Jackie Kay's Other Lovers

Other Lovers and Bessie Smith



Here is an interview with Jackie Kay, from March 2016:


"Opening one of Jackie Kay’s books is like walking into a busy metropolitan bar that has accommodated within its walls the deep past, character and charm of a country pub. You know you will encounter stories comic and sad, that you will never leave thirsty, and that the mind will feel renewed with the spirit, musicality and colour of life.

Kay’s output is too prolific to give but a précis. Her second poetry book, Other Lovers (1993), explored the impact of colonialism and slavery on black culture, and it was a topic she returned to in her play The Lamplighter (2008). She has a written a sequence of poems about Bessie Smith, and she also wrote a biographical portrait of the great blues singer, which was published in 1997. 

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A key message from the article is that "Jazz and blues have been a lifelong love" of Jackie Kay.

This is a good starting point to the collection...which begins with poems focussed on the character of Bessie Smith.

You can check out her music on Youtube, of course. What a voice !

Jackie Kay even wrote and published a biography on Bessie Smith.

Now, if we turn to Other Lovers, we can recognise that "Kay explores the qualities of love in a variety of relationships, moving from the familiar—parent, child, lover—to the extraordinary, including a sequence on Bessie Smith."

She created this Youtube Interview in 2021, during which she read "The Red Graveyard" (which is in our collection but is not one of the examined poems). 

Let's read the poem ourselves.

She says the "blues told the truth" and is about "real life"  and "taps into loneliness." and "allows for a kind of transformation." 

She encourages us to tap into "the other" that is inside each of us. Kay says, "If you can recognise the other in you then your life can become meaningful in some way." (5-6minute mark).

She admits : "I grew up in an all white part of Glasgow and I made Bessie part of my extended imaginary family". 

In her book, she says "blues travels to where-ever blues lovers go". She continues, "The first time I saw Bessie Smith it really was like finding a friend... I was 12... I remember the cover captivated me. I stared at the image of her trying to remember who she reminded me of....I stroked her face. I soothed her. I felt sometimes shy staring at her... I had made a friend for life." (7minute mark of the video).

She can also be heard reading the poem here. 

In an article on the Black Atlantic narrative, the following words are said:

Kay has managed to situate Scottish literature in a wide frame of cultural associations through an intense exploration of the self that exceeds both the limits of the writer’s individuality and the constrictions of traditional narratives of collective memory.

Task:

Choose one of the following two poems (or both poems, if necessary): 

1. Even the Trees (hint: look at /listen to "Strange Fruit" .. but also the car crash that killed Bessie Smith.

2. The Right Season hint: look at slavery as business)

4. The Red Graveyard (hint: look here)

Hint: Research Bessie Smith

Research the blues, and the slave-trade, and American racism and create a 3 minute presentation explaining what your poem says to you. What can you see/hear/feel/taste as you are reading? What kind of world are you transported into and what is Kay's speaker saying about that world. Comment on the poetic techniques you feel are interesting. We will project the poem onto the board as you speak. 

Be ready to present your three minutes worth of golden insight to the class next Thursday.

Next Thursday: 1hr + on Jackie Kay and 1hr - on Dorian Gray.

I'm afraid this work won't be assessed, but will help our class move forwards.

 I also have to admit In the Pulman confuses me, as Bessie bought a Pullman train to travel from show to show... but the poem makes it sound like she is driving a Mercedes Benz Pullman Car

 can anyone help?





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