Toney Jackson is a nationally recognized poet, educator, author, hip-hop artist, and teaching artist from Hackensack, New Jersey. A veteran fourth grade teacher at Nellie K. Parker School, he has built a career at the intersection of poetry, education, music, and community, using the arts to create spaces for expression, reflection, and connection. Recently, he began his term as the first Poet Laureate of his hometown. 

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Jackson’s roots in New Jersey’s poetry/spoken word community stretch back more than two decades. He was part of the team that helped establish Verbal Mayhem, a weekly open mic that became a fixture of New Jersey’s poetry scene, later serving for several years as one of its first hosts. He was also a founding member of The Mayhem Poets, helping to establish the performance poetry group that went on to tour nationally and continues performing today.

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Jackson is the founder and host of SPEAK: Sharing Poetic Expressions, Artistry, and Knowledge, a community centered open mic and writers’ circle that brings together poets, writers, musicians, and artists from across the region. His S.P.E.A.K. Across New Jersey project extends that mission throughout the state, documenting and participating in poetry communities across New Jersey while championing the importance of local arts spaces and the people who sustain them.

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His creative and educational work is also brought together through Lost Art Official, an arts and education initiative rooted in the belief that creativity can help recover the “lost art” of human connection, connecting people to one another, to their communities, to learning, and to their true selves.

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Jackson is the author and illustrator of I’m Jack. I’m Black., and his poetry, music, educational work, and performances have reached audiences locally and nationally. His work has been featured by organizations including the National Education Association and the Children’s Book Council, and he has collaborated with organizations including Microsoft Education, Canva, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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Across the classroom, the stage, and the community, Jackson’s work is grounded in a belief that poetry and the arts are important, impactful, and powerful tools for helping people tell their stories, celebrate where they come from, and build meaningful connections.