Jacquese Armstrong

About Me

Jacquese Armstrong is always thinking creatively.

Jacquese Armstrong, author of fabricating a home ‘cause you never had one (Aquarius Press Willow Books, 2026), blues legacy (Broadside Lotus Press, 2019) and birthing yourself naturally: motivational reflections on a mental health journey (KDP, 2022) was the recipient of the 2019 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award and 2015 Ambassador Award from the State of New Jersey Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma for promoting wellness and recovery and reducing stigma through the arts.

Her work is upcoming in Killens Review of Arts and Letters and the anthology Darling Nikki. Most recently published in Mississippi Free Press, Women’s eNews, Merge, Black Fire—This Time Vol. 2, Lolwe, and African Voices, she participated in the 2022 Black Fire—This Time Anthology as a Summer Fellow. Other works have appeared in Valley Voices: a Literary Review, Torch Literary Arts, midnight & indigo, Mad Women in the Attic, MAD in America, Stellium, Black Magnolias and Black Ourselves .

Her work with the TMI Project includes TMI Project’s Barnard College Storytelling Performance, TMI Project’s Black Stories Matter: Every Word Spoken and TMI Project’s Alone Together True Storytelling Performance.

Jacquese was a 2024-2025 Women’s eNews Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Journalism Fellow and the coordinator of the NAMI NJ Dara Axelrod Expressive Arts Network for more than a decade. She earned her Journalism B.A. from the University of Toledo, Toledo OH and a SEA (Social Emotional Arts) Facilitator Certificate from the Arts & Healing Initiative.

​

​