Bad Milk Press

In 2018 Jess joined the local arts group Feminist Union of Charlottesville Creatives (FUCC), now known as Bad Milk Press. Bad Milk Press is an arts organization creating programming that compensates artists and writers in central Virginia, while also creating spaces that allow women, non-binary and genderqueer creatives to share their work, develop their skills, build their artist resumés, and gain visibility within the larger local artist scene. Since joining Bad Milk Press, Jess has been featured in several group exhibitions, authored submissions to various issues of the zine, MALA LECHE, and guest-edited issue #5: Embodiment–Secrets Under Our Skin.

Excerpt from Embodiment Letter from the editor:  

“For me, embodiment is the language of The body. My body. Your body. Our big, vast, universe-sized shared body. For a lot of us, it’s become a foreign language. We’ve become so programmed to believe our bodies are “obscene”, it seems we’d sooner become astronauts exploring space before fathoming to learn the languages of our own anatomy or natural niches. Our culture and social expectations have made us strangers to our physical selves and the somatic domains of communication: how bodies talk. Our institutions have us relying on physicians acting as interpreters to tell us what our bodies need instead of preparing us with knowledge of how to study our bodies ourselves, and so we despair from countless inevitable miscommunications and atrophied intuition. Fear, shame, and stigma keep us closeted from sacred knowledge gleaned from secrets whispered beneath our skin.” 

Chronically Jess
MALA LECHE

“What does it mean?”

8×11 in.

Pencil drawing & Poetry on coffee-dyed paper

November 2020

Featured in MALA LECHE, December 2020
MALA LECHE

“Un-Babeling Occurs in Dreams” Pt I

10×13”

Framed mixed media collage

April 2021

Featured in MALA LECHE #2: Fever Dreams of Mother Earth, April 2021
MALA LECHE

Un-Babeling Occurs in Dreams” Pt II

10×13”

Framed mixed media collage

April 2021

Featured in MALA LECHE #2: Fever Dreams of Mother Earth, April 2021
MALA LECHE

“Venus screams when she cries”

11×14 in.

Framed mixed media collage

March 2020

Featured in MALA LECHE #3: Window to Another Realm, September 2021
MALA LECHE

“As the world falls down, I’ll walk with you along an egg cloud”

10×12 in.

Framed mixed media collage

March 2020

Featured in MALA LECHE #3: Window to Another Realm, September 2021
MALA LECHE

“Baubo Embodies Me”

Poem

June 2022

Featured in MALA LECHE #5: Embodiment–Secrets Under Our Skin, June 2022
MALA LECHE

MALA LECHE x WTJU’s Odd Little Museum

October 2022