Democracy Dies in Darkness

Reuben Jackson, poet, jazz scholar and radio host, dies at 67

He wrote two poetry collections, helped safeguard Duke Ellington’s archives at the Smithsonian and hosted a jazz show on the Washington station WPFW (89.3 FM)

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February 22, 2024 at 8:43 p.m. EST
Washington poet and jazz scholar Reuben Jackson in 2000. (Rebecca D'Angelo for The Washington Post)
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Reuben Jackson, who fused words and music in a multifaceted career as a Washington-based poet, jazz scholar, critic and radio host, died Feb. 16 at a hospital in the District. He was 67.

His fiancée, Jenae Michelle, said the cause was a stroke he suffered about two weeks earlier, shortly after he finished hosting a three-hour jazz show for WPFW (89.3 FM). The night before, he had performed at a poetry reading at Washington’s Planet Word museum, as part of a group of D.C. poets who were featured in “This Is the Honey,” a newly published anthology of Black poetry edited by Kwame Alexander.