WELCOME  TO  THE DESIGN TALK COMMUNITY

Jess is a Florida native, descendant of greatness. Jess was born to a public school teacher who, in her first years of teaching, was part of the complex process of desegregating American schools, and in her later years became a bridge of inclusivity for local rural farm families. Jess’ father, a tech pioneer, was a dreamer and innovator during the rise of computers, internet and programming. Jess sees it as an honor to carry on the legacy of their parents in this new wave of expansion into the metaverse. 

 

Jess has a passion for building communities and empowering creators in their wildest dreams. The Dreamer’s Outlet started as a creative networking social group in 2017, after years of world travel and almost a decade living abroad. When Jess landed back in their hometown with a desire to nurture their roots and give back to the community, they took a job as an Advocate for a local crisis center. They had no idea the road ahead would be so rewarding yet laced with so many stories of abuse and trauma. As Jess supported total strangers in their moment of crisis -abuse, suicidal ideation, depression, financial instability, housing instability, eating disorders, substance use, systemic oppression, or any other adversity, often with several children in tow - they grew to value their creative talents as an outlet.  After work was the perfect time to wind down with a nice dinner, a sketch pad and some charcoal or pencils. Their high school and college passions- drawing, photography, sculpting, video production, to name a few - later became the tools that would be essential to a healthy and sustainable life as an advocate and activist. 

 

Around this same time, Jess discovered the beauty and empowerment of storytelling. Inspired by the resilience of the brave humans they worked with, Jess began to tell their own story of defeat and triumph as a young queer wanderer. Coworkers found their way to Jess’ office to take a break from the overwhelming impact of abuse and listen to a story or two about any of the places in the dozens of postmarked postcards decoratively hanging on the wall of their office. These moments of escape and connection became a sacred ritual throughout the work week. One day a colleague had the vision to offer Jess her own talent in producing podcasts. Together they stirred up an ecosystem of podcasts, visual art, in-person creative networking and community building. Over the years The Dreamer’s Outlet has been a mixed-media platform for folx to tell their story - “Inspiring creativity, compassion and community.”

 

So here they are, years later with several tools under their belt - world travel, languages, residencies across the globe, art, and a vast support system. Undoubtedly the next phase for Jess and The Dreamer’s Outlet is to use NFT technology to further expand the network of creativity, compassion and community into Web3 thereby connecting our wildest dreams with reality.