Keeping up with Reuben Jackson: Bon Appetit, COMP, Friday Night Jazz and more!
Three New Poems by Reuben Jackson Appear in COMP Journal
In their new volume, the interdisciplinary journal COMP has published three outstanding new poems by poet Reuben Jackson. Read them here. "Reflection no. 9" has Reuben looking inward, examining what he once imagined a poet to look like. "Subway Platform Poem No. 5" is a pseudo haiku that connects a falling leaf to a woman's hair. "Promises, Promises," is an emblematic poem in Reuben's oeuvre for its balance of tenderness and tongue-in-cheek self-reflection. Additionally, COMP published a short interview with the poet which is worth a read here.
Friday Night Jazz Archived by the AAPB
Reuben Jackson's long-running and wildly popular Friday Night Jazz! has been collected and archived by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation). You can listen here to all 17 3-hour long shows which first appeared on Vermont Public Radio. The remaining 128 shows can be found at the archives.
From AAPB: "The Friday Night Jazz collection offers listeners one of the types of jazz-oriented programming in which public radio has excelled over the years: shows created by knowledgeable hosts with little input from station management. Curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s Duke Ellington Collection for more than twenty years and currently an archives specialist at the University of the District of Columbia’s Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives, Reuben Jackson, reared in Washington, D.C., moved to Vermont in 2012 to teach. His Friday Night Jazz program on VPR soon 'became appointment listening for fans' throughout the state, the Bennington Banner, reported. Author of music reviews that have appeared in the Washington Post, Jazz Times, and on NPR’s All Things Considered, and a nationally-recognized poet whose works has been collected in more than 40 anthologies, Reuben brings both an informed and personal approach to hosting Friday Night Jazz. 'I am drawn to jazz's emotional and structural possibilities,” he states. “It allows the player room for his or her musical personality to profoundly shape the musical direction and output.'"
Reuben Helps Assemble a Poem for Bon Appetit Magazine
Writer, Kwame Alexander asked "12 writerly friends" to help create a poem for mother's day in the tradition of a fantastic corpse drawing. Each writer took the prompt "I am becoming my mother" and created a single stanza from which Kwame assembled one cohesive poem. Among the writers is ASP's very own Reuben Jackson. Read the entire poem here.
For those familiar with Reuben's work, it isn't hard to guess which stanza he composed.
Reuben Hosts WPFW's "The Sound of Surprise"
On May 1st, Reuben began a permanent gig as host of DC radio channel WPFW's "The Sound of Surprise." The show runs from 4 to 6pm and Reuben will be trading hosting duties every other Sunday with the program's creator, Larry Appelbaum.
WPFW (89.3) has been serving the DC metropolitan area since 1977 as a standout talk and jazz station. Entirely listener supported, WPFW does not play commercials.
Scattered Clouds is a volume of lyrical, emotionally forthright meditations on love, loss, and longing. The volume contains the complete text of the author’s award-winning first collection, fingering the keys; his nationally lauded poem, “For Trayvon Martin”; and his suite of ruminations on a long-time and deeply missed friend, the late barbershop owner Amir Yasin, and his widow Khadijah Rollins. These poems, exploring Amir’s late-life romance with Kadijah, became a national internet sensation.
An introduction by poet Abdul Ali places Jackson in his rightful context as a Black American poetry elder, who has influenced generations of younger poets with his musical wisdom as well as his poetry. Ali is a Cave Canem alum and the author of the poetry collection, Trouble Sleeping.