Jess Saldaña

Jess Saldaña (they/them) is an activist, artist and author whose teaching and creative work are informed by studies in ecology, disability justice, the Black Radical Tradition, relational psychoanalysis, and queer feminist theory. They currently hold an MFA from Parsons in Fine Arts with a certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies from NSSR (2020) and an MA from NYU in Performance Studies where they were granted the Tisch Department Fellowship (2019). Writing, photographs, videos, paintings, and drawings have been featured in the following; Stonewall’s Legacy: Poetry Anthology (2019), Entropy Magazine (2019), Unprecedented Media Archive (2020), LAMBDA Lit (2021), Sinister Wisdom (2023), among others. They have presented scholarly work as a part of Black Portraiture[s] 2019 alongside Angela Davis, poetry for The New Museum’s education programming, and have composed music for the 2021 festival for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art: ENDURING CARE. In 2021 they were a NYFA City Artist Corps Grant recipient and were awarded Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots grant. They are currently a Psychoanalytic LP Candidate at the Harlem Family Institute in NYC where they focus on the intersections of art and play.