In recognition of National Library Week, the Museum, in partnership with Normal Public Library and Illinois Humanities, are pleased to host Angela Jackson, the fifth Illinois Poet Laureate, on Saturday, April 29 at 2:00 p.m. This free, hybrid program will be held in-person in the Café at Normal Public Library. If you are unable to attend in person, you can view the program through Normal Public Library's YouTube page by clicking here.
April is also National Poetry Month, and in honor of that, Ms. Jackson will be sharing portions of her work, including poems from her early work, to her most recent book of poetry More Than Meat and Raiment: Poems (2022). She will also share insight on writing poetry as a process and life work.
Angela Jackson is an award-winning poet, novelist, and playwright who has published three chapbooks and four volumes of poetry. Born in Greenville, Mississippi and raised on Chicago’s Southside, she was educated at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. Jackson is the fifth Illinois Poet Laureate, which is an honorary position selected by a committee of experts and subsequently appointed by the Governor. She joins only four other esteemed poets who have previously held this coveted title; Howard Austin, Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks and Kevin Stein. As Poet Laureate, Jackson hopes “to bring to Illinoisans poetry that they can relate to, be lifted by, and find their lives illuminated in. Poems bring us to ourselves and poems bring us together.”
Jackson is the recipient of numerous awards such as the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, Tri-Quarterly’s Daniel Curley Award, Illinois Center for the Book Heritage Award, Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent from Chicago State University, and grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. She was a twenty-year member of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) Writers Workshop, succeeding the late Hoyt W. Fuller as its Chair.
Her collections of poetry include Voo Doo/Love Magic (1974); Dark Legs and Silk Kisses: The Beatitudes of the Spinners (TriQuarterly, 1993); And All These Roads Be Luminous: Poems Selected and New (TriQuarterly, 1998), which was nominated for the National Book Award. Jackson’s collection It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time (TriQuarterly, 2015) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Open Book Award. She received a Pushcart Prize and an American Book Award for her chapbook Solo in the Boxcar Third Floor E (1985). Jackson has also written plays and novels, as well as a significant biography of A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life and Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks (2017).
Free parking will be available at Normal Public Library. Parking will also be available at the College Avenue Parking Deck, which is free for the first hour and $1 per hour after that. For more information about this program or questions, please contact the Museum’s Education Department at education@mchistory.org or 309-827-0428.
Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency (IACA)], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed by speakers, program participants, or audiences do not necessarily reflect those of the NEH, Illinois Humanities, IACA, our partnering organizations, or our funders.