Jadelynn St Dre, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and Anonymous Artists
Monument Quilt square
8’x8’
Fabric, Paint Marker
2019

Monument Quilt Square is a 8’x8’ fabric, paint marker piece created in 2019 by Jadelynn St Dre, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and Anonymous Artists. Jadelynn’s piece is located in the bottom right corner. The central artwork has a vibrant red background with diagonal gold and white stripes in the corners. In the middle, there is a yellow, stylized fist raised in the air, outlined with white. Above the fist, white circles and half-circles show phases of the moon in an arc, with a full moon at the top center. Around the edges, handwritten text reads: “My healing keeps time with the moon.” (top left corner) and “Always fluid, and with a raised fist.” (bottom right corner). The bottom left square contains variously colored and patterned cut-out letters. The text reads: “ABA IGNORES OUR NO LISTEN TO AUTISTIC VOICES”. The letters are arranged in a slightly uneven manner across the banner. The word “NO” is especially prominent, decorated with a border of colorful buttons. In the top left square is a piece that focuses on intergenerational trauma. On top of the red fabric displays bold black and white text and painted figures. The top of the fabric reads “INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA.” Directly underneath is a painted mountainous landscape, and below that is a heading: “1915 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY THE OTTOMAN TURKS.”  The central part shows hand-painted images of women and girls in distress, some with outstretched arms and others covering faces. Words and phrases are scattered across the fabric, including “SEX SLAVE – TURKISH HAREM,” “RAPE,” “PTSD,” “EMOTIONALLY DAMAGED MOTHER,” “RANDOM ATTACKS,” and “HOME.” The background and much of the design use shades of red, and white lines and outlines highlight the figures and text. Finally, the top right square of the quilt is decorated with colorful cut-out fabric text that reads “I CAME FOR THE WRECK & NOT THE STORY OF THE WRECK – Adriene Rich.”

Jadelynn St Dre with Eliza Barrios, Angela Hennessy, Lydia Greer, Jo Howard, Vanessa Rochelle Lewis, LeahAnn Mitchell #lamfemmebear, Quinn Peck, Reaa Puri, Leslie St Dre
Choreographies of Disclosure: What the Mind Forgets
Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, 2018

Choreographies of Disclosure was a socially engaged, long-form project, organized and curated by St Dre in collaboration with LGBTQ multidisciplinary artists who have been impacted by sexual violence. Survivor-collaborators consented to share aspects of their story(ies) with St Dre, who then transformed these disclosures into pieces of written choreography – sequences of actions which functioned both as performative instruction and poetic document. These documents were then provided to Bay Area queer and trans artists, who developed multidisciplinary works to the content in the medium of their choosing, all responses to the somatic expressions of a survivor in the act of disclosure. The resulting artistic works – four written choreographies and four response works – anchored the exhibition, in addition to a mural and music composition created as responses to the process as a whole. These works were supplemented by performances, panels, as well as community forums facilitated by local organizers, artists, and community leaders. These events provided opportunities for transformative encounters within our artistic and social communities, celebrating and reflecting upon queer and trans survival, resistance, and resilience.

Choreographies of Disclosure: Headdress
Headdress: Jadelynn St Dre with Cassandra Clark and Bay Area LGBTQIA2s+ community members
Mannequin Head: Jadelynn St Dre
Ribbons, queer and trans visions for a world without sexual violence, mannequin head, jewels
Pro Arts Gallery, 2018

Visions Headdress, a collaborative product of Choreographies of Disclosure, is a ribbon headdress piece that sits on top of a mannequin head created in 2018. Various colorful silk-like, shiny ribbons are hung down from a crown of flowers  around 3’ per ribbon. Red, ocean blue, deep green, pink, sky blue, purple, white, and black make up the various ribbon colors. Each ribbon carries a different message, such as “Back off and leaves me alone,” “sext: can I hold your hand?,” “children would not be gender police,” “…resilience, safety, softness, LOVE,” and other phrases about personal boundaries and communications reflecting a world without sexual violence. On the left side of the headband, is a larger cluster of black flowers with heart shaped pedals containing some gold sequences. Directly to the right are light pinkish/purple smaller flowers with many petals unfurling from the center. To that right side, is a gold bright, gold shaped fan piece. And above all of that cluster are some longer strands of black flowers jetting off of black stems that also have slightly gold tipped stamens in the center of them.

