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Questions of Practice: Pew Fellow Major Jackson Reads Urban Renewal

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, poet, professor, and Pew Fellow Major Jackson (1995) visited the Center for a conversation, as well as a poetry reading, with his former teacher and Pew Fellow Sonia Sanchez (1993). Here, Jackson reads two sections from Urban Renewal, the opening suite of poems in his book Leaving Saturn (2002), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry.

Stay tuned for video excerpts from the conversation, coming next week. Watch Sonia Sanchez read her poem 10 Haikus for Max Roach, here.>

Major Jackson’s most recent publications include Roll Deep (2015), and the collections Holding Company (2010) and Hoops (2006)—both finalists for NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. A recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and a Fellowship from the Witter Bynner Foundation, Library of Congress, Jackson is a professor at University of Vermont.