Jessica Mehta
Tribe: Cherokee Nation
Based In: Hillsboro, OR
Email: thischerokeerose@gmail.com
Social Media: Twitter @cherokeeroseup IG @thischerokeerose
Website: thischerokeerose.com
About the Art
Red/Act is a movement for the antipode poem. I created the antipode form of poetry in 2015. It is inspired by both palindrome and reverse poetry. However, instead of being read forward and backward line-by-line, it can be read forward and backward word-by-word. The background image is of Ned Christie (Nede Wade), my great-great-uncle who was dubbed the ‘most dangerous outlaw in Indian country in the late 1880s.
As an interdisciplinary artist, I am constantly experimenting and working towards creating pieces that speak and connect in new ways. For this particular project, I plan to create an hourglass timer using the crushed pills that were found in my mother's room after her last (successful) overdose attempt. This includes over 500 prescription opioids. This piece will be both filmed as well as available as an in-person piece when it is safe to do so. My mother, like many in NDN country, was a victim of the opioid epidemic. The purpose of this piece is to highlight the realities of this epidemic, alongside additional disparities related to drug and alcohol abuse, among indigenous communities.
About the Artist
Jessica (Tyner) Mehta is a multi-award-winning Aniyunwiya interdisciplinary author and artist. Born and raised in Oregon and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she is currently preparing for her Fulbright U.S. Scholar award in Bangalore, India. Jessica is the recipient of a 2021 GLEAN: Portland award, Regional Arts and Culture Council Make/Learn/Build award, and she is the upcoming poet in residence at Hugo House in Seattle. She had three books released in the past year, including When We Talk of Stolen Sisters (Not a Pipe Publishing), Selected Poems: 2000 – 2020 (Meadowlark Books and winner of the national annual Birdy Prize), and Antipodes (New Rivers Press). Jessica is completing her PhD in Literature at the University of Exeter (England) and currently serves as a post-graduate researcher at the largest Victorian Centre in England and is the first Native American to hold this position.
She has received several writer-in-residencies around the world which were pivotal in supporting the creation of 15 published books. These posts include the Hosking Houses Trust with an appointment at The Shakespeare Birthplace (Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK), Paris Lit Up (Paris, France), the Women’s International Study Center (WISC) Acequia Madre House post (Santa Fe, NM), the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (Nebraska City, NE), and a Writer in the Schools (WITS) residency at Literary Arts (Portland, OR). She is currently the post-graduate research representative at the Centre for Victorian Studies at the University of Exeter, England. She is the first Native American to serve in this role at the largest institutional Victorian research center in Great Britain. Her doctoral research addresses the intersection of eating disorders and poetry. Learn more about Jessica at her website, www.thischerokeerose.com, where you will find links to her books, upcoming projects, and the Emmy award winning documentary on her life and work from Osiyo Television.
