The conversations rideshare driver Jibril Adamu has with his customers in his car have inspired him to wrote poetry. He calls himself “The Rideshare Poet” and he is now a published author. Reciting his poetry in his car, Adamu reads aloud his poem called Switching Lanes: “Trust is a huge thing. Signal. There’s a good chance as you get closer, she may pull away.” Then, he explains, “This poem, on the surface it looks like it’s about negotiating traffic but it’s about boundaries, it’s about relationships.” When clients climb into his spotless car and see the books on display, a conversation ensues. He says passengers become friends when they share their stories with an empathetic listener. “The mundane and common places that we can find. And I try to use plain language to capture that conversational dialogue,” he said. Moments like a client going to the hospital with great worry or another client leaving a job interview completely elated, these journeys inspire Adamu, who says, “My thesis is that the ordinary things of life carry profound meaning.” After decades of writing, Adamu’s first poetry collection was published by AOS Publishing Montreal. “Ode to a Red Country Rooster” under the pen name JD Addams was named after an encounter with a very tenacious barnyard creature in New Brunswick. “This rooster just became a symbol of resilience for me, a symbol of endurance, perseverance and suffering,” he said. Adamu calls the book a collaboration because riders contributed drawings and suggestions and many riders are people he relates to. After driving and doing other laborious jobs for years, the rideshare poet’s career is turning a corner, but Adamu says he won’t quit driving. “I have embraced the fact that the connection that I get from people, those 10 to 15 minute connections, I think is really important,” he said. “And it’s very vital. I love it.”
