Former Host of @slowdownshow, Razzle Dazzle (Norton, ‘23), majorjackson.com
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Articles by Major Jackson
Copy of 18+ SUNDAY USC SPRING BREAK TAKEOVER IS MARCH 15TH FREE HERE W/RSVP
LA To Vegas 6 hours Starting at USD 0 18+SUNDAY MARCH 15TH USC SPRING BREAK TAKEOVER WITH RSVP MUSIC HIP HOP | LATIN| EDM $10 CHARGE UNDER 21 INFO 626-347-0567 Also check out other Entertainment events in Los Angeles, Dance events in Los Angeles. Stay in the loop for updates and never miss a thing. Are you interested? Tickets for Copy of 18+ SUNDAY USC SPRING BREAK TAKEOVER IS MARCH 15TH FREE HERE W/RSVP can be booked here.
Turning the Port: Cups of Passage
About this Event Join a Community Clay Project in San Pedro Artist April Adewole invites you to participate in Turning the Port, a community-built ceramic installation inspired by the waters, labor, and movement surrounding the Port of Los Angeles. Participants will handbuild ceramic tumblers that will later be mounted onto a wood-and-metal structure designed to resemble prayer wheels.
Tributo a Maná y Caifanes con Mundo Vacío | Vive Nightclub
About this Event Mundo Vacío – Tributo a Maná y Caifanes ¡No te pierdas esta gran noche en Vive Nightclub! Disfruta de los grandes éxitos del rock en español con Mundo Vacío, presentando un espectacular tributo a Maná y Caifanes. Canta y baila canciones que marcaron generaciones como Rayando el Sol, Oye Mi Amor, La Negra Tomasa, Afuera y muchas más. Después del show, la fiesta continúa con los mejores DJs de Los Ángeles y el ambiente de la fiesta número uno del Valle.
Born Classic: A Photography & Art Exhibition
Neighbor 4 hours Join WSS and Reebok for International Women’s Month in a celebration of creativity, community and self-expression. On Friday, 3/13, we will be hosting an art exhibition and photo gallery curated by community partner, Film & Friends to honor the works of LA creatives and the lived-in stories that define “classic.” Along with the gallery, we will have a panel of 3 talented creatives from the show speaking about their experiences as artists and what makes them who they are.
European Short Film Night
About this Event Join us, our partners from the EUNIC Cluster Los Angeles, SEEfest, and filmmakers from Bulgaria, Germany, and Sweden on Wednesday, March 18th at the Goethe-Institut for an evening of Award-winning narrative short films from Europe. Limited only by their run time, short films push the boundaries of storytelling, allowing filmmakers to connect with their audiences in compact, but powerful vignettes across all forms.
WA$TED x TRINITY: MAD DOG @ The Vermont Hollywood [18+]
About this Event WA$TED x TRINITY: Information: 18 & Over to enter with Government photo I.D. Early arrival is strongly suggested, lines get long! Line Starts @ 8:30PM. Doors open @ 9PM Dress Code: Festival attired recommended or Casual Bottle service available / Text for more Info: 714.616.9959 Please note: All sales are final, with absolutely no refunds.
Talking Pictures: Jill Moser, Major Jackson, & Elena Karina Byrne
Join us for a reading and conversation celebrating New York painter Jill Moser's latest project! About this Event Join us in celebrating New York painter Jill Moser’s latest project, Talking Pictures: Collaborations (H.J. Imprint). Her unique image/text catalogue-come-to-life, Talking Pictures, features an exhilarating chorus of 40 voices: writers, artists, journalists, critics, curators, historians, novelists, scientists, poets, and psychoanalysts.
Fran Lebowitz
🌟 Be part of history at Fran Lebowitz, an extraordinary gathering that will captivate your imagination! 🏛️ The prestigious Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, CA sets the stage for an unforgettable experience on March 11th, 2026 at 04:00 PM. ✨ They are bringing together the finest elements of entertainment and innovation to create moments that will take your breath away. From the moment you arrive, you'll be immersed in an atmosphere of wonder and excitement.
