More About Major
Radio Open Source | Major Jackson: Where He's From
Where are you from? For each one of us the answer to that deceptively simple question is actually an intersection of community, family memory, cultural history, artistic legacy, and literal geography.
Poetry | "Letter to Brooks: Spring Garden"
Identity Theory | Interview: Major Jackson
There is a period of gestation that leads to a kind of quiet and silence and distance, space. What filters through is what becomes the material for the poem.
Poems Out Loud | Major Jackson reads "Urban Renewal XVII" [audio]
Related Readings
Poetry | Does Poetry Have a Social Function?
The function of poetry is that it does not have any function beyond its own construction and being-in-the-world.
The Washington Post | Poet's Choice by Robert Pinsky
Tending a garden, holding a pen: two symbols of civilization. Cultivation and writing, skills developed by previous generations, imply hope that in the future someone will be present to consume the produce or to read the writing.
DPG Online | In Conversation With...Mat Johnson [audio]
New Yorker | review of Hoops
The slangy title of Jackson’s second collection is a layered metaphor, implying, among other things, basketball, jewelry, and life’s hurdles.
New York Times | "How Do I Love Thee? Count 140 Characters"
Poetry and literature may be flowering in the socially networked, microblogged world of the tweet.
Poets.org | "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
You Tube | Vince Carter Tomahawk Dunk
Cartome.org | Introduction: The Panopticon
On Being | The Civil Conversations Project
Poetry is something many of us seem to be hungry for these days. We're hungry for fresh ways to tell hard truths and redemptive stories, for language that would elevate and embolden rather than demean and alienate.
It is unwise to equate scientific activity with what we call reason, poetic activity with what we call imagination. Without the imaginative leap from facts to generalisation, no theoretic discovery in science is made. The poet, on the other hand, must not imagine but reason—that is to say, he must exercise a great deal of consciously directed thought in the selection and rejection of his data: there is a technical logic, a poetic reasoning in his choice of the words, rhythms and images by which a poem's coherence is achieved.--Cecil Day Lewis from "How the Poet Knows," The Poet's Way of Knowledge, Knopf (1957)
More About Philadelphia
PhillyHistory.org | Photo Archive
The city's photo archive contains over 2 million photo records that date from the late 1800's.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania | PhilaPlace
PhilaPlace is an interactive Web site, created by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, that connects stories to places across time in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.
Philadelphia Mural Arts Program | Mural Explorer
The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has produced over 3,000 works of art in the past 25 years. Explore some of the works here, and discover the stories and people that inspired them.
Triangle | "Fry Offers Vision for University at Inauguration"
Lindy Center for Civic Engagement
Drexel University's Center for Civic Engagement promotes the ideals of social responsibility and public service by facilitating community based experiential learning for students, faculty, and staff.
Philadelphia | "Is West Philly the Next Center City?"
It's the age of brains, Philly, which means the real action in town is happening west of the Schuylkill, where new Drexel president John Fry and a host of other bold thinkers are building what could be the city of the future.