Jacey LaManna welcomes the community to The Fold
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 1, 2025
“Shadow Basket is meant to be home-brewed, DIY, shared, and distributed among friends – like stone soup at the potluck,” says the website of Jacey LaManna’s indie folk band. While most musicians use the bottom of their websites to feature copyrights, trademarks, and small-font legalese, LaManna is putting her work into listeners’ hands and imagining the community picnic they’ll be taking it to.
It’s right on brand for this community-building innovator. Her soft nature makes it easy for her to be overlooked (until she’s on a stage, that is), but LaManna has firm values and a willingness to build what she wants. She has a clear vision of what she hopes her new event space, The Fold, in Surina Business Park, can become and has worked diligently over the last year to make it a reality.
“It was really hard to start this space,” she said about The Fold. “It was emotionally challenging. It took a lot of time and commitment with a lot of unknowns.”
She’s held onto what matters to her—community, safety, inclusivity, and creativity— and then allowed the rest to be fluid, looking however it needs to look for whomever needs it. The Fold’s mission statement (a poem in itself) describes the space as “a canvas on which to curate community events.” It’s for creativity in all its forms, whether for band practice, bike workshops, preschool music class, plant swaps, or dance parties. It’s for gathering, creating, and sharing.
The physical space itself speaks to the fluidity, with platforms that can be lowered or raised from the walls to create stages, tables, workstations, or a fully open room. It features an outdoor patio and large opening doors that connect the inside and outside, effectively doubling the space.
The Fold offers memberships for bands to rehearse and for music teachers to offer lessons (LaManna’s partner, Kyle Lutz, teaches drums, guitar, bass, banjo, and ukulele in the afternoons). LaManna and Lutz are in Shadow Basket, a touring indie folk band, which makes them exceptionally qualified to host other musicians and turn The Fold into a venue for shows.
“As a musician, one of my goals is to create a music-listening environment, rather than a party environment,” LaManna explained. She chuckled a bit as she described the first time she leaned forward to gently shush someone who was chatting during a performance at The Fold. People were surprised, but caught on quickly: shows at The Fold are about gathering to witness and listen. Dance parties at The Fold, however, are another matter.
LaManna is a culture builder. She quietly but steadily sets the tone for the kind of environment she’s looking for, and then shares the result with everyone around her—even kids.
“Jacey’s always been great about maintaining all ages,” Lutz shared. “The shows here are open to all families.”
So far, The Fold has been used mainly as a space for the close-knit art and music community of the island, but it’s slowly expanding outside of that.
“Inevitably, we continue to meet and share with broader circles,” LaManna said. “I don’t want to gatekeep, but I also haven’t felt the need to push anything. It’s slowly and organically happening. I love how it’s expanding.”
She’s been thoughtful—deliberate, even—with how she’s organized everything. She has a clear mission statement and an application process to ensure that events happening at the space align with its central purposes of gathering and creating. However, within those core values lies a world of opportunity for what community members can do. Her visions for the future of the space include birthday parties, barbecues, art classes, and support groups.
Information for the space can be found on their Instagram @thefold_sji. Booking applications and the mission statement are prominently displayed, with posters and calendars of upcoming events featured below. LaManna has a newsletter on Substack @thefoldsji that can be sent to your email for easy updates on what’s happening at the venue. Questions for LaManna can be sent to thefoldsji@gmail.com
The Fold has events open to the community in July. On July 3, live music will be featured at 7:30 p.m. with performances by Giant Wave, Desert Liminal, and Ephemerald. July 4 is the Art Walk. July 17 will feature live music at 7 p.m., with performances by Devin Champlain, Jackson & the Janks, and Roy’s Orb. July 20 will be Bike Day, featuring a bike clinic that teaches community members how to perform bike maintenance, starting at 1 p.m. A Pear Point Party Ride will follow at 5 p.m. The next public event will be the Aug. 1 Art Walk, from 5-8 p.m.