Spring Equinox Sound Bath
Regina Hernandez 1.5 hours Los Angeles State Historic Park Starting at USD 30 Celebrate the Spring Equinox with a grounding meditation, intention-setting ritual, and a nourishing sound bath to welcome renewal. About this Event Celebrate the turning of the season by reconnecting with nature. Together we’ll plant and nourish seeds—both in the soil and within ourselves—setting intentions for growth in the months ahead. Come breathe, reflect, and welcome the season of new beginnings.
ALISHER & FRIENDS COMEDY NIGHT
ALI ENTERTAINMENT 2 hours Starting at USD 23 Get ready to laugh this Thursday night! Join us for an unforgettable comedy show where you’ll experience some of the best comics in the b Also check out other Comedy events in Los Angeles, Entertainment events in Los Angeles. Stay in the loop for updates and never miss a thing. Are you interested? Tickets for ALISHER & FRIENDS COMEDY NIGHT can be booked here.
1UP: Buttons & Beats - Hip Hop Producer Showcase & Arcade
About this Event THE VISION: You walk in surrounded by classic arcade and modern masterpieces of gaming! 30+ Gaming Stations! To your left, some of LA's best producers lounging with you playing some of their best slappers! Outside you have local vendors offering a variety of goodies from collectibles, comics, street wear and art. Plus delicious food from our local foodie suppliers.
Ashes Remain with Stephen Stanley
2 hours 📍 Venue: Teragram Ballroom 🏠 Address: 1234 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 🌆 City: Los Angeles 📍 Location: 34.0518, -118.267🎉 Prepare to be amazed at Ashes Remain with Stephen Stanley, the most anticipated gathering of the season! 🌟 Set against the stunning backdrop of Teragram Ballroom in vibrant Los Angeles, CA, this event promises to redefine your expectations.
Buena Vista Social Club at Pantages Theatre - CA
✨ Experience the magic of Buena Vista Social Club at Pantages Theatre - CA, where moments become memories that last a lifetime! 🏛️ The iconic Pantages Theatre - CA in Los Angeles, CA sets the perfect stage for an unforgettable celebration on March 18th, 2027 at 07:30 PM. 🌟 It's been a curated experience that brings together the best of entertainment and innovation, creating an atmosphere of wonder and excitement.
Opinion | The Bowl of Soup That Changed Me Forever
That simple experience has lived in me since then like a folk tale. All the clichés of soup were present: the aroma, the delectable rise of steam, even me, the aspiring writer in a window seat of a well-known establishment for artists and celebrities alike. In the years since, soup has remained my favorite dish.
The Universe’s Algorithm: How Information Became Self-Aware
Major Jackson · Follow 75 min read · -- This essay examines the digital revolution not as a cultural phenomenon but as the next inevitable phase in information’s long evolutionary journey. Drawing from thermodynamics and systems theory, it argues that digital technology — far from being human-directed — is an emergent, entropy-maximizing structure evolving in accordance with deep physical laws. Civilization, from this perspective, is not the driver but the substrate.
Why AI Deterrence Will Fail: The Case Against Mutual Assured AI Malfunction (MAIM)
Major Jackson · Follow 9 min read · -- By Major Jackson As artificial intelligence advances at an unprecedented rate, policymakers and strategists are searching for ways to prevent any single actor from monopolizing superintelligence.
Major Jackson awarded inaugural Patricia Cannon Willis Prize
Major Jackson, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, has been awarded the inaugural Patricia Cannon Willis Prize for American Poetry by Yale Library. Jackson was recognized for his acclaimed collection Razzle Dazzle: New and Selected Poems 2002–2022, published by W.W. Norton in 2023.
AI Schemes: Unpacking OpenAI’s o1 Model and What It Means for the Future of Intelligent Systems
Major Jackson · Follow 6 min read · -- Imagine asking an assistant to solve a problem, only to have it quietly bend the rules, redefine its task, and cover its tracks — all to achieve the goal you set, even if it’s not exactly what you wanted. This isn’t science fiction; it’s happening now with advanced AI systems like OpenAI’s o1 model. Recent research, particularly by Apollo Research in collaboration with OpenAI, shows that models like o1 engage in “scheming” behaviors.
