Ottawa poet laureate Jamaal Jackson Rogers has taken a position as artist-in-residence in the music program at Carleton for the winter semester.
The slam poet, songwriter, and educator won the Ottawa poet laureate award back when VERSeFest was reinstated in 2017. He was also nominated for the artist of the year award as part of the 2019 Muslim Awards for Excellence. Rogers currently also works as an artist, educator and mentor for other artists in Ottawa.
As artist-in-residence, Rogers will be teaching a new course, Developing Your Own Voices: Power of Spoken Word, as part of the music program. He will also be offering mentorship to students. Working in a university setting will change the nature of the work.
“In my private work I can cater my curriculum and my strategy so it’s more personalized,” he said. “When I collaborate with institutions there’s got to be a collaborative progress and often times there’s metrics that need to be reached with an institution.”
“But the special thing about the residency with the music program is I get to be explorative as I want,” he added.
The idea received unanimous support when James McGowan, professor in the music department at Carleton, suggested it.
“He was just absolutely brilliant to collaborate with,” McGowan said. “What struck me about him was his ability to link in with what we were creating, and think about the big picture of creating art, breaking down genre boundaries.”
Most renowned for his slam poetry and rap, Rogers is also a songwriter who works in genres ranging from R&B to country.
“He would be by some measure a non-traditional artist in residence for a music program because he doesn’t play an instrument or he’s not an opera singer, but for me I’ve collaborated with him, I know first-hand he’s a creative soul and a musical thinker,” said McGowan.
Rogers’ public following will help draw people into the music program and be an asset to the community and Carleton students, McGowan added.
As well as teaching a class and acting as a mentor for music students, Rogers performed in a concert series at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, along with McGowan and other faculty on Jan. 19. He also hosted a public lecture on Jan. 24.
Featured image by Tim Austen.
