About
The poet is a counselor. The counselor is a poet.
Born in the 805.
Tavonte "BoJack" Jackson is an Oxnard, California native, raised on Pacific tide and strawberry fields, on the Sunday morning hum of Black church and the long quiet of fathers who loved without saying so. He learned early that some of the most important sentences are the ones a man is told never to speak.
He became a writer to give those sentences a body. He became a counselor to help others find theirs.
The Practice
Three callings. One vow.
01
The Page
Author of SENT, a debut collection of poetry built on the metaphor of messages in a bottle. Forthcoming work explores liberation, lineage, and the architecture of Black tenderness.
02
The Room
Nationally certified mental health counselor working with Black men, youth, and communities navigating grief, addiction, masculinity, and identity. Therapy as poetry. Poetry as care.
03
The Stage
Speaker, workshop facilitator, and cultural critic. Past venues include universities, mental health summits, churches, and houses where the conversation needed something honest.
Manifesto
What I'm writing toward.
I write so the boy I was can put the bottle down.
I write so the man I am can say what he means.
I write so the Black men who come behind me have a wider vocabulary for love.
I write so my mother can rest.
I write so the country can't pretend.
"What we cannot name, owns us."
That's the line I keep on the desk. Naming is the first act of freedom. The first act of love. The first act of healing. Everything else follows from that.
Work with BoJack