Jessica
Mann

Jessica McMann is an Alberta-based Cree (Cowessess, SK), multi-disciplinary artist. She interweaves land, Indigenous identity, history, and language throughout her dance and music creation/performance practice. A classically trained flutist, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary and an MFA in Contemporary Arts from Simon Fraser University. Her work fuses together traditional language and dance with her own contemporary experiences as an Indigenous woman and Two-Spirit person.

Partaking in an artist-in-residence program at the Banff Centre (2019) resulted in the Indigenous-Classical album Incandescent Tales which was released in June of 2021. This album was recorded in collaboration with pianist Beverly McKiver and violinist Karen Shepherd, and produced by Laura Vinson, all Indigenous women. She is currently working on her second album slated to be released mid-2022.

Her dance, musical, composition, and soundscape work focuses on land-based creation and ideas of connection, disconnection, and home. Too Good; That MAY Be, an immersive soundscape performance was shown at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg as part of The 60's Scoop; A Place Between in 2017. Her compositions include Muskwa's Mountain Home (2021), Inni (2018) and dance soundscapes including beguiling (the)the land (2020).

Jessica currently resides in Cochrane, Alberta, where she works for the City of Calgary as Curator of Indigenous Art. She is also co-founder and co-director Wild Mint Arts, an Indigenous arts company and is a Laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards (2017).