Interdisciplinary artist Homer Jackson died on July 13, 2024, at the age of 67. Jackson received a Pew Fellowship in 1998 and was a member of the first cohort of Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures fellows in 2022. We mourn his passing.
Jackson’s creative work spanned a variety of disciplines in exploring Black culture. A Philadelphia Inquirer obituary notes the artist “produced dozens of eclectic exhibits, wrote plays and passages, and staged diverse performances…Mr. Jackson used objects, images, sounds, text, live performance, video, and audience participation to tell intriguing tales of Black life in America…He commented artistically on African river spirits and ancient cosmology, enslaved legends from Brazil, Black life in prison, and countless other issues.”
Jackson founded the Philadelphia Jazz Project to document and support the city’s jazz community, taught film at Temple University (and hosted a jazz show on Temple’s WRTI radio station), and organized art workshops at schools, prisons, and community centers.
Bill Johnson, WRTI general manager, said, “Homer had an inspired vision for jazz to be deeply embraced by the city of Philadelphia on a scale befitting its cultural relevance…He fought to ensure musicians were paid for their efforts, and that the music was presented in places where it could reach everyday people.”
Jackson contributed the multimedia installation Whispers from the Deep to Fairmount Water Works’ Pool: A Social History of Segregation and the “singing” walking tour New Songs of the Open Road as part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Whitman at 200, both Center-supported projects. Earlier work includes producing the 1996 jazz opera The Three Willies and curating the Prison Sentences exhibition, presented in 30 jail cells at Eastern State Penitentiary in the 1980s. Jackson earned a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and an MFA in printmaking from Temple University's Tyler School of Art.
Lynn Washington, Jackson’s wife, created a memorial website for her late husband.