Melody Joy Overstreet is a Jewish, Iranian-American poet, artist, printer, weaver, and community educator based in traditional Awaswas Territory, presently tended by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. She double majored in Studio Art and Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she focused on Printmaking, Public Art, and Peace Studies. She has exhibited her work locally as well as internationally, and has pieces included in numerous private collections. Her work has been featured in publications inclusive of Seed Broadcast, Loam Magazine, and Inverness Almanac.

Melody is a teacher of many years. She is trained as a Master Gardener of California, is a Certified Life Lab Educator, as well as a California Naturalist through the UCSC Arboretum and Botanic Garden. She has helped initiate and tend three distinct school gardens, including Santa Monica College’s Organic Learning Garden, a space for cross-curricular engagement, the hands-on growing of food, seed saving, and community building. These spaces feature native, edible, medicinal, and dye plants for deepening consciousness of the ways in which nature is interwoven with and sustains our tenuous lives. Her educational approach emphasizes the importance of connection to our origins, each other, and place. She is also a member of Little Giant Collective, a community-run print studio located in what is colonially known as Santa Cruz, California.

For inquiries or to connect, email Melody at melody.overstreet@gmail.com

Additional projects can be viewed Here.