Real Mail Fridays: Holiday Card Socials

Real Mail Fridays: Holiday Card Socials
Four Festive Dates!
Thursday November 30
Wednesday December 6
plus two Fridays December 15 & 22
2 to 5 Eastern, from wherever you are, via Zoom

Here we are again dreaming of snow and remembering friends and family, near and far, with cards and letters. Why not handle this task in the company of friends who are gathered together to do the very same thing? They'll be joining in from all around the globe and we'd love to have you join us, too. One Thursday in November followed by a Wednesday and two Fridays in December, you are invited to join us from wherever you are on JCBA Zoom to write your Christmas cards and Yuletide cards, Chanukah cards and Kwanzaa cards and New Year cards, too.

You provide the cards and the stamps (and the hot cocoa and eggnog); we'll provide the festive soundtrack. The music we've chosen for the season is anything but typical; we can guarantee you won't hear "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and in fact, most of this music is music you've probably not heard much of before. We provide the Zoom platform, too. And though it's billed as a card writing social, join us to do whatever it is you need to do: our Real Mail Fridays enthusiasts spend their Fridays with us journaling, baking, working at their desks, and even shoveling freshly fallen snow (it's true!). Whatever it is you're doing, you'll love doing it in good company. Real Mail Fridays: three hours of quiet working time, set to a very Jaffe soundtrack, with a short break once or twice an hour to chat. Supremely heartwarming.

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IN-HOUSE HOLIDAY CARD SOCIAL

Tuesday December 12, 2023
Noon to 4 PM in JCBA's Book Arts Gallery

Bring your cards, bring your stamps, and let's get those holiday cards in the mail! We'll be gathering in the Jaffe Book Arts Gallery for a special in-house Real Mail Fridays session devoted just to midwinter holiday cards on Tuesday December 12. Bring your Christmas cards, bring your Chanukah cards (Chanukah continues to December 15!), bring your Kwanzaa cards and Yule cards and New Year cards, and don't forget your postage stamps, too. We'll supply the gathering spot and simple art supplies and a Very Jaffe Soundtrack of delightfully unusual music for the season. You may also bring coffee and tea and water (but no other food and no sodas, please)*. Donations in support of the Jaffe Center for Book Arts are welcome but not expected.

Come when you can and leave when you must, and expect a delightful afternoon… the kind where you’re dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card you write. And don’t forget: just like being in a snowy forest, it can get pretty cold in the Jaffe Book Arts Gallery over the course of a few hours; wise holiday card writers will be dressed in layers for this social.

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For our fall into winter exhibition, I've gathered books, prints, and other pieces from the Jaffe Collection and from my own collection. Many of these items have profound meaning to me, and I envision them in this setting in conversation with each other. I invite you to come and decipher your own conversations amongst the pieces, but for me, it all boils down to one piece in particular, a print by E. Oscar Maynard of Tender-Heart Press, and this is what it says: "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."

You are also welcome to just come and look at some pretty amazing books and prints and not think about them beyond their presence.

–– John Cutrone, curator of Marginalia

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