Picking up A Faster Grave, the hot pink, beating heart-laden chapbook by New Orleans poetess Skye Jackson gives you the same sugary rush you feel when tearing open a new album by a favorite band. And that makes sense. Poetry and music have always shared a symbiotic relationship.

photograph by Alisa Brooks

A Faster Grave is a project that is a year old now. Antenna, a local nonprofit, had an open call contest in 2018 “soliciting proposals for chapbooks that investigate the intersections and collaborative possibilities between literature and art (defined and interpreted broadly).” Jackson, who says she has written poetry since she was 14 years old, jumped at the opportunity and invited an unlikely collaborator along for the ride: ex-boyfriend Angel Perdomo who is an artist. The book is full of textured papers, small typographical musings Skye calls skyverbs (lowercase references to biblical Proverbs), pierced through hearts, glasses of wine, and Beyoncé apparitions every few pages flipping the middle finger up as you flip through the poet’s book. Poems about love and heartbreak are juxtaposed against philosophical soliloquies about art and family and of course, New Orleans. In the book’s title poem, the narrator speaks on her mother’s ferocious allegiance to Bunny Bread. In “Lessons,” the poet claims, “you call it / heartbreak / I call it / research.”  The words on Jackson’s pages are as loud as Tama drum beats in your mind as you read along.

Now in her final year in UNO’s Creative Writing program, Jackson is juggling a lot. A graduate of LSU with a degree in English, Jackson also graduated from Mississippi College School of Law. By day, she works in the legal realm and when not in class finds ways to keep creating. OffBeat talked to Skye Jackson, multi-tasker extraordinaire, about finding time to create, the healing power of poetry, and having coffee with Beyoncé.

Let’s start from the beginning. I see in your chapbook that you are a law school graduate! How did you make the decision to start writing poetry instead of practicing law? Were you always into poetry?

Good eye! Yes, I am. I graduated from law school in 2015, actually. I’ve been writing poetry since I was 14 years old – it’s something that I’ve always done, no matter what life situation I find myself in…I actually wrote a book of poetry while I was in law school! There was a time when you’d find me in the law library reading what I’d written to my friends as we studied for our exams or prepared for classes. Poetry has gotten me through everything.

To that note, my day job is actually still in the legal profession. I’m working as an advocate for a non-profit firm on a Covid-19 response team helping renters get access to grant relief so that they can stay in their homes during these unprecedented times. Through it all, I’m still balancing both – poetry and life in the legal world. It’s interesting…everyone always tells me that one day I’ll have to choose between the two, but I’ll keep juggling both until it gets to that point. 

You grew up in New Orleans and you have all of these references to local life in your work – tiny details someone who does not live here might not notice like Bunny Bread. Can you explain how the city informs your work? How do you think New Orleans differs from other places in terms of being a creative writer?

I love that you caught those details! They are so integral to understanding and entering A Faster Grave. New Orleans is a place with such a rich and storied culture. I am extremely influenced by it and have always been as a native of the city. My perspective is very Southern…I believe in good times, good food and good people. As a result of that, you’ll always find those elements present in my work. Good poetry comes from joy just as much as it comes from sorrow. I’m able to play with that in my work…to fluctuate between the freedom of being young and uninhibited but also the loneliness and heartbreak that can bring as well. 

A Faster Grave was actually inspired by my homecoming to New Orleans. I’d lived in Los Angeles for a few years and then returned home to seek my MFA. Those details that you see in the book all revolve around the things and people that I missed while I was away. New Orleans has always struck me as a fascinating place…you can go away for years and for the most part, when you return, the city will be just as you left it. It’s a place that thrives and lives in memory because it’s ageless – frozen in time, almost. I really appreciate that and try to convey that essence of New Orleans, and what the city means to me, in my work.

i remember appears courtesy of Tilted House Press

One thing that stands out is the Beyoncé middle finger art and the Beyoncé poem. I love this idea of you having coffee with Beyoncé and talking about the meaning of life and people’s expectations of you. You ask B in your poem “Why is so much expected of the artist?” and I’m curious why especially in times of trouble we look at celebrities and artists to explain the world to us. What’s your take on that?

I always find myself looking to creative and strong women for answers. I always have so many questions about this life. I read a lot of autobiographies and memoirs about successful women that I admire…I find myself always trying to make note of the things that they did or the choices that they made. I think that line also speaks to the way we elevate artists in our society – we think that since they seem so perfect and put together that they must have the answers to everything…when that couldn’t be further from the truth. Celebrity or not, people are people. We all face challenges in this life…no one is ever immune.

From “A Faster Grave,” by Angel Perdomo, courtesy of Antenna Press

In my poetry, I often place myself in conversation with artists that I admire. On some level, it feels cathartic to do that. I think that we are all connected, so I love the idea of sitting down with Beyoncé for a cup of coffee. She is an artist that believes in making space for and lifting up other Black artists, which is something that I deeply admire and also try to do as well.

At the moment, Skye Jackson is working on her thesis and “just crafting and working on poems for my first major collection of poems.” Recent accomplishments include being named a finalist in the Rattle Poetry contest where her poem was selected out of 18,000 submissions. She was awarded $500 and she will be published in their December issue where she has the opportunity to win the $5,000 Reader’s Choice Award if her work wins the popular vote.  

To order a copy of A Faster Grave, visit Antenna’s website here. Copies are also available through Garden District Books.