What is music?
“All of the arts are connected and to be authentic and real, art must belong to everyone and no one.”
Few human enterprises escape explanation like music. Today, we share one of Spoon Jackson’s pieces that beautifully intertwines personal experience with a deep reflection on the essence of music and art. It begins with Jackson’s personal journey about learning to play the flute, finding solace and connection through music and even forming bonds with nature through his musical experiences.
What follows is a poetic meditation on what music depicts as a force of nature, emotion and transformation. Spoon emphasizes music’s power to heal, uplift and connect people to something greater, arguing that it should be nurtured in education as a means of guiding youth away from destructive paths.
Although subtly and maybe unconsciously, we all recognize the universal importance of art. Jackson insists that it should belong to everyone and serve as a vehicle for authenticity and liberation.
I started playing the flute at New Folsom Arts and Corrections when Grammy-award-winning flutist Mary Youngblood visited the art room with a big bag of flutes and offered a lesson. She said I was a natural and took to the flute like birds to wings. I played her a run she had showed us after the class. And from then on I practiced every day for hours.
I sat outside the arts and corrections room with my flute as the blues, rock and R&B bands played, and for some of their songs, I played along with them. People often stopped by and said, you should be in the room jamming too.
I played my flute in the small yard for a wild Canadian geese family that had homesteaded in the small yard. I serenaded them to sleep with my songs. I sat where no other humans dared to go, surrounded by four large goslings and two adults. I became part of those 3 geese families.
What is music?
Music is the hawk’s call.
Music is the silence of an owl.
Music is the wave of the ocean at night.
Music is the bellows of a wolf, the cry of a lion longing for a mate.
Music is the moment between light and thunder.
Music is sad, hopeful, healing, and transformative.
Music is beauty, and beauty is love.
Music must be cultivated at every level in school,
because it does deter some youth from the pipeline to prison.
Music connects us to the universe, goddesses and gods
and muses of whatever force that moves us.
Music is the pulse of Mother Earth in a blessing.
The act of creating art must set you free.
I learned through experience that all of the arts are connected
and to be authentic and real, art must belong to everyone and no one.
It must be shared and nurtured in all levels of society.
More about Spoon’s musical collaborations with:
Stefan Säfsten: Jackson worked with Swedish composer Stefan Säfsten on multiple projects, including Words of Realness, an album featuring Jackson’s poetry set to Säfsten’s compositions. The recordings of Jackson reading his poems were made secretly inside prison.
Ani DiFranco & The Prison Music Project: Jackson contributed lyrics to Long Time Gone, an album produced by Ani DiFranco and Zoe Boekbinder as part of the Prison Music Project. His poem Nowhere but Barstow and Prison was adapted into a song for the album, which features works by incarcerated songwriters.
https://www.righteousbabe.com/pages/prisonmusicproject
Nicolas Snyder (No Moon): Jackson collaborated with composer Nicolas Snyder on No Moon, an album of spoken-word poetry set to music released by FREER Records, an independent label focused on amplifying the voices of incarcerated artists. Snyder built compositions around Jackson’s recorded phone calls from prison, creating a deeply personal and atmospheric work.
In 2025, a visual album for No Moon was released, featuring collaborations with 18 filmmakers from around the world. You can watch the Computer Lady video from the No Moon visual album below.
Want to learn more about Spoon Jackson’s art and ideas? Write Spoon about this piece or others found here on Rabbits of Realness:
Spoon Jackson B-92377
CSP- Solano
Levell II, Bldg D24, 150
Vacaville, CA 95696-4000
I listen to ever beating heart word. Listen many times. Real meaningful conversations in collaboration of creativity. Music carries art carries music a heart beating reality.