Angela Jackson has been privately writing prose almost as long as the poetry for which she is renowned. Now she has published Where I Must Go, an autobiographical first novel 40 years in the making, about growing up in 1960s Chicago.
"I was compelled by the particular story that I needed to tell of 'young, gifted, and black' people of a particular time in history," said Jackson, borrowing a phrase from a pathbreaking author of the era, Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote A Raisin in the Sun.
Jackson, who holds an AM from the University of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies and a BA from Northwestern University, will read excerpts from her book and answer questions as part of the International House Black History Month Global Voices Author Night Lecture. The event, which begins at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 10, at I-House, 1414 E. 59th St., is free and open to the public.
Jackson will share the stage with Haki R. Madhubuti, the well-known poet, author, social activist, and educator, who will share verses on emerging black culture from his book of poems, Liberation Narrative. Madhubuti is founder of Third World Press, the largest independent black-owned press in the United States.
Jackson's book, Where I Must Go, details her upbringing in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, a once-bustling area now plagued by poverty and crime, and her experience of attending a predominantly white university during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Jackson found valuable guidance during her 40-year literary journey from the Organization of Black American Culture Writers Workshop of Chicago, of which Madhubuti is a founding member. A co-sponsor of the I-House event, OBAC started in 1967 as part of the Black Arts Movement to help develop black literature. Its influence has helped shape the work of both speakers.
"The workshop redefined the criteria for black writing," said OBAC Director Brandi Barnes. "It created opportunities for black writers to be published and to be heard. It gave black writing its own voice, its own aesthetic, and allowed black writers to speak to their own ethnicity with their own strength."
Other cosponsors of the lecture include the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, the Organization of Black Students, and CLAS. For further information, please contact the Office of Programs and External Relations at (773) 753-2274 or i-house-programs@uchicago.edu.