The
Story of Ciel.

Jessa Ciel is strange. Raised by her Afro-centric poet duo mother and grandmother, she combines the cosmic influence of The Last Poets and Nina Simone with the California suburban valley girl references of her Sacramento upbringing. Quitting her health worker job at Planned Parenthood in 2008, she began creatively freelancing and never looked back. After many collaborations with friends, clients, and studios, she founded IAMCIEL in 2016. She is earnestly sincere, patient and passionate for her clients, and loves late-night creative conversation. 

Ciel combines visual technical savvy (from her film post-production days) with artistic communication (from her fine-art photography practice). This free-wheeling, vegan, bohemian wild black woman is a fine-art photographer, video artist, filmmaker and occasional college professor with a B.A. in film from Cal State Los Angeles and an MFA in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She loves visually designing your productions, directing you to greatness, and trying and teaching new platforms or visual ideas. She does not like 8am meetings.

Her grandmother Staajabu and mother V.S. Chochezi are her greatest influences and taught her the fine art of black woman wordplay and to always nurture herself and others. As grandmother Staajabu always says, “Health is your greatest wealth. So drink plenty of water and take care of yourself.” As mother Victoire Chochezi says in her poem ‘Creative Minds,’ “It’s going to be deep, when creative minds meet.” I invite you into the deep.