Join poets and musicians for a night of acoustic sets and rhetoric at “For the Love of Humanities,” a fundraising celebration for the Jefferson Clemente Course, which offers humanities courses for low-income adults.

The event is set for 5:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 17 at Cellar Door, 940 Water St., and features the Solvents, Jet Sparks, Megan Trenary, Anna Arvan, Matt Sircely and others.

“This is our first fundraiser ever, so we’re really excited about it,” said board member Lynn Hovde. “It’s just going to be a lot of fun.”

The event also includes food and door prizes. Suggested donations start at $10, with opportunities for giving directly to the Jefferson Clemente Bridge Course “Cultural Recollection and Sturdy Souls,” to begin March 1.

The Jefferson Clemente Bridge Course is a free college-level introduction to the study of the humanities for low-income adults, Hovde said.

“If people want to try out college and see if this is going to work for them, it’s a really good bridge course,” Hovde said.

The course is open to past students and new students alike, and no previous college experience is necessary. Students do not need a high school diploma or GED to participate. All fees for tuition, books, travel expenses, and childcare will be waived for qualified students. Transferrable credit is available for those who might want to go on to college.

The course, to be taught by Arendt Speser, Ph.D., takes place from 6 to 8:30 p.m., Monday and Wednesday evenings. It is to be composed of reading and writing designed to stimulate inquiry and discussion. Texts include those by: Plato, Homer, Virgil, Sophocles, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Bell Hooks, Allen Ginsberg and Anne Carson.

For more information and an application, contact Speser at jeffcoclemente@gmail.com or visit

jeffersonclemente.wordpress.com.

Applications are also available at The Boiler Room, Department of Social and Health Services, Peninsula College, OlyCAP, and the libraries.