The Zell Visiting Writer 
Series welcomed esteemed 
poet Major Jackson to the 
University 
of 
Michigan 
Museum of Art for a poetry 
reading 
on 
Thursday 
evening. 
The 
series 
invited 
distinguished 
writers each semester to 
present their work.
Zell 
Fellow 
Callie 
Collins, program assistant 
for the Visiting Writer 
Series, 
discussed 
the 
program’s goal of giving 
the University community 
a 
unique 
opportunity 
to hear from respected 
writers. 
“These are incredible, 
nationally 
acclaimed 
poets and fiction writers,” 
Collins said. “We hope 
that we can bring writers 
who are at the top of their 
fields and put them in front 
of both current students 
and a bigger audience from 

the community who could 
come out and hear writers 
they wouldn’t otherwise 
have the chance to hear.
She 
went 
on 
to 
discuss poetry’s unique 
potential to make social 
commentary, 
especially 
in a society rife with 
political partisanship.
“I 
think, 
especially 
right 
now, 
so 
much 
writing is attempting to 
grapple with our political 
situation and the way that 
the world is changing, and 
so dramatically,” Collins 
said. “Poetry is especially 
effective because it can 
change so quickly, and it 
can adapt so easily… It’s a 
particularly good time to 
listen to people who think 
about how to be a human.”
Jackson, 
an 
award-
winning poet, began his 
reading with a reflection 
on poetry’s function as a 
means of self-discovery. 
He then read a series 
of 
deeply 
personal 

poems 
which 
focused 
on 
broader 
themes 
of 
Black 
representation 
and the tropes of Black 
masculinity.
After 
the 
reading, 
Jackson took part in a 
question-and-answer 
session, 
during 
which 
he reflected on his own 
experience as a poet. He 
began by explaining the 
moment he discovered he 
wanted to pursue writing 
poetry professionally.
“I was writing a lot 
of 
poems 
about 
North 
Philadelphia,” 
Jackson 
said. “I showed it to my 
grandfather… He was so 
proud of that poem. I saw 
this poem exist outside 
of my little apartment, I 
saw how it existed among 
my community at that 
time. That was a feeling 
that was quite addictive, 
so much so, that I took 
myself serious, and found 
other student writers.”
Many of Jackson’s poems 
are 
location-based, 
focused 
specifically 
on 
his 
hometown, 
Philadelphia. 
Jackson 
explained that he finds 
inspiration in writing 
about 
something 
so 
deeply 
personal. 
He 
reflected on how his 
writing aims to reveal 
a more humanistic side 
to his home city.
“For me, in a lot of 
ways, 
it 
was 
about 
trying to dignify lives 
in that space, trying to 
remember the people 
I 
grew 
up 
with,” 
Jackson said. “There’s 
something 
that 
you 
probably 
shouldn’t 
bear witness to at such 
a young age, but, oddly 
enough, 
I’m 
grateful 
for 
that 
childhood 
in 
Philadelphia… 
It 
wasn’t 
a 
war-torn 
environment, 
but 
that’s 
what 
I 
am 
writing 
against 
— 
the 
perception 
that 
there was a lot of pain 
because there was a lot 

of humanity, history and 
culture that was passed 
down.”

After the event, LSA 
sophomore Joshua Jordan 
told 
The 
Daily 
how 
his 
passion 
for 
poetry 
stemmed from its being 
different from every other 
art form.
“I enjoy poetry because 
it 
isn’t 
so 
necessary,” 
Jordan said. “Every other 
art form that we have 
seems to be justified by 
some other medium — 
it’s either profitable or 
it’s popular. Poetry has 
always been weird and 
niche, and it has stayed 
that way, to some degree.”
Jackson concluded with 
a reflection on how the 
process of writing poetry 
is inherently personal and 
based on instincts.
“Every line that you 
write is a note you play, 
and it’s a note you play 
that has to feel right,” 
Jackson said. “The words 
are there, but the shape 
is not there. That’s a 
kind of restlessness that 
I think we all should 
cultivate 
inside 
of 
us. 
That restlessness is really 
dependent on how much 
you are going to lean in 
on yourself not to do easy 
things.”

2 — Friday, February 15, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

HANNAH SIEGEL/Daily

Every line that you 
write is a note you play, 
and it’s a note you play 
that has to feel right. 
The words are there, 
but the shape is not 
there. 

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John carried himself. And more than that, it was how he 
treated everyone — and I mean everyone. ”

Former Vice President Joe Biden during his eulogy for John Dingell, the longest-serving U.S. congressperson, at the funeral in Dearborn 
on Tuesday

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Award-winning poet reflects on themes 
of Black representation, masculinity 

Zell Visiting Writer Series welcomed Major Jackson for a reading at the UMMA

MADELINE MCLAUGHLIN
Daily Staff Reporter