The ribbons attached to this headdress reflect queer and trans visions of a world without sexual violence, and were collected from LGBTQIA2s+ viewers throughout the exhibition and through facilitated community workshops. Although the practice of maintaining belief in the possibility of an end to sexual violence may feel, at times, futile, it is within community spaces that the spark of hope is lit and the fire of our collective belief is sustained. Here, we highlight LGBTQIA+ visions, as ours are communities that have relied on the magic of our intuitive wisdom and the liberatory expanse of our imaginations to survive.

Jadelynn St Dre
Protection
Salt, water
2025

Protection is an interactive salt and water piece developed in 2025. When people interact with the artwork, the installation features a circle of white salt resting on a black vinyl protective surface that creates the impression of a soft, dark space anchoring the scene. On top of the salt mound are many hand-carved bones, each with unique shapes, small nooks, ridges, and contours meant to be explored by touch. Beside the main pile, a smaller pedestal holds another mound of salt topped with more carved bones. Around the installation are three, curved, black ceramic bowls filled with water. One is on the floor in the center of the piece, and the other two are on white pedestals of different heights. Each bowl has a rippled texture along its sides and a dark brown glaze in the center, evoking the movement of water. Visitors are invited to participate gently with the piece by using a smaller bowl and scooping water to pour it tenderly over the salt bones, as though washing a small child or small animal. Alongside the piece are handwritten instructions to guide the interaction.

Nickole Keith,  FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and Anonymous Artists
Monument Quilt square
8’x8’
Yarn, fabric, ribbon, marker
2015

Monument Quilt square is a 8’x8’ marker, yarn, fabric, and ribbon piece created in 2015 by Nickole Keith, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and Anonymous Artists. Nickole’s artwork for the Monument Quilt is in the collection at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). We requested her quilt for a loan, but the staff was unable to fulfill our request. Following is a description of what the quilt does look like, preceded by an artist statement about the decision: The quilt square is divided into four quadrants and has a variety of fabric squares in different colors and patterns with the background being in red. Keith’s panel [would have been] in the upper left corner and features three yarn sculptures arranged vertically on a background horizontally split into a red top section and a shiny purple bottom section with a yellow fabric heart in the center. Each yarn sculpture resembles a head with braided “hair”, one in brown, gray, and black per head represented. Yellow, orange, red, and purple ribbon fringe extend at the bottom of the purple section. To briefly mention, the other three sections had various patterns and messages. Some read: “You are loved”, “Healing Happens”, “Create, Claim Support It”, “Justice for Natives”, “Protect Native Women and Children”, “Shame on Dollar General”, etc.  

Below is the artist statement: 

Receiving the news that this piece could not be included in the exhibit has stirred a deep emotional response. It’s not simply disappointment—it feels like something sacred has been taken. This work is more than fabric and thread; it carries the weight of memory, grief, and survival. To tell the story of this exhibit without this piece means grieving its absence alongside the histories it holds.

This quilt centers on a woman with gray hair—she represents the matriarch, the protector, the bearer of difficult truths. Her vigilance, born from generations of trauma and loss, shaped how I was raised and who I’ve become as an artist, a woman, and a mother. From an early age, I was taught what could happen to me. These warnings were not abstract—they were survival tools passed down through lived experience.

As I came into adulthood, I began to understand the legacy I was born into: a lineage marked by violence, silence, and resistance. Each stitch in this piece holds stories of women who came before me—stories often too painful to speak aloud, but too important to forget.

This work is my offering, my act of remembrance, and a reclamation of voice. Even in its absence from this space, its presence is felt.

Nottawaseppi Huron band of the Potawatomi, Unknown Artist, Nickole Keith, and Chris Wilson
Blood Memory: Past, Present, and Future
4” x 5”; 3.25” x 7”; 4.5” x 10” (hxw)
Black ash baskets
Late 1800s, 2025, and 2012

Blood Memory: Past, Present, and Future is a collection of three black ash tree handwoven baskets with varying sizes. The first basket is an older piece, created by Nottawaseppi Huron band of the Potawatomi Unknown Artist in the late 1800s, is a 4”x5” mainly tan colored cylindrical shaped basket decorated with naturally dyed  blue and red stripes woven between tan strips. The basket features a thicker middle portion with two lines of blue triangles pointed to each other filling in the spaces between the adjacent triangle. There are two bands of red accents above and below the middle strip. This basket  represents the Past–“What We Lost.” The basket tells a story of absence — the loss of black ash trees to climate change and invasive species. It carries the memory of what once was: strength, tradition, and the living connection between people and the land. The second basket, woven by Nickole Keith in 2025,  is a small 4” x 5” round light-tan colored, modern dyed, woven basket, arranged in a tight, woven pattern. The rim of the basket has an interesting decorative looped edge with bent segments sticking out around the edge. It represents the Present–“Taking back what was lost.” Through her work, she reclaims the practice and spirit of basketmaking–restoring not only the craft, but the relationship between people and nature. This basket stands for resilience, revival, and the healing that comes from creating with purpose. The third basket in the set was created by Nickole Keith’s son, Chris Wilson in 2012. The basket is a larger 4.5” x 10” darker brown piece with a wide opening at the top. The upper rim and bottom edge are decorated with pointed, looped elements giving it a textured, multilayered feel. The basket also contains some dyed black strips contributing to the elaborate pattern of the piece. This final basket represents the Future–“What Will Be Restored”. Keith’s son carries the basketweaving tradition forward. His basket symbolizes hope–a future where our generations continue to restore, create, and honor what was lost. Through his hands, the story continues, woven with care and promise.

