Design of [Over] A Decade: My Love Letter to Miss Janet Damita Jo Jackson
Laurean D. Robinson, MA May 17, 2018 5:54 AM EST In a strange way, I can imagine what it would have been like to grow up as a female Jackson of Gary, Indiana. I see myself feeling either really claustrophobic or embraced wholly by my extensive family of siblings, a homemaker mother and a hardworking steel worker father. While we would be seen as poor or lower middle class in our neighbors, I wouldn’t have the discourse to even recognize that reality – all I knew was I was always fed, clothed and slept head-to-foot with one (or two) of my brothers and sisters. My parents had distinct personalities and disciplinary styles that either built me up with a shaky confidence or sheltered me from the entertainment industry altogether as I grew up on 2300 Jackson Street. Nights were spent hearing my older brothers practicing their musical act with used or borrowed instruments or watching our only black and white television to marvel at chocolate entertainers like James Br...