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Olio Live
The word "olio" means a hodgepodge, or a miscellaneous collection of literary or musical selections. In Olio Live - a very special one-night performance recorded live at the Minetta Lane Theater in February 2019 - poet Tyehimba Jess introduces listeners to his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Olio.
He is joined on stage by writer, editor, and Literaryswag founder Yahdon Israel, as well as a stellar cast of actors interpreting a selection of the poems from the collection. You’ll meet William "Blind" Boone, Sissieretta Jones, and a host of other characters, all based on real historical figures from the ragtime scene at the turn of the 20th century. As you listen, Jess’s poetry asks you to consider the nature of identity, performance, and ever-present history.
Tyehimba Jess is the author of two books of poetry, Leadbelly and Olio. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Olio won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, The Midland Society Author’s Award in Poetry, and received an Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
Yahdon Israel is a writer, editor, and creator of Literaryswag. He has written for Avidly, The New Inquiry, Brooklyn Magazine, LitHub, and Poets and Writers. He is the host of the Literaryswag Book Club, and the host of LIT, a weekly web series about books and culture.
He is joined on stage by writer, editor, and Literaryswag founder Yahdon Israel, as well as a stellar cast of actors interpreting a selection of the poems from the collection. You’ll meet William "Blind" Boone, Sissieretta Jones, and a host of other characters, all based on real historical figures from the ragtime scene at the turn of the 20th century. As you listen, Jess’s poetry asks you to consider the nature of identity, performance, and ever-present history.
Tyehimba Jess is the author of two books of poetry, Leadbelly and Olio. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Olio won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, The Midland Society Author’s Award in Poetry, and received an Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
Yahdon Israel is a writer, editor, and creator of Literaryswag. He has written for Avidly, The New Inquiry, Brooklyn Magazine, LitHub, and Poets and Writers. He is the host of the Literaryswag Book Club, and the host of LIT, a weekly web series about books and culture.
2 pages, Audible Audio
First published June 6, 2019
9 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Tyehimba Jess
21 books77 followersTyehimba Jess is the author of leadbelly and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Olio. leadbelly was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. Library Journal and Black Issues Book Review both named it one of the "Best Poetry Books of 2005." Jess's second book, Olio, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the 2017 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, and the 2017 Book Award for Poetry from the Society of Midland Authors. It was also a finalist for the 2016 National Books Critics Circle Award, 2017 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and the 2017 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Library Journal called it a "daring collection, which blends forthright, musically acute language with portraiture" and Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called it "Encyclopedic, ingenious, and abundant" and selected it as one of the five best poetry books of 2016.
Jess, a Cave Canem and NYU alumnus, received a 2004 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was a 2004-2005 Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Jess is also a veteran of the 2000 and 2001 Green Mill Poetry Slam Team, and won a 2000 – 2001 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry, the 2001 Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award, and a 2006 Whiting Fellowship. He exhibited his poetry at the 2011 TEDxNashville Conference. Jess is the Poetry and Fiction Editor of the African American Review and is Associate Professor of English at College of Staten Island.
Jess' fiction and poetry have appeared in anthologies such as Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, Beyond The Frontier: African American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Power Lines: Ten Years of Poetry from Chicago's Guild Complex, Slam: The Art of Performance Poetry. His poetry has appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, Brilliant Corners, Ploughshares, Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas, Mosaic, American Poetry Review, Indiana Review, Nashville Review and 580 Split.
Jess, a Cave Canem and NYU alumnus, received a 2004 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was a 2004-2005 Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Jess is also a veteran of the 2000 and 2001 Green Mill Poetry Slam Team, and won a 2000 – 2001 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry, the 2001 Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award, and a 2006 Whiting Fellowship. He exhibited his poetry at the 2011 TEDxNashville Conference. Jess is the Poetry and Fiction Editor of the African American Review and is Associate Professor of English at College of Staten Island.
Jess' fiction and poetry have appeared in anthologies such as Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, Beyond The Frontier: African American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Power Lines: Ten Years of Poetry from Chicago's Guild Complex, Slam: The Art of Performance Poetry. His poetry has appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, Brilliant Corners, Ploughshares, Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas, Mosaic, American Poetry Review, Indiana Review, Nashville Review and 580 Split.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
June 13, 2019
Olio is part history, part entertainment, part educational delivered as 4-D poetry. The performance and I use this word literally, is historical voices in conversations with one another, given in syncopated sonnets. These sonnets, which are Shakespearean sonnets, are performed separately and also together. In written form, if you held Olio in print, could be read from left to right, down the right side of the page, then down the left, and also straight down the middle, and all paths are intentional flows.
