His words are a mainstay of Hoboken open mics
And the Lord said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. Then Michigan Jackson said, “Let there be more light!” and there was more light. Armed with his usual sheets of paper and his very own spotlight, Michigan Jackson begins his short set of spoken word.
I’ve known Michigan for several years now as a part of the weekly ArtKore.org open mics. His stories ranging from short poems to longer prose are always entertaining and often insightful. They tell of his days as a soldier, lumberjack and cab driver.
Tonight he read excerpts from his ongoing novel in progress called ‘The Sky Blue Taxi’. It was a sort of warning to those wanting to be writers to not go about it as he had. He used this novel as an example.
The basic premise is that the book was shelved years ago when presented to a publishing firm. They feared that the story of the President of the United States being replaced by the surly head of a NYC cab company was a bit much.
He spoke of how this controversial notion was tossed upon the slush pile with the countless works other would be novelists. Poor college interns were given the task of sorting thru the pile with instructions to, “keep the names we know and chuck all the rest.”
We fast forward to more recent years. The fall of Enron and its connections to Bush’s government lend new life to the concept behind ‘The Sky Blue Taxi’. Still Michigan warns any young writers in the room to not follow his avenue because if you do, you may never get published.
To hear this man speak with his years of wisdom and wit is always a delight. It’s also a high point of humor in the nights of serious musician types when he sternly asks for the lights to be turned up. He’d say, “They never set this place up right for spoken word or for me!”
Still we are always glad that he comes and reads for us.
See Also:
ArtKore.org
The Goldhawk.com
