Special PAM JAM Preview during the October Ancient City Poets open mic reading.

Invited poets will read the poems that they wrote from being paired with an artist from the Butterfield Gallery. Fine art created during the poet/artist collaboration will also be worked into this presentation.

What’s a PAM Jam?

Back in August of last year, The Butterfield and the Ancient City Poets partnered to form a project named PAM Jam – Poets, Artists, and Musicians Spreading Joy. The inspiration was a project that featured 9 poets collaborating with one artist: Anna Miller. The show was called “Refractions”, and it was on display from January 15 to March 15, 2019, at the St. Johns County Administrative Building Rotunda.

This year, 18 fine artists from the Butterfield Gallery were paired with a poet partner from Ancient City Poets. The deadline for the finished poem and artwork from each paired collaboration team was April 1st of this year – right in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak. PAM Jam became the perfect pandemic project. In isolation, writers and artists got to know each other through emails, text messages, zoom meetings, and late-night phone calls. Writers and artists bonded together, built new relationships with each other, and learned to ride out the new normal. When the poems and paintings were completed, musicians were brought in to add another layer to the collaboration process.

On October 25th, the Ancient City Poets will hold a poetry reading at 3 pm online through zoom featuring the 18 poets and their poems from the inaugural PAM Jam. The event will be streamed through FB Live to the group’s Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/ancientcitypoets