“The ethos is very much come as you are, because that is the best you can give to this world.”

Writing for the Dig last September, Jacquinn Sinclair recently described the Jar as “a small but ambitious organization that aims to produce cultural encounters that delight, ignite, and unite a diverse and vibrant community.”

As Jacquinn, who had attended a Jar event herself, explained, “They use art—poetry, theater, songs, paintings, and more—to spark conversation among strangers at their (now virtual) salon events. Those who are invited are asked to bring someone they’re normally in community with, along with someone they’re not, to ensure diversity. Usually, after sharing personal interpretations of the art in question, genuine connections, often interracial and intergenerational, form.”

A malleable entity that reflects the world around it, the Jar has adapted well to unfortunate pandemic conditions, and that goes for its latest endeavor as well. Along with Bunker Hill Community College, they’re “unleashing a celebration of new poetry,” while at the same time “empowering students’ voices in poetic expression.”

In an event this Tuesday (April 20) at 2:30pm, “award-winning poet Nate Marshall will lead BHCC students, faculty and Jar community members in 90-minute workshops of brand new work by BHCC students, culminating in an hour long celebration of new poetry by the student poets and the guiding poets.”

On April 26 at 6pm, the Jar will host a “Readings & Celebration” event featuring guiding and student poets. It is free and open to all.

“The ethos is very much come as you are, because that is the best you can give to this world,” Ireon Roach, an actress, poet, and Jar curator-in-residence told the Dig last year. “Whatever world you are thinking of entering, whatever world you are afraid of entering, whatever world you don’t really understand, [or] you’re already in the center of, all you have to give is who you are and what you know.” The more honest and open you are, the more radically vulnerable you can be, Roach offered.

jumpinthejar.org