Vol. 9, Issue 1 | Spring 2023
community
Sponsored by
GREATER JACKSON CHAMBER
FIND A COPY AT TURNTABLE COFFEE COUNTER OR THECO
editor's note
On a normal Thursday afternoon I am sitting in Turntable Coffee Counter, during the quiet hours when teachers stop by after school and late meetings are held. It’s the first sunny and warm day in February, and the light pours in on Ashley to my left, sitting with a stack of art made by her students, bobbing her head to the music.
Patrick, at another table to my right, in his best khakis and blue button up, is studying a Playbill the way he does every copy of Our Jackson Home, as if every single word on the page might be needed to commit to memory. There are plenty of days I daydream about being somewhere else, but today it feels like a miracle that I’m right here in this very spot with these people. Before long, Patrick has wandered over to ask Ashley about the art she’s shuffling through. “You’ve got their brains working! That’s great stuff.”
“Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t stop,” he says before he sits down.
The sun is nearly set and he sits back into his chair, and she settles back to grading. My job at Our Jackson Home, strangely enough, feels like it has been to sit here and notice, to hope that in stories and events and in pages of the magazine we will slowly build a community where it’s likely two people who would have never met might step across the room and tell each other: "keep doing what you’re doing" and that what we are doing, whether we are teachers or artists or just simply neighbors, will continue to create moments of connection and belonging.
Thanks to The Greater Jackson Chamber for giving us the opportunity to paint a picture of our community in these pages, to give a glimpse at the many people who bring us together through the arts and culture and businesses who make this place home.
Courtney Searcy, Editor-in-Chief
details
64 pages | perfect bound | full color
Printed in Jackson, Tennessee, at Tennessee Industrial Printing, Inc.
featured writers
Eric Archer
Avery Chenault
Hannah Gore
Gabe Hart
Trista Havner
Lily K. Lewis
Elvia Trejo
featured photographers
Eric Archer
Cari Griffith
Hannah Gore
Tamara Reed Miller
Courtney Searcy
Maddie Steele
Contents
click the title to read each piece