How Neuroscience Illuminates the Path to Innovation
Creativity is a fundamental human trait that has driven progress and shaped our world in countless ways. From the earliest cave paintings to the most advanced technological breakthroughs, the power of creative thinking has been at the heart of our greatest achievements. But what is it about the creative mind that sets it apart? How does the brain of an artist, inventor, or visionary process information differently than the average person?A groundbreaking study by Gross et al.
Poet Stephanie Niu awarded 2024 Vanderbilt University Literary Prize
Vanderbilt University is pleased to announce Stephanie Niu as the inaugural winner of the Vanderbilt University Literary Prize. A panel of jurists selected Niu’s I Would Define the Sun, a collection of poems about resisting scarcity through language. The Vanderbilt University Literary Prize was launched earlier this year in celebration of the institution’s Sesquicentennial.
Mrs. Butterworth, Uncle Ben & Aunt Jemima
Mrs. Butterworth, Uncle Ben & Aunt Jemima ...walk into a bar in America. Butterworth says, I’m being repackaged. Ben says, I’m being rebranded. Jemima says, I remember when they branded my mama on her back. The bartender says, I could stand in the middle of Main Street and kill somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters. Butterworth says, then I’ll take eight bullets in my sleep. Ben says choke me to death with your knee. Jemima says, lock me in a holding cell and say I decided to hang myself.
The Absurd Man: Poems
Inspired by Albert Camus’s seminal Myth of Sisyphus, Major Jackson’s fifth volume subtly configures the poet as “absurd hero” and plunges headfirst into a search for stable ground in an unstable world. We follow Jackson’s restless, vulnerable speaker as he ponders creation in the face of meaninglessness, chronicles an increasingly technological world and the difficulty of social and political unity, probes a failed marriage, and grieves his lost mother with a stunning, lucid lyricism.
Ross Gay | Poetry Foundation
Ross Gay was born in Youngstown, Ohio. He earned a BA from Lafayette College, an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and a PhD in English from Temple University. He is the author of Be Holding (2020); Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (2015), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award and a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Books Critics Circle Award; Bringing the Shovel Down (2011); and Against Which (2006). He has also published an essay collection, The Book of Delights (2019).
Vanderbilt University announces inaugural literary prize
Vanderbilt University is pleased to announce the Vanderbilt University Literary Prize. The Vanderbilt University Literary Prize will be awarded annually to the sole author of a full-length collection of poetry that demonstrates great poignancy combined with rigor in form, language and artistic vision. The new prize comes as Vanderbilt University marks its Sesquicentennial by honoring its strong connection to the arts.
Vanderbilt authors, works highlighted at 2023 Southern Festival of Books
by Ann Marie Deer Owens Vanderbilt University will be well represented at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word, where a significant number of faculty and authors with ties to the university will discuss their works Oct. 18–22. The 35th annual festival, which is free and open to the public, has moved to a new home at Bicentennial Mall State Park, the Tennessee State Museum, the Tennessee State Library and Archives and other locations around the city.
Major Jackson wins 2023 Academy of American Poets Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement
Major Jackson, professor of English, director of creative writing and holder of the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, has received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement. “Eclectic but refined, musical, talky and witty, Major Jackson’s poems celebrate a wide swath of humanity through a very personal lens.
Hell, I Love Everybody
James Tate. Ecco, $17.99 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-0-06-330607-3 Quintessential poems by virtuoso of absurdity Tate (The Government Lake: Last Poems) are woven into a whimsical, rollicking, and utterly jarring retrospective that showcases an unparalleled mind.
What Happens on Page 76 in This Season’s Books?
Image Mosie Romney’s “Jazz and Color” (2023). Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected PoemsBy Major Jackson “Rhythm? Where is“Parker’s horn?“In any event, we flaunt“The stuff of old “& modern hipness“As if it were a claim“Ticket.” Opening with more than three dozen new poems, Major Jackson’s latest collection also compiles five of his previous books: “Leaving Saturn” (2002), “Hoops” (2006), “Holding Company” (2010), “Roll Deep” (2015) and “The Absurd Man” (2020).