Portrait of Nickole and Paula Keith
Photo by NHBP Tribal Member Johnathon Moulds
2021

A photograph of Nickole Keith (left), and her mother, Paula Keith (right) standing side by side, directly gazing at the camera. Nickole has short, black hair and bangs, medium brown skin, and is wearing beaded earrings. Paula has long grey hair and light brown skin. Both women are wearing black MMIW t-shirts and ribbon skirts. Nickole’s ribbon skirt is a gradient of purple to blue to green. Paula’s is black with red and orange ribbons. Nickole holds a braided ring of sweetgrass. Paula holds a black ash basket.

Paula Keith (interviewee), Mariesha Keith (interviewer), Dorie Rios, Chairwoman of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (narrator of pathology report), and Nickole Keith (author of “Nnoshé” painting)
Brenda Joy Day
00:10:52
2022

The video medium is of an older woman named Paula Keith [Nickole Keith’s mother] from the Potawatomi tribe describing the story of her sister, Brenda Day, who was murdered in 1980 in a case of domestic violence. The video spans ten minutes and fifty-two seconds (00:10:52), and was developed in 2022 with Paula Keith (interviewee,) Mariesha Keith (interviewer), Dorie Rios, Chairwoman of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (narrator of pathology report), and Nickole Keith (author of “Nnoshé” painting).

Nickole Keith
Weaving through trauma
4’x4’
Acrylic on birchwood 
2025

Weaving through trauma is a 4’x4’ acrylic abstract painting with a repeating geometric pattern on birchwood created in 2025. The artwork consists of a grid of small, rectangular brush strokes in various earthy tones–such as ochre, rose, brown, and cream–arranged diagonally to form a woven or basket effect. Each patch of color contains several parallel brush marks, with the colors and orientation of the patches alternating and intersecting across the canvas.

Nickole Keith
374 Broken Promises
4’x4′
Acrylic on birchwood
2025

374 Broken Promises is a 4’x4’ acrylic abstract painting on birchwood created in 2025. It displays swirling patterns in shades of red, orange, yellow, purple,  blue, and black in the background intersected by black marks resembling small X’s spanning across the entire canvas. The red, orange, yellow mimics the Fire which in the Potawatomi culture means they  are the “Keepers of the Fire” despite being moved out West their  fire still burns. The X’s are symbolic of the signatures across Turtle Island where they [X’s] represent signatures of all tribes 374 signatures and no treaties honored. The painting has a dynamic, almost whirlwind effect. The colors blend together to create a sense of movement, and the repeated black marks add texture and depth to the composition. 

Nickole Keith
Nnoshé
4’x4’ 
Acrylic on birchwood 
2019

Nnoshé is a 4’x4’ mixed medium piece of acrylic painting and beads on birchwood created in 2019. The artwork is divided into several horizontal sections. Three quarters of the painting has colors of black, purple/pink, bronze, and grayish-black color strokes that are rough in texture, almost like a fork that was dipped in paint and dragged in various directions along the birchwood. The grayish-black stripes represent forms of bondage materials. These colors serve as a background to another section in the upper portion of the painting. This section, in the middle of the background, features a portrait of a deceased brown Native woman (from the chin up) with long black hair behind various blades of grass whose physical body has begun to return to Mother earth. She is a foreground to a blue and white sky that is marked with 10 red handprints. The handprints represent the statistics that Anishinabe women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average. The other quarter of the painting is separated by three strips. The first, which disrupts the black and colored background, is a thin strip filled with small gold & silver beads and white pearls. The gold-pearl gems mimic the sunset and offers hope that those that are still missing will be rescued alive. Underneath is a little thicker black strip with the gray-ish black rough strokes again. Finally, the bottom strip extending to the end of the birchwood displays blue colors with white highlights and crystals on top, giving a sense of movement. The blue and shining crystals symbolize water which we all have a connection and return to.