LA GRANDE — Jason Graham, aka MOsley WOtta, a slam poet, writer, artist and the Creative Laureate for Bend, will be at Cook Memorial Library in the Community Room on Saturday, June 29, at 11 a.m.

This free event is part of the library’s adult programs.

Graham (MOsley WOtta) is originally from the Chicago area, where he was steeped in a culture of music due to his proximity to Rogers Park.

In a conversation at the Hult Center in 2022, Graham described it as a “bohemian” setting where artists gathered together to collaborate and play. He also hails from a diverse artist family (father, poet; mother, director/storyteller; stepfather, Chicago blues musician). This upbringing left the musician feeling he really “had no choice” but to pursue the arts as a career.

He moved to Central Oregon in 1992 and has continued to influence and inform the diversity of media he explores in his work, traversing the ecology of conversation in his paintings, writings and performances.

His intentionally nonlinear work blends with a clear message of “what are we willing to risk to see each other’s humanity.” Every aspect of his work is a conversation, whether in paint, prose, music, or with audiences. He focuses on “making positive connections between the negative spaces of perceived differences.”

MOsley WOtta has been a Slam Poetry Champion for the state of Oregon, gracing platforms like NPR, OPB and TED X. In 2023, he was chosen as Bend’s first Creative Laureate, a position with a mission to bridge the gap between the community and local artists. His role involves fostering creativity, advocating for the arts, and celebrating the diverse voices that enrich Bend’s cultural landscape.

He claims not to be an optimist, stating that his art “looks at the inevitability of things, getting out of our myopic view.” Yet he then muses how the “planet tends to make space, creating new niches. It’s the artist who goes into the uncertain, knowing that the universe will always make room.”

More about the writer

MOsley WOtta was named as the 2023-2024 writer-in-residence for Fishtrap in Enterprise. As part of that role, he worked with local youths, led a creative writing workshop and participated in Winter Fishtrap and The Big Read.