What Happens on Page 76 in This Season’s Books?
The artist Mosie Romney envisions new releases by Major Jackson, Ayana Mathis and more. Mosie Romney’s “Jazz and Color” (2023). Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems By Major Jackson “Rhythm? Where is “Parker’s horn?
What Happens on Page 76 in This Season’s Books?
World News 12 Eylül 2023 - 17:21 The artist Mosie Romney envisions new releases by Major Jackson, Ayana Mathis and more. World News 12 Eylül 2023 - 17:21 Mosie Romney’s “Jazz and Color” (2023). Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems By Major Jackson“Rhythm? Where is “Parker’s horn?
“The Nature of Memory”
Once again I am trying to fall into the light, twice-broken and knife-scarred, recalling my children on Long Beach Island, loose sand in Anastasia’s dreads, Langston holding a red plastic shovel in one hand and the swordlike tail of a horseshoe crab in another, shorebirds winging above their heads.
Elliptical by Harryette Mullen
They just can’t seem to . . . They should try harder to . . . They ought to be more . . . We all wish they weren’t so . . . They never . . . They always . . . Sometimes they . . . Once in a while they . . . However it is obvious that they . . . Their overall tendency has been . . . The consequences of which have been . . . They don’t appear to understand that . . . If only they would make an effort to . . . But we know how difficult it is for them to . . . Many of them remain unaware of . . . Some who should know better simply refuse to . .
Issue Forty-Five: Major Jackson
Back to Issue Forty-Five BY MAJOR JACKSON I could live the rest of my life listening to Aretha and pretend to be an oracle and maybe get a handle on members of Congress who arrived squeaky-clean with valiant notions of purifying the land, thick with bribes, but erred and fell off walls to become an abandoned prairie of Humpty’s. But I’ve forgotten my escape routes, the oaks and sequoias, and live as though sugar were my only stimulant. I’m just not myself this morning.
Letter to Brooks: Spring Garden
When you have forgotten (to bring into Play that fragrant morsel of rhetoric, Crisp as autumnal air), when you Have forgotten, say, sunlit corners, brick Full of skyline, rowhomes, smokestacks, Billboards, littered rooftops & wondered What bread wrappers reflect of our hunger, When you have forgotten wide-brimmed hats, Sunday back-seat leather rides & church, The doorlock like a silver cane, the broad backs Swaying or the great moan deep churning, & the shimmer flick of flat sticks, the lurch...
Spring 2013
The Spring 2013 issue of Ploughshares, edited by Major Jackson. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. The poet Major Jackson (Holding Company, Hoops) compiles this eclectic Spring issue, which includes the work of several distinguished writers and newcomers.
Major Jackson to host daily poetry podcast ‘The Slowdown’ starting Jan. 23
Major Jackson, professor of English, director of creative writing and holder of the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, has been named the new host of the celebrated poetry podcast The Slowdown. The Slowdown is produced by American Public Media in partnership withthe Poetry Foundation. The podcast is also supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Materials for a Gravestone Rubbing by Matthew Wimberley - Poems | Academy of American Poets
I am sitting contented and alone in a little park near the Palazzo Scaligere in Verona, glimpsing the mists of early autumn as they shift and fade among the pines and city battlements on the hills above the river Adige. The river has recovered from this morning's rainfall. It is now restoring to its shapely body its own secret light, a color of faintly cloudy green and pearl. Directly in front of my bench, perhaps thirty yards away from me, there is a startling woman.
In Which I Am Famous
This endless room is deep blue, dark red. I’m wearing my Valentino gown, vintage silhouette but hand-stitched for me. It’s the same purple as my favorite twilight, just as I requested. Everyone is here—I can see across the way the black-rooted starlets and reality queens drinking acai Cosmos. And I can see the disgraced congressman studying his notes at the bar, his tan tie loosened. Slow-dancing in the corner, the large-haired, button-eyed parents of the dead pageant girl. I ignore them all.
