An unlikely figure kicked off Nashville's acclaimed Southern Festival of Books: Jack White.
Beyond his status as one of Music City's most acclaimed rock stars and the owner of Third Man Records, White is also a published poet.
And on Thursday, Oct. 15, a line wrapped around the block outside of Third Man Records' The Blue Room for White's poetry reading.
As a part of The Southern Festival of Books, one of the nation's oldest and largest free literary celebrations, White hosted "an evening of poetry, conversation, and community" with special guest poet Maya C. Popa, a Romanian-American writer and the author of three poetry collections.
With the venue at capacity, White and Popa took the stage for a different kind of performance than fans typically
see at The Blue Room.
Here's your look inside the sold-out event.
Why Jack White is a Shakespeare nerd
First, Popa recited poems about everything from highways to desire, including titles from her new book, "If You Love That Lady," which was published by W. W. Norton in July.
White appeared next, reading from his book, "Jack White Collected Lyrics and Selected Writing Volume 1," a 2025 release that includes poems, journal entries, essays and lyrics across White's solo work and various projects.
White recited a short poem, "I Have Burned Bridges Across Oceans," about the corrosive nature of grudges. Another of his works mused on "artificial plants and artificial clothes."
One humor-laced piece, "Ladders," drew a comparison between the safety concerns on stepladders and the risk associated with social ascent.
"People have died," White read. "And climbing the corporate ladder? / No different." The audience chuckled.
White read only one poem that was not his own, choosing instead an excerpt from William Shakespeare's "Richard III." In it, Richard laments a world built for lovers while casting himself as an outsider, a physically deformed hunchback bound to be alone.
"I've been reading a lot of William Shakespeare in the last few months," White said.
"You can relate to it to modern times," he continued. "It's still the same emotions, still the same human-to-human interactions."
White said he's inspired by the rhythm of Shakespeare's work. "It almost, at times, sounds like he's reading it to a toddler," he said, describing the clarity he finds beneath the playwright's more than 400-year-old language.
"To read something from centuries ago that could make you laugh or cry or even think about anything is such a beautiful accomplishment."
Jack White shares the difference in writing music, poems
Popa pointed out that White read Shakespeare beautifully, leaning into the performance aspects of it.
Like Shakespeare, Popa pointed out that White often breaks patterns in his own poems to signal shifts. White agreed.
"There's some theories out there about why people like music, that it's the recognition of patterns and the breaking of those patterns," White said, or the disruption of what the listener expects to happen next.
He compared the concept to writing, where audiences are guided toward certain expectations before an artist deliberately subverts them.
"It's the same thing with written word too," he added. You have to set the listener, or the reader, up for a certain mold and then purposely twist it.
"The breaking of that pattern makes you enjoy it 10 times as much."
White said that, although he loves writing music, he's working under the constraints of packaging the song into verses and choruses. In poetry, he feels more free.
Why Jack White is already planning another poetry book
White and Popa ended their conversation by addressing AI.
Nodding back to how Shakespeare's work has stood the test of time, Popa said that there's a "visceral sense that this thing has been made by a human being."
"It's nice to see the younger generation right now, really young kids now, already disliking this concept of AI and this kind of nonsense," White said.
"If you care enough, you're always going to seek out this emotion or creation from an actual human being," he added, explaining that even if you love computerized dance music, you're still seeking out the human being that made it.
"I've had a year of a lot of loss in my life, but it's also had a lot of beautiful electrical moments of inspiration, and I've been very inspired in the last three months," he said.
Over the last few months, both White's musical and personal life have transformed.
White's wife of four years, singer Olivia Jean, filed for divorce in Nashville in June, citing irreconcilable differences. White also released his seventh studio album, "Frozen Charlotte," and recently reunited The Raconteurs live on stage for the first time since 2019 during his two-night run in Nashville.
Throughout it all, White said he's been sleeping next to a guitar and a pad of paper every night.
"I was scared to put a whole book of poetry out, but now I feel like it doesn't get seen as a pretentious act, and it can be more purely received. I feel more comfortable to do it again," he shared.
White plans to release another book of poetry next year.
To learn more about The Southern Festival of Books, which runs Oct. 17 and 18 downtown, head to sofestofbooks.org.
Audrey Gibbs is a music and culture reporter at The Tennessean. You can reach her at agibbs@tennessean.com or on Instagram at @audreyraegibbs.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jack White shares poetry at Southern Festival of Books