I appreciate this uncommon and complicated form of poetry. While lovers of poetry will relish Olio, listeners not into poetry will applaud the spectacular performance and delight in listening in on conversations between historical voices.
I appreciate this uncommon and complicated form of poetry. While lovers of poetry will relish Olio, listeners not into poetry will applaud the spectacular performance and delight in listening in on conversations between historical voices.
June 22, 2020
Second story was good though.
June 29, 2019
If new to you, listen to the last 11 minutes first
Review of the Audible Studios recording (2019), a theatrical version of Olio (2016)
If you aren't familiar with Tyehimba Jess's poetry collection Olio prior to listening to this audio performance, then the afterword interview is a good introduction as it gives a brief introduction to Jess's poetry structures and to the three-act structure of the theatrical performance. Alternatively, reading reviews of the Olio original will also give you an idea of the historical subjects of whom only a small portion are covered in this theatrical version.
Jess's syncopated poetry form is of two poems printed side by side in parallel which are intended to be read by various methods such as call and response and/or as a conversation. This format doesn't necessarily translate well to theatre, so instead the performance is structured as more of a historical overview of the lives of three of Jess's real-life historical figures: Blind Tom, Blind Boone and Sissieretta Jones. His intent is to create an aural history of the post-Civil War Black American culture which existed prior to the medium of early 20th century audio recordings.
The cast perform an outstanding job here and author Jess and interviewer Yahdon Israel help to orient you through the piece. This was more of an historical theatrical documentary rather than a poetry performance. For the poetry itself, the printed collection is still to be preferred.
Cast List:
Interlocutor: Tyehimba Jess
Eliza Bethune / Mark Twain performed by Piper Goodeve
Charity Wiggins / Eva Shoe performed by Jaylene Clark Owens
Blind Tom performed by David Pegram
Blind Boone performed by Esau Pritchett
Interviewer: Yahdon Israel
Sissieretta Jones performed by Kayla White
Pianist: Jeremy Gill
Olio Live was one of the free Audible Originals for members in June 2019.
Trivia and Links
The concluding work to Olio Live is a performance of a setting of jess's poem Sissieretta Jones, Carnegie Hall, 1902: O Patria Mia by composer George Lam, performed by soprano Kayla White and pianist Jeremy Gill. They also perform the work at the National Opera Center in a YouTube video here.
Review of the Audible Studios recording (2019), a theatrical version of Olio (2016)
If you aren't familiar with Tyehimba Jess's poetry collection Olio prior to listening to this audio performance, then the afterword interview is a good introduction as it gives a brief introduction to Jess's poetry structures and to the three-act structure of the theatrical performance. Alternatively, reading reviews of the Olio original will also give you an idea of the historical subjects of whom only a small portion are covered in this theatrical version.
Jess's syncopated poetry form is of two poems printed side by side in parallel which are intended to be read by various methods such as call and response and/or as a conversation. This format doesn't necessarily translate well to theatre, so instead the performance is structured as more of a historical overview of the lives of three of Jess's real-life historical figures: Blind Tom, Blind Boone and Sissieretta Jones. His intent is to create an aural history of the post-Civil War Black American culture which existed prior to the medium of early 20th century audio recordings.
The cast perform an outstanding job here and author Jess and interviewer Yahdon Israel help to orient you through the piece. This was more of an historical theatrical documentary rather than a poetry performance. For the poetry itself, the printed collection is still to be preferred.
Cast List:
Interlocutor: Tyehimba Jess
Eliza Bethune / Mark Twain performed by Piper Goodeve
Charity Wiggins / Eva Shoe performed by Jaylene Clark Owens
Blind Tom performed by David Pegram
Blind Boone performed by Esau Pritchett
Interviewer: Yahdon Israel
Sissieretta Jones performed by Kayla White
Pianist: Jeremy Gill
Olio Live was one of the free Audible Originals for members in June 2019.
