J.M. Nimocks (SWAMP XADDiii) is the descendant of survivors of the transatlantic slave trade and Choctaw Native Americans who settled in Meridian and Sunflower, Mississippi before migrating to the midwest. They are an anti-disciplinary artist and scholar who is most concerned with building utopias for Black, trans, gender variant, disabled communities across the globe through installation art, performance, scholarship, and sounds. J.M. chooses the mainstream and kiki ballroom scene as their place of refuge, spiritual freedom, and artistic expression. They are a founding member of Ghetto Heaven Collective, an artist collective of healers and organizers dedicated to providing QT2BIPOC exclusive spaces for communities in and around Seattle. They are an active member of the Iconic International House of Ninja as well as a member of the Kiki House of Blyndex based in Sao Paulo, Brasil. They will begin their PhD in African American Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois this upcoming fall.

J.M. most recently finished a residency at the Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington D.C. thinking through the ways that sex work (specifically BDSM work) can be used to subvert neocolonial narratives of Black bodies through video and sound. Under their music moniker, SWAMP XADDiii, they use the affect of noise and lyricism as tools for gendered and racial experiments. You can check out their latest work via their Instagram here. J.M. hopes to finish their freshman album ‘SWAMP’ before the end of 2021.

During their residency at A Studio in the Woods, they worked to compile a series of videos that explore the ways that BDSM can produce epistemologies that consider how Black, trans eroticism can be in conversation with environmental justice. Through performance-based video art, archival research, and noise making, J.M.’s project is in conversation with scholars such as Chelsea M. Frazier who call forth a deeper understanding of Black feminist interventions in environmentalism (Troubling Ecology, 2016). Additionally, J.M. worked on the beginnings of ‘Apothecary for the Apocalypse’ by connecting with the local ecologies of Southern Louisiana, and multi-generational, Black and Indigenous healers to dream of non-extracting earth essences that help facilitate our connections to the Earth and interpersonal healing.

“My time at A Studio In The Woods was generative, restorative, and truly what I needed at this stage of my career. Not having expectations to produce a particular piece, and having the space to allow myself to move at the speed of trust in my own body was a gift. I was able to build the foundations of ‘Apothecary for the Apocalypse’ a free, traveling apothecary aimed towards Black and Indigenous sex workers and trans and gender expansive folk. Two flower essences were made during the residency, some of the first medicines to be offered through the apothecary. I made music that was completely different than music I’ve made in the past, which will be a part of my burlesque performance. Finally, I engaged more critically with the topic of eco-sexuality and thought through some of the ways that Indigenous peoples have used eroticism to think through inter-species relationships.” – J.M. Nimmocks

Gallery photos by Christine “Cfreedom” Brown