A Black Odyssey

Summary

A musical-poetic collaboration of epic portion. Performance poet SETH reads his poetry collection A Black Odyssey to the musical accompaniment of 28 diverse musicians.

Published in 2012, the collection’s language runs the gamut from the vernacular to the Elizabethan; everything from pattern poems, free verse, prose poems, sonnets to parodies of Mother Goose.

Modeled after Homer’s Odyssey, using it as an allegorical scaffolding for the poet’s own experience as a Black man in contemporary America, the author travels musically from one chapter to the next, each chapter offering varied musical textures to simulate Odysseus' varied challenges.

Musical styles vary from improvisational jazz, to jazz fusion, blues, experimental, alternative, electronic, to classical.