By Ashley Baker
It’s just your average Saturday in Washington, D.C. In a Georgetown rowhouse, Jessica Mehta paints poetry across the nude body of another artist in the Halcyon Arts Lab Fellowship. Other poets and artists are gathered to watch Jessica transform Tariq O’Meally, a choreographer and dancer, into the lead actor of a performance art piece. He poses for photographs covered in thick, curving streaks of paint.
Artists of all sorts, from photographers to sculptors, live together for the nine-month fellowship. There, they work on individual projects and collaborate, culminating at the citywide By the People festival in June. Jessica, who calls Hillsboro home, is the fellowship’s first writer.
She’s using her time at Halcyon to curate an anthology of poetry by incarcerated and previously incarcerated indigenous women. She’s also leading workshops in that community. Writing and teaching as part of the fellowship – along with her doctoral research – is helping her understand her identity as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. A self-declared confessional poet, she said that putting the shared experiences of indigenous women into words can initiate a healing discourse to help process collective trauma.
“It could help us actually start talking about what we’ve been through and finding strength in our communities,” she said.
Through workshops she teaches, Jessica helps others discover how writing can move them past their trauma. She also helps people explore the power that indigenous people’s art has in commanding attention.
“The interesting thing about art – any type of art – is that it’s one of the few things that demand silence,” Jessica said. “There was definitely a time when Indigenous artists wouldn’t be seen in the galleries that we’re being seen at now. Art has a special place of being able to welcome people to share their voices and welcome other people to just be a part of it – not as participants, but as consumers of it.”
Although she’s a full-time writer and artist now, Jessica was 30 before she submitted a manuscript for publication.
“I have poems from when I was six years old. But you know, getting a degree in writing and especially poetry, you’re told like, ‘oh are you going to teach?’ or, ‘what are you really going to do?’”
After a series of layoffs, Jessica packed her bags and moved to Costa Rica, where she established her own writing business. Of the many opportunities that arose, Jessica said being a ghostwriter for best-selling erotica and romance was the most interesting.
“There’s obviously a lot of issues within that genre in terms of sexism and lack of diversity in the characters,” she said. “It was enjoyable to be able to do what I could within those confines to introduce a little more reality into what was going on.”
After submitting her first manuscript, she signed a contract just a month later. “That was one of the best days of my life when I found that out.”
She has since published thirteen books, and has more in the pipeline.
At Halcyon, Jessica is partnering with an Australian organization called Equal Reality, which develops software to help people experience what it’s like to be in different bodies. Equal Reality is embedding Jessica’s poetry within their virtual reality programming. After the experience debuts in England, she hopes to take it on an international pop-up tour.
“Research out of Barcelona shows that embodiment through VR can permanently increase compassion, empathy, and understanding,” Jessica said. “So people can embody indigenous voices and poetry.”
Her experience of healing through writing is what has propelled Jessica to become involved with so many organizations that help others find their voices. Her list of awards, grants, fellowships and collaborations is far too long to list here. Yet even as a teacher and mentor, she continues to discover her own voice.
“A lot of the time at like 4 a.m. I wake up, and I have to write. I keep a little notebook by my bed. I’ll just scrawl the line – because it always starts with just a single line. And I really hope nobody ever finds his notebook when I die because it looks just absolutely insane,” Jessica said. “I get called prolific all the time. But I ebb and flow. I just need to feed my soul, basically.”
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Keep an eye out for Jessica’s upcoming books, including Savagery (Autumn 2019), You Look Something (late 2019), American Baby (late 2019), and more. Or, explore her existing publications on her website. She is also a faculty member of the Tualatin Valley Creates Arts and Culture Leadership Incubator. Learn more about the Incubator and how you can get involved at our June 13 launch event.
“The interesting thing about art – any type of art – is that it’s one of the few things that demand silence,” Jessica said. “There was definitely a time when Indigenous artists wouldn’t be seen in the galleries that we’re being seen at now. Art has a special place of being able to welcome people to share their voices and welcome other people to just be a part of it – not as participants, but as consumers of it.”
About the Author: Ashley Baker
After spending several years developing communication strategies and conducting research for sustainability non-profits in Washington, D.C. and Portland, OR, Ashley has turned her attention to multimedia storytelling and community engagement. She holds a B.Sc. in chemistry from Sweet Briar College and is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Oregon in Portland.
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