Kara Jackson Tickets

There are plenty of musicians who think of themselves as poets as well as songwriters. The difference with Kara Jackson is that she has the credentials to back it up, having served as the third National Youth Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2020. As she ventures deeper into her journey as an artist, Jackson is beginning to blur the lines between music and poetry in a uniquely evocative new way.

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, a community on the outskirts of Chicago, Jackson’s journey with music began from the age of five when she took a liking to the piano, inspired by the Southern sounds of country and folk. Guitar lessons came next, which would ignite Jackson’s burgeoning passion for words, lyrics, and later poetry in high school. In poetry she found a vehicle for her thoughts and feelings, and soon after was noticed as a black queer polymath with a singular talent, earning the coveted honour of National Youth Poet Laureate at the age of just 19. 

Proud as she was of her achievement, Jackson also recognised the place of tragedy it came from. Only a few years before, Jackson lost her best friend, Maya, to cancer. Experiencing deep grief and pain at such a tender age, she turned to literature. Particularly All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks’ lauded 2000 text which described love and grief together as being crucial to our existence. 

“I didn’t really receive any instructions on how to grieve,” Jackson reflected in a recent interview, a thought that sparked her debut self-released EP, A Song For Every Chamber Of The Heart, in 2019.

But it was Kara Jackson’s next fully-realised project, her 2023 debut album Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?, which really set her apart as a radical new talent. Comparisons to the wound-revealing lyricism of Patti Smith and Fiona Apple was inevitable, but not overblown –Pitchfork immediately gave their stamp of approval, awarding it Best New Music. 

Jackson’s voice hints at world-weary wisdom, though her music is anchored by the questions she asks, the confusion she feels and the desire to love in the face of unimaginable loss. Showcasing her breezier, alt-country side on ‘pawnshop’, other standout songs like ‘no fun/party’ and ‘dickhead blues’ show off her versatility –flitting between intimate moments of acoustic guitar and lush string arrangements.  

In a landmark year for Kara Jackson, a highly-anticipated performance at End Of The Road festival beckoned that September, followed by an intimate show at St. Pancras Old Church in London just days after.