It is finished today. I read it again when I get home tonight (it is 64 pages long).
Goodwin is in deep with musical culture, specifically hip-hop and beat box. He is a rapper, playwright and essayist, as well as poet. The book shares title with a Tribe Called Quest song, the cover is a picture of him in a record store and, well, the blurbs on the back of the book mention it, too. It’s probably safe to say that one may hear music in their head while reading this. There certainly seems to be underlying patterns of beat.
The first poem of the collection, “Back to the Afro-Future, 1965” (p1-2), brings us to the commonality many of us have in not being able to see the past beyond when our parents were in their 20s (I could be on my own on this, but hey, this review is for fun). In Goodwin’s case this seems to be around the beginning of American Black popular music (I will use the word, “Black”, as it used in the work and because it is a growing word that already has strength, obviously) and brings us to the rhythm of the originators of hip-hop.
The next great poem is, “T.R.O.Y” (p. 6) where Goodwin points out a number of his influences. This is where the reader is able to incorporate beat behind the words. This poem makes one think of writing, performing and reading. It is neat for a poet.
Good advice is offered in, “How to Rhyme in a Cipher” (p. 7-8), ironically yet maturely. One can see how to create art in a group with general rules that may be followed.
On page 12, “Pop Off”, is found. It is about a feeling of betrayal everyone knows (at least at 40) when politics, and the choosing of sides, divides friendships. Although this poem is a bit hard to follow, it is interesting to follow in a clean sort of way, if that makes sense. It is tight. It gets the emotion of the situation.
It is interesting how, “Break Down” (p 13-15), could involve the politics of the most recent Canadian election and Trudeau’s blackface. It is about white people wearing blackface. The point is that while some white people see no problem with it, nothing good ever comes of it. The poem goes from the innocent yet threatening, “You put Black/On/Your face/Black it up, Black it up, Black it up”, to, “Halloween Party/Wig with dreds”, to, “A klansman roped someone dead” (p 14). This poem shows how blackface degrades humor, culture and values and really is a threat.
The poem with the most fun is, “The Meaning of the Dunk” (p. 24-6). There is, however, a bit of poetic envy that also calls into question what it means to be a man. It begins by stating (the obvious;)) how great the dunk is and it’s relevance to society. However, it ends with, “Declaration/I am a man/Not a boy” (p. 26). It is noted here that any “Declaration” of absolute knowledge of manhood within the 21st century literature is probably meant to make one question more than feel certainty.
The next poem, “Of the Lord” (p. 27), is a great role-call of epic names. It makes one want to say sounds out loud.
Questions of existence and value are again brought forward in, “Tao of House Party” (p. 32), where the Goodwin again looks back to youth and offers advice for dealing with bullies, family and how to be on the scene. Irony abounds!
Pages 36-7 offer an in depth vantage onto how twisted reality really is, referencing the Game of Thrones creators writing a show about a present day US where slaves are still held in the south. It points out how shows like these feed the hatred with more perversion which in turn is reflected back on everyone.
Truth is written on how black Americans have and do interact with capitalism in “The Wiz-Live from the Brown Theatre, Louisville, KY, December, 2018”. It finishes the cycle of observed capitalism in the book where Africans are used as currency, then Black people’s culture is stolen from them, and now everything is sold back.
The next terrifically musical writing is, “Break Down” (p. 55-60) where the poet takes control of his body, again, with questions.
The final poem, “Bonus Track: Say My Name” (p. 61-4), gets the reader to question the nature of these identifying marks we call, “names”. How they are used in relationships of power, love and everything in between. It is a strong finish. I’d take some quotes from it but I’d mangle the final poem and no one wants that…
Idris Goodwin’s, ‘Can I Kick It?” is recommended to anyone who enjoys poetry. As mentioned above, it makes one want to write, perform and read.
I begin Idris Goodwin’s, ‘Can I Kick It?’ 3 weeks ago during a down time at my job as a delivery driver for a garage. It is read while listing to the radio while waiting for car parts. It is finished today. I read it again when I get home tonight (it is 64 pages long).
Goodwin is in deep with musical culture, specifically hip-hop and beat box. He is a rapper, playwright and essayist, as well as poet. The book shares title with a Tribe Called Quest song, the cover is a picture of him in a record store and, well, the blurbs on the back of the book mention it, too. It’s probably safe to say that one may hear music in their head while reading this. There certainly seems to be underlying patterns of beat.
The first poem of the collection, “Back to the Afro-Future, 1965” (p1-2), brings us to the commonality many of us have in not being able to see the past beyond when our parents were in their 20s (I could be on my own on this, but hey, this review is for fun). In Goodwin’s case this seems to be around the beginning of American Black popular music (I will use the word, “Black”, as it used in the work and because it is a growing word that already has strength, obviously) and brings us to the rhythm of the originators of hip-hop.
The next great poem is, “T.R.O.Y” (p. 6) where Goodwin points out a number of his influences. This is where the reader is able to incorporate beat behind the words. This poem makes one think of writing, performing and reading. It is neat for a poet.
Good advice is offered in, “How to Rhyme in a Cipher” (p. 7-8), ironically yet maturely. One can see how to create art in a group with general rules that may be followed.
On page 12, “Pop Off”, is found. It is about a feeling of betrayal everyone knows (at least at 40) when politics, and the choosing of sides, divides friendships. Although this poem is a bit hard to follow, it is interesting to follow in a clean sort of way, if that makes sense. It is tight. It gets the emotion of the situation.
