Northwestern Now
Angela Jackson says poetry can lift and illuminate lives. Photo by Carlos Javier Ortiz
Following in the footsteps of the great Gwendolyn Brooks as the fifth Illinois poet to serve as state poet laureate, Northwestern University alumna Angela Jackson said poetry can lift and illuminate lives, uniting people.
Jackson was appointed poet laureate for the state of Illinois in November by Governor J.B. Pritzker. An award-winning poet, novelist and playwright who grew up on Chicago’s South Side and graduated from Northwestern in 1977, Jackson will work to promote poetry at the state and national level.
“I am honored and excited to have been selected to serve as Illinois poet laureate,” Jackson said. “Legendary Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks said, ‘Poetry is life distilled.’ I hope to bring to Illinoisans poetry that they can relate to, be lifted by and find their lives illuminated in. Poems bring us to ourselves and poems bring us together.”
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