Tupelo Press, 2016
Third Voice, Kocher’s most recent collection, is a text deeply concerned with the transformations required to make a performance. Though Tyehimba Jess’s remarkable, Pulitzer Prize-winning Olio engages similar themes through similar approaches, Third Voice is a unique collection deserving of critical thought and commensurate praise. Both excel in their treatment of the performance of race as entertainment and as a way to buttress whiteness. Throughout Third Voice, Kocher uses skits, monologues, speeches, dialogues, jokes—even a one-act—to brilliantly oscillate between tragedy and humor.
—Kym Littlefield
