“Purpose 
Unifies us:
It focuses our dreams,
Guides our plans,
Strengthens our efforts.
Purpose
Defines us,
Shapes us,
And offers us
Greatness.”
- Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

Jocelyn Jackson’s passion for culturally significant food, social justice, creativity, and community is rooted in a childhood spent on the Kansas plains. Her family would always sing a song before sharing a soulful meal. Inspired by her travels to West Africa and the diasporic Deep South, Jocelyn founded JUSTUS Kitchen to continue to create healing food experiences that inspire folks to reconnect with themselves, the earth, and one another, with the goal of collective liberation. Recently she’s published work in Eater, Epicurious, The Kitchn, and contributed an essay to the upcoming book Black Food by Bryant Terry. And she still begins every meal with a song. Trained as an artist, attorney, and environmental educator, she enjoys using her role as a cook activist to build beloved community. 

Jocelyn is also a co-founder of People’s Kitchen Collective based in Oakland. PKC is a large-scale community dining project that uses food and art to address the critical issues of our time while centering the lived experiences of Black and brown folks.

PKC received the Creative Capital Award and the Kenneth Rainin Open Spaces Grant, both for their interdisciplinary social art practice. PKC installed their “Kitchen Remedies” project at the Smithsonian and was also named “Rising Star Chef” by the San Francisco Chronicle, honored on the YBCA 100 list, and was presented with the advocate award at CAAMFeast.