Handholding: 5 kinds is a collection of experimental poetry and critical writing. It is a creative response to 5 artistic works by innovative American, African diaspora and European-based artists' work: Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate (recited by his son, Ernst), Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons, John Akomfrah's 7 Songs for Malcolm X, John Cage's 4'33 and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Each of these pieces strongly resonated with the author who consider them to be part of the larger creative community in which her work is made possible. The contents address undertones and overtones of race, sexuality, class, gender, ethnicity, power and art-making. There are separate introductions to each section that are reflections upon what each piece means to the author and how each of them came about, often inspired by conversations with other artists at conferences and artist residencies. The collection contains experimental text as well as digital download codes to five audio pieces. One is a "real time" response to the Kubrick film, the other is a collection of sound pieces inspired by the other artists, often recitations of the page-based texts.
This is the first text and sound collection of Tracie Morris' that is comprised of exclusively experimental work inspired by other innovative artists.