Trivia and Links
The concluding work to Olio Live is a performance of a setting of jess's poem Sissieretta Jones, Carnegie Hall, 1902: O Patria Mia by composer George Lam, performed by soprano Kayla White and pianist Jeremy Gill. They also perform the work at the National Opera Center in a YouTube video here.
August 22, 2019
There are flashes of greatness, but overall I think the concept is too meandering to feel completely cohesive. Very well performed though. [AUDIBLE]
June 10, 2019
Refreshingly different. I enjoyed the variety of short performances.
November 2, 2019
Full of outstanding individuals performances, but too disjointed to rate higher. Still well worth experiencing.
November 17, 2019
I personally didn't like this book much. Some stories were very interesting, like the "Blind Boone" part, and the message of preserving through hardships - but I couldn't get past the initial first few minutes as it tainted the entire story for me.
The first few minutes has a heavy emphasis on racism, and makes the claim about how racism is still a prevalent today (which, personally I feel there are still cases of racism, but not as big of a problem as the author seems to imply). This really tainted my perception of the book - a book where all the stories were of people well over 100 years ago. I believe that the message in some of these stories, that being the hardship (in the case of Blind Boone having no eyesight) and the challenge they overcame in this era of America was amazing. No other story/presentation in this book enveloped my thought as much as Blind Boone's story did. I really appreciated that the discussion of racism barely came up in that section, whereas in the others it felt like it was a central point. His story is an inspiration, and if the book was just his story I'd give it a 5/5. But, given the very beginning, I just can't get past that.
The first few minutes has a heavy emphasis on racism, and makes the claim about how racism is still a prevalent today (which, personally I feel there are still cases of racism, but not as big of a problem as the author seems to imply). This really tainted my perception of the book - a book where all the stories were of people well over 100 years ago. I believe that the message in some of these stories, that being the hardship (in the case of Blind Boone having no eyesight) and the challenge they overcame in this era of America was amazing. No other story/presentation in this book enveloped my thought as much as Blind Boone's story did. I really appreciated that the discussion of racism barely came up in that section, whereas in the others it felt like it was a central point. His story is an inspiration, and if the book was just his story I'd give it a 5/5. But, given the very beginning, I just can't get past that.
September 10, 2019
The interview at the end was actually super interesting. That said, the core of it didn’t make sense to me (not knowing what Olio was), and I wish I had been given some of that background sprinkled throughout the production. It would have made more sense, and I probably would have appreciated the actual content more.
July 9, 2019
I really enjoyed the majority of this. I just didn't like the operatic portion. I'm just not a fan. Everything else was WONDERFUL. I particularly liked the discussion at the end regarding the content and structure.
July 17, 2019
Interesting. Different. Unusual. Poetic. Three and a half stars. The interaction was great. The interviews was fantastic. The singing, not so much. Not sure how to classify this material. Historical with a touch of artistic flare.
January 3, 2021
A phenomenal performance that uses poetry, rhyme, and music to bring history to life in portraying black musicians from the late 19th to early 20th Centuries, the struggles they faced, and the impact they had in a post Civil War environment.
October 24, 2019
As an auditory experience, I'm not sure Olio will be topped this year, for me. I adored every moment. To say it was an enlightening experience feels like an understatement. It felt like so much more than that.
It was profoundly educational. To hear the stories of under celebrated people of color and how their lives transcended and inspired so many others was a treasure. These stories are given new life through the poetic format: dialogue between historical figures who never got to have these enchanting conversations but whose insights are invaluable to understanding how and why and where struggles and issues of racism are rooted.
If it makes you uncomfortable, you need to keep listening. Because Olio is a truth everyone should hear.
For more reviews by me check out kdreidauthor.blogspot.com
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram @kdreidauthor, and join my Facebook readers group Hidden Worlds Book Club (hosted with my awesome author friends, Lindsey S. Frantz & Michelle Wilson!)
I have short stories featured in Ever After Again: A Hidden World's Anthology and The Last Words Anthology, Volume 2: When You Play With Magic.
I'd love to hear from you on Facebook or Instagram! You can also keep an eye on my Author Central page for upcoming work!