It is interesting how, “Break Down” (p 13-15), could involve the politics of the most recent Canadian election and Trudeau’s blackface. It is about white people wearing blackface. The point is that while some white people see no problem with it, nothing good ever comes of it. The poem goes from the innocent yet threatening, “You put Black/On/Your face/Black it up, Black it up, Black it up”, to, “Halloween Party/Wig with dreds”, to, “A klansman roped someone dead” (p 14). This poem shows how blackface degrades humor, culture and values and really is a threat.
The poem with the most fun is, “The Meaning of the Dunk” (p. 24-6). There is, however, a bit of poetic envy that also calls into question what it means to be a man. It begins by stating (the obvious;)) how great the dunk is and it’s relevance to society. However, it ends with, “Declaration/I am a man/Not a boy” (p. 26). It is noted here that any “Declaration” of absolute knowledge of manhood within the 21st century literature is probably meant to make one question more than feel certainty.
The next poem, “Of the Lord” (p. 27), is a great role-call of epic names. It makes one want to say sounds out loud.
Questions of existence and value are again brought forward in, “Tao of House Party” (p. 32), where the Goodwin again looks back to youth and offers advice for dealing with bullies, family and how to be on the scene. Irony abounds!
Pages 36-7 offer an in depth vantage onto how twisted reality really is, referencing the Game of Thrones creators writing a show about a present day US where slaves are still held in the south. It points out how shows like these feed the hatred with more perversion which in turn is reflected back on everyone.
Truth is written on how black Americans have and do interact with capitalism in “The Wiz-Live from the Brown Theatre, Louisville, KY, December, 2018”. It finishes the cycle of observed capitalism in the book where Africans are used as currency, then Black people’s culture is stolen from them, and now everything is sold back.
The next terrifically musical writing is, “Break Down” (p. 55-60) where the poet takes control of his body, again, with questions.
The final poem, “Bonus Track: Say My Name” (p. 61-4), gets the reader to question the nature of these identifying marks we call, “names”. How they are used in relationships of power, love and everything in between. It is a strong finish. I’d take some quotes from it but I’d mangle the final poem and no one wants that…
Idris Goodwin’s, ‘Can I Kick It?” is recommended to anyone who enjoys poetry. As mentioned above, it makes one want to write, perform and read.
November 6, 2020
“Can I Kick It?” By Idris Goodwin is a poetry collection so fantastic, it made me feel as if I’d never held poetry in my hands until this moment. It made me feel like I’m just now understanding what poetry can do and be for the first time.
•
Goodwin takes so many unique concepts, rhyme schemes, and uses of meter for a spin, weaving them all in and out of each other effortlessly for a collection that flows perfectly from moment to moment, concept to concept. I originally started writing down which of the titles in this were my favorite, and quickly found it impossible.
•
It’s the kind of book that if you go to highlight a quote, you highlight the whole poem. If you go to read a poem to a friend, you’ll want to read them the collection in its entirety.
•
Lovers of poetry, pop culture, rap, hip-hop, and influential Black voices should get a copy in their hands ASAP.
•
Goodwin takes so many unique concepts, rhyme schemes, and uses of meter for a spin, weaving them all in and out of each other effortlessly for a collection that flows perfectly from moment to moment, concept to concept. I originally started writing down which of the titles in this were my favorite, and quickly found it impossible.
•
It’s the kind of book that if you go to highlight a quote, you highlight the whole poem. If you go to read a poem to a friend, you’ll want to read them the collection in its entirety.
•
Lovers of poetry, pop culture, rap, hip-hop, and influential Black voices should get a copy in their hands ASAP.
August 28, 2019
I had the honor in getting to kick it with this book. Yes, I did. Goodwin is up to his magical lyricism again with his new collection of poems. Always dropping knowledge (and bars) in a fantastical, engaging fashion, this book delivers. And then some. Take a ride with his groovy flow of meter and rhyme. Check out his masterful and deliberate diction. Note his storytelling talents and READ this book. You will not be let down. Can you kick it? Yes, you should. You should. You should. You should. I did. And I am better for it.
Read
August 8, 2020Idris Goodwin's Can I Kick It? covers such vast territory, so well, as to be difficult to review. From Christopher Columbus' violence to contemporary cell phone videos of white supremacist violence, and from the pulsing beats of Motown and hip-hop to the perfect three-pointers and the thrilling dunks, Goodwin carries us through history and politics in a joyful, sad collection of poems that speak to our realty now just as surely as they did when published in 2019.
September 27, 2019
Idris Goodwin has a gift for taking the current moment and expressing it in a lyrical and poetic way while also wrapping it in the context of history. He melds the past, the present and even the future in a way that is relatable. I think this is why he resonates with so many people. Brilliant collection!
September 26, 2019
No question, its the beat
just before the beat drops;
sets out the track,
whereas talkers talk, as he says,
about "taking back the country",
this book is all about giving,
sharing & its rhythm.
just before the beat drops;
sets out the track,
whereas talkers talk, as he says,
about "taking back the country",
this book is all about giving,
sharing & its rhythm.
August 6, 2020
Goodwin uses hip hop effectively in these poems to explore music, race, and culture. “Lost in Space, August 23, 2016” and “Breaking Sweat” are two (of many) poems in this collection that explores the idea of being seen and prejudice in especially interesting ways.
October 2, 2021
I was sometimes out of my element with some of the sport and music references but the overall balance between serious social issues and pop culture praises, heavy allusions and light-hearted word play made this a worthwhile read. Goodwin left me much to think about.
October 27, 2019
I received an ARC of this book and have a review coming in LEO Weekly on Wednesday, but overall it was an excellent poetry collection.
August 5, 2023
Very well written poetry heavily inspired by hip-hop.
August 27, 2023
Ooooooo, “Of the Lord” is my jam!
November 13, 2023
My only complaint is that it’s not longer. Funky yet sobering, I loved it.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews