Ashawnta Jackson
Reader. Writer. Record collector.
HI. I’m Ashawnta
I’m a reader, writer, editor, and record collector living in Brooklyn. You may have seen my work at places like JSTOR Daily, Wax Poetics, Vinyl Me Please, Artsy, Bandcamp, and NPR Music. I interviewed members and helped produce a video on the influential photography group Kamoinge for their retrospective at the Whitney Museum. Previous lives have found me on the radio at KMHD Jazz Radio in Portland, OR, writing educational content for online education platforms, and editing an academic journal about data visualization.
I like books, and music, and 70s-era movies. I would love to talk about any of those things, with just about anybody, at just about any time. And, you know, of course, write about them. You can see some examples of my work here. You can see samples of my marketing and copy writing work here. I also wrote a book— Soul-Folk, part of Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 Genre series. Get in touch at ashawntajackson[@]gmail.com. I’m represented by John Rudolph at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
Soul-Folk
Out October 31, 2024
Part of Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 Genre Series
Folk music of the 1960s and 1970s was a genre that was always shifting and expanding, yet somehow never found room for so many. In the sounds of soul-folk, Black artists like Terry Callier and Linda Lewis began to reclaim their space in the genre, and use it to bring their own traditions to light- the jazz, the blues, the field hollers, the spirituals- and creating something wholly new, wholly theirs, wholly ours.
This book traces the growing imprints of soul-folk and how it made its way from folk tradition to sub-genre. Along the way, it explores the musicians, albums, and histories that made the genre what it is.