It was profoundly educational. To hear the stories of under celebrated people of color and how their lives transcended and inspired so many others was a treasure. These stories are given new life through the poetic format: dialogue between historical figures who never got to have these enchanting conversations but whose insights are invaluable to understanding how and why and where struggles and issues of racism are rooted.
If it makes you uncomfortable, you need to keep listening. Because Olio is a truth everyone should hear.
For more reviews by me check out kdreidauthor.blogspot.com
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram @kdreidauthor, and join my Facebook readers group Hidden Worlds Book Club (hosted with my awesome author friends, Lindsey S. Frantz & Michelle Wilson!)
I have short stories featured in Ever After Again: A Hidden World's Anthology and The Last Words Anthology, Volume 2: When You Play With Magic.
I'd love to hear from you on Facebook or Instagram! You can also keep an eye on my Author Central page for upcoming work!
July 12, 2020
At the end of the recording, in the interview section, a comment is made about how the motivation for this production is closely tied to the importance role of the audience in the experience of Black music. While literature is often experienced alone, Jess (and Israel) wanted to make sure the experience of this book of poetry was communal.
The book of poetry is a wonderful stand alone (although I always encourage anyone reading poetry to read the poems aloud), and this production of the book heightens it. I recommend both!
The book of poetry is a wonderful stand alone (although I always encourage anyone reading poetry to read the poems aloud), and this production of the book heightens it. I recommend both!
June 23, 2019
I loved this so much! Another free choice from Audible and I couldn't be happier! I've never listened to anything like this. I love poetry, but I was unfamiliar with the term "olio" or the "clap back" of poetry. The historical figures used here were so interesting and made me want to do more research and read more about each of them. Perfection, truly.
July 1, 2019
I listened to this in the car during the time I was also reading the book. They complement each other beautifully - you hear some of the poems read in different voices side by side and then together and it changes everything. If I had to guess, I would say Olio Live covers approximately 1/4 of the content from the book. I got a lot out of both when combined.
January 16, 2023
This audible audio was not something I would typically choose, mainly because poetry is not a genre I've ever truly enjoyed. I chose this because I wanted to go outside my comfort zone and am happy to share that I truly enjoyed listening. This listening opportunity provided me with a different perspective that I desperately needed. Thank you!
October 1, 2019
August 2019 (Audible Original, maybe June/July);
This was a lovely, audio journey experience, with far more pieces read and performed in concert. I hadn't expected the format, but I loved the live stage performance feel and definitely felt the shifts in focus with the reinterpretations each time.
This was a lovely, audio journey experience, with far more pieces read and performed in concert. I hadn't expected the format, but I loved the live stage performance feel and definitely felt the shifts in focus with the reinterpretations each time.
April 12, 2021
Wow just wow.
This poetry was great and the stories it told of historical black artists and their struggle was beautiful.
You can read two sonnets together like a conversation and apparently some of them backwards. I now want to read the full version
This poetry was great and the stories it told of historical black artists and their struggle was beautiful.
You can read two sonnets together like a conversation and apparently some of them backwards. I now want to read the full version
October 15, 2022
Turn of the century Black music is a topic of which I know very little, but in this production the history comes alive through verse, music and spoken word. OLIO Live should be required listening for all history students. Artistically done and enlightening.
June 8, 2019
Was pleasantly surprised to hear one of my friends doing the audio on this!!
June 19, 2019
Unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. These selections leave me wanting more.
June 19, 2019
An amazing performance by a multifaceted cast that brings to life the voices of past performers and the long-lasting impact that they had on society that still rings true today.
June 19, 2019
Different from anything I’ve read as of recent. I enjoyed the history and I absolutely enjoyed the performances.
June 21, 2019
It's cool and different from anything else I've listened to. It wasn't bad, but I just couldn't link with it.
June 21, 2019
Might have to get the full book now
June 24, 2019
Spectacular!
A beautifully done presentation of poetry, history and opera combined in a special presentation with multiple voices traveling straight to the heart.
A beautifully done presentation of poetry, history and opera combined in a special presentation with multiple voices traveling straight to the heart.
June 24, 2019
Interesting if not monumental. Peek inside the horror that is slavery and abuse
June 24, 2019
This was an interesting book about black musicians in the era of slavery. There were some very interesting parts about their lives and what happened to them.
June 28, 2019
Performance was very good, just not what I was expecting. Interesting to say the least.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews