one small seed followed California-born Jess Cross around Cape Town and discovered her innate passion for music, art and records.

Jess talks of music being a form of art, and art being the most beautiful way to bring people together. After studying Critical Theory Social Justice at Occidental College Jess had the realization that is was all insane and decided to get out. She then moved to Howard University for one year and then UCT for one semester, after finishing off her last semester at Occidental, she graduated and now has moved back to Cape Town to live her dreams…

Jess bought to South Africa a hidden treasure that she found at the bottom of an old house in an old crack district; five crates of some of the most amazing records she had ever seen. Obsessed with the history and the cover art of the records, she began to put them all over her walls.

…and that was my first serious collection that was handed down to me and I was already curating and collecting and I did not even know it. It was like putting art up on your walls, that was where the love of this all really started.

She found a common thread in both the art and the music, spending hours at a time in the record stores; digging through the records as if it was a form of therapy. As a natural result she started Vinyl DIGZ, which gave her the chance to explore her talents as vinyl DJ, whilst also exhibiting her prints at a studio party which her an Pierre Estienne held locally in Cape Town. This gave the crowd the chance to appreciate something from an era past – both aesthetically and musically.

“Its pretty dope seeing like my artwork all around town now.

Jessica believes that the art movement is a beautiful catalyst for change and dedicates her life to it. She started a non-profit organization called Soul City Movement. Its inception came from her fascination by the streets and the people in them and so grew her desire to get closer and connect to those people and places, and at the same time introduce art.