MOJO RISING
INTRODUCING KARA JACKSON, SOUTHERN FOLK’S EMERGING POET LAUREATE
Poetry in motion: Kara Jackson plunders the fault lines of relationships.
“I take the contradictions of the world seriously, and embrace them.”
KARA JACKSON
KARA JACKSON does not keep a count of how many tattoos she has – or, if she does, she’s not saying. “I know it’s more than how old I am,” the singersongwriter, 23, finally tells MOJO on a snowy Chicago morning, laughing. “If I disclose it, my parents will kill me.”
She does, however, serve as their willing tour guide, especially for the ink that represents favourite musicians. There’s the widewinged moth Joanna Newsom held on the cover of Ys, then one of Pete Seeger’s banjos on an arm. There are two for Donna Summer and two for rockers Paramore, plus “Silver Dagger,” for Joan Baez. A Daniel Johnston illustration even peeks from a sleeve on her left arm. That’s seven, and Jackson is just winding up. “They may not be up to other people’s standards of, ‘What does that mean?’” she says. “But I just think they’re cool.”