Jazzie Jelks is a US-based artist, writer, dancer, entrepreneur, 2021 RISE Global Finalist, and 2022 Alumna of the Global Citizen Year Academy, born, raised, and homeschooled in the state of Alabama. She is incredibly passionate about exploring the diverse nature of the human experience through the lens of visual and literary arts. Her unique response for the Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust’s inaugural “Rise for the World” Challenge, Jazzie Jelks Creative Studios—a Black-owned creative production studio designed to create more positive representation for people of the African diaspora and other historically-excluded, marginalized communities through the power of art, media, fiction and creative nonfiction—gained her recognition as a RISE Global Finalist in 2021. She is also a recipient of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards 2021 Silver Key Awards for her personal essay, “Floating Into My Destiny.”
Jazzie’s willingness to see beyond her own perspective and connect to people of different walks of life, as well her ability to create new, interesting ways for people to come together and begin to reimagine a world where our diversity is supported and celebrated in every aspect of life, are what create the very core of her being. It is her belief that it is our diversity and different ways of being and showing up in the world that make being human so interesting. This is what she wants to show everyone who reads her stories or experiences her artwork. If we were able to open our eyes and see each other as reflections of ourselves and our human experience, then it is her belief that we’d be able to solve so many problems and create so many amazing things.
Jazzie is devoted to reimagining a world where we are all deeply in tune with ourselves and the diversity that makes our world the global community it is today, using her creative gifts and imagination to inspire others to embrace their uniqueness and create lives based around what they love.