Alumni Spotlight: Val Jackson

Dr. Jackson graduated from the MAPW in 2018, having won the outstanding student award...

KENNESAW, Ga. (Feb 1, 2022) — Val graduated from the MAPW in 2018, having won the outstanding student award.  She continued her studies in the PhD program at Georgia State University and is now teaching as a lecturer at KSU.  A poet, she publishes and performs her poetry regularly.  Here is a poem, published in “Aunt Chloe” literary magazine called 

“Miles Davis: The Horn, The Iris, and The Sorcerer” in Aunt Chloe Literary Magazine: 

 

Woo the Prince of Darkness
with voices he can hear
when love resists the darkness
of one black man’s fear

 

fill us with your spirit breathless
let us go
brass bruises blameless
let us go

 

love notes hum down the middle knuckles know it when I hit
the body trembles to my lips too high these Harlem stars come settle the city my extra sensory perception experience my hands against your body dig our love an existential experiment

 

crown the Blue Prince
dance for his tears
pose on the l.p.
clean him for a year

Wait
I waited
I waited all this time
To cast that spell back on you
Now you’re mine
mine
mine

spellbound muted nothing left
brought you my cross-
road and disappeared
into the ether

 

fill us breathless spirit let us go