Keeping up with the Joneses
by John A. Chiach

Sarah Jones walks her talk. In an age where discourse around words like multiculturalism, feminism and cultural representation are disposed of or debated, the NY-based Jones has remained committed on and off stage to rejoicing, recognizing and, to co-opt a term of the hip hop community that's influenced her, representin' cultures that often aren't.

Like a dj's mixing beats and bass lines, Jones continually mixes poetry with performance and art with activism. Although often compared to Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin and Anna Deveare Smith, she is one of most influential rising starts of the solo stage. Vibe Magazine listed her as one of its Hot 100 in 2000. She graced the cover of Utne Readers Young Visionaries issue in 2002. And hip hop she don't stop.

Raised by parents of African American, Caribbean and European descent in Washington D.C. and New York City, Jones attended United Nations High School before graduating from Bryn Mawr College. She returned to Manhattan to flex her skills at Manhattan's NuYorican Café while developing her one-woman shows.

Her first, Surface Transit , debuted in 1997 at PS122 and explored the issues of our multicultural reality through eight characters, earning her the Helen Hayes Award among others. Her next, Women Can't Wait , was commissioned by the international women's rights organization, Equality Now, based on the organization's real-life presentation at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Bejiing. In this piece, Jones used a single scarf as her only prop to transform herself into women from France, India, Israel, Japan, Jordon, Kenya, the United States and Uruguay as they prepare to address the United Nations.

With the support of executive producer Meryl Streep, Jones' latest, Bridge & Tunnel , opened in March to rave reviews as a part of 45 Bleeker Street Theater's Culture Project. The synthesis of three years of interviewing everyone from members of the Border Patrol to illegal aliens and fellow passengers on the subway, Jones has created the perfect setting for her latest exploration of cross-cultural interactions: the characters are all reading at a poetry slam for recent immigrants, hosted at a fictional coffeehouse near LaGuardia airport in Queens.

Bridge & Tunnel showcases Jones' innate gifts as a storyteller and actor. Whether portraying the slam's pun-loving Middle Eastern mc as he deals with family's potential immigration interrogation or Jewish senior pondering why her hip-hop loving grandson wants to call her to call him “MC Sharovsky, she captures an accent or dialect so masterfully that your ears don't just hear their unique tones and diction but instead listen to the meaning of the words. Jones's characters are as multi-dimensional as they are multi-cultural: we see them laugh, sigh, rage and wonder. From her first entrance--as a homeless woman who Jones cleverly utilizes to deliver the ubiquitous “Please turn off your cell phones” reminder--to her last, Jones captivates with her sense of integrity and humor.

"Humor, compassion, and daring have more often found a place in solo performance,” Jason Zinoman wrote in The New York Times . “This form frees gifted artists to change sex, race, age, body type and personality in an instant. It takes great craft and generosity. Sarah Jones has both. You see this in every moment of her new show Bridge & Tunnel."

It's not improbable that Bridge & Tunnel may push Jones from the Bowery to Broadway. Meanwhile, she's moving from the stage to the screen and speakers. With Steve Colman, her partner in life and in art who was last seen on Broadway in Def Poetry Jam, she's developing a show for the Bravo Network. Despite the FCC's attempt to sue her over the lyrics in e“Your Revolution”, which quoted misogynistic lyrics from male rappers, she's working with a global group of musicians to record her first cd. And she and Colman continue to lead poetry and performance workshops at high schools and colleges across the country. From cds to tv, or from Bridge & Tunnel to Women Can't Wait , we can't wait for what this woman will do next.

Bridge & Tunnel runs at The Culture Project at 45 Bleeker Street Theater through June 13. Visit 45bleeker.com for information. For more Sarah, visit sarahjonesonline.com.