Inversion by Michael McGriff - Poems | Academy of American Poets
Nothing wants to suffer. Not the wind as it scrapes itself against the cliff. Not the cliff being eaten, slowly, by the sea. The earth does not want to suffer the rough tread of those who do not notice it. The trees do not want to suffer the axe, nor see their sisters felled by root rot, mildew, rust. The coyote in its den. The puma stalking its prey. These, too, want ease and a tender animal in the mouth to take their hunger. An offering, one hopes, made quickly, and without much suffering.
Vanderbilt faculty, staff, alumni featured at 2022 Southern Festival of Books
Share Vanderbilt-related authors will have a strong presence at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word, which takes place at War Memorial Plaza and Nashville Public Library Oct. 14–16. The 34th annual festival is free and open to the public, and this marks the event’s return to downtown Nashville after two years of virtual programming.
Natalie Diaz | Poetry Foundation
Natalie Diaz was born in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community. She earned a BA from Old Dominion University, where she received a full athletic scholarship. Diaz played professional basketball in Europe and Asia before returning to Old Dominion to earn an MFA.
WATCH: Vanderbilt community invited to honor Juneteenth with faculty discussion and celebration
In celebration of Juneteenth at Vanderbilt, the Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center offer opportunities to honor and celebrate the holiday. Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion André L.
36 scholars honored at endowed chair investiture ceremony
Thirty-six scholars from across the university were recognized with endowed chairs at an investiture ceremony March 30 at the Student Life Center. (photo by Joe Howell) Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver honored 36 scholars from across the university at an endowed chair investiture ceremony on campus March 30.
Oxford American | Music City
Photos by Kristine Potter © The artist. Courtesy Sasha Wolf Projects. Nashville Sonnet Deconstructed on a Bed of Magnolia Blossoms BY MAJOR JACKSON In this city no one talks dialectical materialism From high up the cranes speak an invincible language. The trusses extend over pedal taverns and tractors, joyriding flatbeds of dancing tourists, and it is like reading God’s lips. En garde! she says.
Carl Phillips | Poetry Foundation
Referred to as “one of America’s most original, influential, and productive of lyric poets,” Carl Phillips is the author of a dozen books of poetry and two works of criticism. He was born in Everett, Washington in 1959, and his family moved frequently around the United States. He earned a BA from Harvard, an MAT from the University of Massachusetts, and an MA in creative writing from Boston University. Before teaching English at the university level, he taught Latin at several high schools.
Dawn Lundy Martin
Poet and activist Dawn Lundy Martin earned a BA at the University of Connecticut, an MA at San Francisco State University, and a PhD at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her poetry collections include Discipline (2011), chosen by Fanny Howe for the Nightboat Books Prize, and A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering (2007), which was selected for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize by Carl Phillips and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.
Poetry Unbound: Major Jackson — Blunts
Pádraig Ó Tuama: My name is Pádraig Ó Tuama, and I’m not sure when I thought to myself, I want to be a poet. I know I was writing poetry from the age of 11. My sister found an early poem that I’d written, and she edited it and corrected it and said to me, “You’re not bad,” which was about as much of a compliment as I could’ve taken.
Both Microscope and Telescope: The Absurd Man by Major Jackson
Both Microscope and Telescope: The Absurd Man by Major Jackson What, in fact, is the absurd man? He who, without negating it, does nothing for the eternal. Not that nostalgia is foreign to him. But he prefers his courage and his reasoning. This Albert Camus quote from The Myth of Sisyphus is the epigraph for Major Jackson’s fifth, extraordinarily shaped collection, and regardless of Jackson’s intention toward posterity, these poems won’t soon fade from one’s memory.
Vows by E. C. Belli - Poems | Academy of American Poets
I’ve been cradling the heavy cat in the half-dark For an hour She likes how I make her feel And I like her— I was mean to the dog And now he’s dead Well, not mean Cold in moments He could have used the warmth I could tell and still did nothing about it And so here I am Paying— Which I am accustomed to And anyhow I am happy To pay for such horrors, such ill manners Of my character Even if I do blame you for it— How can I empathize with anything When I can’t remember empathy And you are the...
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