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JUDY WOODRUFF: Kara Jackson
is known for being the 2019
national youth poet laureate

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from Oak Park, Illinois, but her art is
not limited to one medium or one place.

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She writes poems, but also essays and
music, that explore her Southern roots

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and how the legacy of racism continues
to impact her and her communities.

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Tonight, she shares her Brief But
Spectacular take on what shapes her art.

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KARA JACKSON,
Singer/Songwriter/Musician/Writer:
When I was a teenager,
making work and having

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the audacity to call myself a poet
or call myself an artist in any way,

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that troubled people. When I saw older
people trying to gatekeep or try to

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humble me or whatever, I just
kind of saw that as an invitation.

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Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the integral
poets who inspired me to write poetry.

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Gwendolyn Brooks is a champion of
writing what's under your nose.

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And so that is the kind of
ethic and the kind of practice
that I apply in my own work.

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I think the South is just
important to my work because that's
where I'm from. Like, I can't

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really explain myself without
explaining my dad. My dad was born
and raised in Dawson, Georgia.

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It's my favorite place on this earth. It's
about the size of like any given pebble.

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I think that Dawson, Georgia
really represents the ways in
which culture usually happens in

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like the smallest corners of
our country and like of this
Earth. And it frightens me and

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troubles me the ways in which
we, as a country, feels so
comfortable discarding that space.

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I mean, Black people are there,
and that's why it's so important
to me that people understand

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that the South isn't disposable,
because my people aren't disposable.
That speaks to a larger aspect

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of lineage in my work. I can't
really do anything without thinking
about where I am in this place

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and how also I wouldn't be
where I am in this place without
the people who came before me.

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So, I'm constantly thinking
about the ways in which I honor

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my lineages, but also the ways in
which I deviate from those lineages.

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I think that every Black person, every
Black artist should be given the space

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to talk about whatever they want,
and to articulate themselves
in a way that feels natural.

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(SINGING)

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KARA JACKSON:

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My name is Kara Jackson, and this
is my Brief But Spectacular take
on writing what's under my nose.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And we
thank you, Kara Jackson.

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And you can watch all our Brief
But Spectacular videos online
at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.