Reuben M. Jackson

Reuben M. Jackson, poet, radio DJ, archivist/librarian, jazz critic and scholar, and teacher passed on Friday, February 16, 2024, in Washington, DC, after a short illness. Reuben was born on October 1, 1956 in Augusta, Georgia, to Mary Alice (Ferrell), a school teacher, and Pierce Jackson, a Pepco engineer. The family, including his older brother Alison, moved to Washington, DC in 1958.

The seeds of Reuben's later passions for poetry, writing, jazz and teaching were sown and nurtured early in his life by his beloved parents. His mother was dedicated to youth education and taught in District of Columbia public elementary schools for decades. In addition, she taught creative writing and poetry to children through her Vacation Bible School every year. Some of Reuben's fondest memories were sitting at the top of the basement stairs and listening to his father playing jazz recordings with his friends, bantering back and forth, and discussing the musicians and the music. His family belonged to the Columbia Record Club, and he and his brother listened to everything. As a youngster Reuben played the clarinet and tenor sax, and later taught himself to play guitar. He started writing poetry at 15.

Reuben studied writing at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, in the 1970s. This was the beginning of a long love affair with Vermont that culminated with his moving back there for a time in 2010. He maintained close friendships and strong connections within the state for the remainder of his life. It was at Goddard where Reuben hosted his first music radio show on the college station WGDR. When he moved back to the state he picked up where he left off hosting the immensely popular three-hour program "Friday Night Jazz" on Vermont Public Radio for six years. With his melodious voice and intimate manner, he was a natural for radio, drawing listeners in and displaying his eclectic tastes by occasionally throwing in selections by favorites Jimi Hendrix and Earth, Wind & Fire.

His "Friday Night Jazz" programs are included in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (https://americanarchive.org/special_collections/fridaynightjazz). Reuben chose 17 shows that are available for listening online.

After college, Reuben returned to Washington where he worked in several positions at the Smithsonian Institution, including in the National Air and Space Museum gift shop, the Smithsonian Libraries central acquisitions unit, and the National Museum of African Art library. He eventually obtained his master's degree in library science from the University of the District of Columbia. For two years he worked as a children's librarian at the Anacostia branch public library, a difficult experience which he described in an article for the June 1990 issue of the Washington City Paper.

Reuben has said that he's always chasing music. In 1982 he started writing music and arts reviews for a local newspaper, the Unicorn Times, until its demise in 1985. He continued writing record and performance reviews for a myriad of local and national media over the years, including the Washington City Paper, the Washington Post, Jazz Times, Down Beat, and NPR's All Things Considered, among many others. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music, particularly jazz, increasingly on display in such venues, he landed his self-described "dream job" of curator of the Duke Ellington Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History Archives Center in 1989. He would remain there for 20 years where he represented the collection and the institution at numerous public programs, jazz poetry readings, symposia, conferences, and scholarly meetings.

Like his mother, Reuben was a born teacher and he bonded easily with young people. Throughout his life he took opportunities to mentor young poets and to teach writing and poetry to both children and adults in various venues. Early on he taught a special program at what was then called Garnet-Patterson Middle School in Washington in which he gave his students "goofy" assignments to get them comfortable with writing. For eleven years he taught poetry at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2010, he returned to Vermont to teach poetry in the creative writing department at Goddard. And for two years he taught English at Burlington High School. He worked for years as a mentor with the Young Writers Project in Vermont that supports teen artists and writers. Here's what the Young Writers Project wrote on its web site upon Reuben's death:

"Over the years, Reuben led dozens of our writing workshops, both live and online. Reuben treasured his time with our writers and was often moved to tears by their words. Young people fascinated and energized Reuben, and he would always empathize with their vulnerability and celebrate their bravery when they shared their writing with him. He cared deeply for them as writers and people. This open-hearted, honest man was never afraid to show his love."

Reuben wrote two books of poetry, "fingering the keys" (Gut Punch Press, 1990), which won the 1992 Columbia Book Award, and "Scattered Clouds" (Alan Squire Publishing, 2019), a Feathered Quill Book Awards finalist. In addition, he has contributed to over 40 poetry anthologies, including the recent "This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets," edited by Kwame Alexander. At the time of his death he was working on a third book tentatively called "Playing the French Horn." Reuben felt that music found its way into his poetry, and many of his poems are about musicians. He said, "Whether it's a fugue or a sonnet, it's all composition to me." He felt that his poetry "is the closest I think I'll come to writing music." Poet E. Ethelbert Miller has said of Reuben's poetry, "Reuben gives a good reading. He reads a lot of very witty poems that leave people laughing, but if you look closely, they're very subtle, very complex – I would say 'funny-insightful.'" Reuben's most anthologized poem, "For Trayvon Martin" has taken on even more relevance with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Reuben returned to Washington, in 2018 after living in Vermont for 8 years. He continued feeding his passions for music and poetry in various ways. At the time of his death he was archivist with the University of the District of Columbia's Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives. He served on the board of the American Poetry Museum. At the local Pacifica radio station WPFW-FM, he co-hosted with Larry Appelbaum the long-running jazz program "The Sound of Surprise." According to Appelbaum, "Knowing [Reuben's] taste and radio experience, I enthusiastically agreed [to sharing the hosting duties with him]. I thought he embodied "The Sound of Surprise," and his selections, wrapped in engaging stories, were delightful. He was the best partner I could have imagined."

Reuben was predeceased by his parents and brother Dr. Alison B. Jones. He is survived by his partner, Jenae Michelle, extended family in Georgia, a wonderful group of chosen family, and a multitude of friends and colleagues.

Funeral service arrangements are pending.