Cori Jean

Author, poet, photographer. Lover of good light and even better words. www.corijean.co

Cori is a writer, photographer and voice over artist living in San Diego, CA. She is the founder of Dear Woman, a movement to help other females find their voice and empower them to live in all of their skin. Her love of new creative outlets keeps her beyond busy and always searching for a beautiful way to tell a good story.

11/21/2021

dreamy first day in Guadalajara. so much art. so much wow. 🇲🇽

09/10/2021

what a miracle 🧡

03/13/2021

One whole year. Breonna, we’re still marching to your name.

03/08/2021

again and again and again

02/12/2021

This blurry photo is from 2.5 years ago driving home from an 8th grade graduation for a youth in foster care. I’d spent the previous months working to reconnect this youth with her family and didn’t think anyone was going to be able to attend her graduation. I showed up to find her grandma and great aunt sitting in the stands. My youth barely noticed I was there because she was so excited to see her family. And that’s when I know I’ve done my job right. When I’m not needed. I basically couldn’t stop cheesin my whole drive home.

There’s no reason any child should be disconnected from their family. There’s no reason any young person shouldn’t have access to their history and cultural identity. There’s no reason the stands at their graduation should be empty. But too often these are the unintended consequences of the child welfare system. It’s a deeply flawed system that desperately needs to be changed and I’m so grateful to play a tiny part in that change.

01/08/2021

Yesterday, teachers attempted to explain the violent events of white supremacists to 7 year olds while nurses fought to keep patients alive long enough to say goodbye to their loved ones on FaceTime while social workers raised hell to prevent families from being evicted during a global pandemic.

12/12/2020

Big emotions are not bad emotions.

I’ve been facilitating trainings for child welfare workers these past few months and there’s a slide in my training that says “big emotions are not bad emotions”. It’s referring to youth in foster care, but honestly I need it for myself. I need the reminder that when I feel big things they are not bad. When I’m missing my sister something fierce, when I’m overwhelmed by all the unraveling, when I’m deeply heartbroken by my job, when I’m raging at the world. None of it is bad. It all just is. You are not bad. You are. Make space for all the big messy things. They deserve to be felt too.

P.S. this photo from Maine is one of my favorites of my sister, looking back to check on me. Like she always does. 🧡

11/20/2020

In May I moved out of my apartment of 5 years to quarantine in the mountains with my folks. These photos are from my last morning in my little home. This place wasn’t much but it was mine. 90% of my belongings are in a storage unit and I feel stressed and unsettled about finding my next home but every night I go to sleep safe and warm. Not everyone can say that. In fact, San Diego county has the 7th largest population of homeless youth in the nation. Many of these young people were kicked out of their homes because of their gender or sexual identity or became homeless alongside their caregivers. Despite how or why they got there, no young person should be living on the streets. No young person should be worried about their next meal or shower. My work at is on a mission to end youth homelessness. It can seem overwhelming but there are concrete steps we can take as individuals and as a community to ensure every youth has safety and shelter. Connect with me if you wanna get involved, click the link, send the carrier pigeon.

www.ymcasd.org/buildhope

08/28/2020

Yesterday I wrote a poem about compassion and then couldn’t stop thinking about it all day.

My job grants me access to people I would otherwise never choose to be around. People who have abused their child, lost themselves in addiction and neglected their child, committed acts I can hardly stomach or suffered at the hands of a system that has been rigged against them from its inception. I’ve entered their homes, sat across the table from them at Starbucks, listened to their stories. And the truth that is usually waiting for me in plain sight is that they love their child.

I’m reminded time and time again that in the same way hurt people hurt people, healed people heal people. And no one ever gave them the tools to heal. And in that instant something in me gives way for compassion and empathy to bloom again.

Those conversations are never easy. And there’s been times I’ve avoided them entirely. Empathy and compassion exist alongside justice and repercussions. And those are difficult things to reconcile. But I know the moment I begin to pick and choose who is worthy and deserving of my compassion is the moment I have lost it. @ San Diego, California

08/27/2020

Tell me, how does your grief not turn into rage? @ San Diego, California

08/26/2020

“I think you were so busy looking for a riot that you missed the gathering of the grieving. I think you were so busy looking for looters that you missed the lament and heartbreak of a community. I think you were so busy looking for trouble that you missed the tragedy of systemic racialized trauma on the bodies of black and brown people. Tonight, tomorrow, and even the next day I beg of you, look again. Look again.” - Dr. Ron Bell

08/25/2020

Tomatoes from the garden. Shirt as basket because I showed up unprepared. 🍅

Being 30 and moving in with your parents during a global pandemic doesn’t always feel like you’re “crushing it”. But when are we really? Life ebbs and flows and the good tags along with the bad whether we like it or not. The independent spirit I’ve been leaning on this past decade has taken a back seat as I’ve returned to my childhood home. But sweet things have bloomed in its place. That’s good enough for now. In a few months I’ll be back in a small apartment in the city and I’ll be so grateful for my own four walls again AND I’m sure I’ll be missing this place. That’s the ebb and flow. Accept, savor and keep moving.

Address

San Diego, CA

Website

http://www.corijean.co/

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