Nakiyah T.M. Jordan

Black, Lesbian Mississippi Artist & Poet

Nakiyah T.M. Jordan is a Black, Lesbian, Mississippi artist & poet currently residing in Chicago, Illinois. Her work, with its roots in painting and drawing, exist across mediums to tell stories that reek of absurdity, wild dykes, and, hopefully also, southern charm.

With a love of her home state in the South, she embraces the use of language she was surrounded by growing up in the rural parts of Southern Mississippi. The rules of that usage, created by generations of Black Americans making English what they needed and wanted it to be, find themselves to be the framework of Nakiyah’s work, both written and visual.

Her work has appeared in Places to Spit by TEMPER Press and Black Girls Can Be Magical Too. Nakiyah holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA with an emphasis in painting from the University of Mississippi. Nakiyah is a founding member of Family Resemblance, a member of Exhibit B: A Literary Variety Show, and hosts the writers’ night open mic at Eli Tea Bar.

photo by Sarah Elizabeth Larson