Seija/Jack: Finding Roots with SISU

Seija Sisko Rohkea [Instagram: @seijack49], also known as Jack, is a 56-year-old female born human with an identity that never matched their internal sense of self. Jack has battled alcoholism, self-mutilation, sexual abuse and homelessness. Jack is a high school drop-out, a teenage runaway and is an immigrant from Finland adopted into an American family who they divorced them self from completely. But that was then. At the age of 35, Jack began attending community college and shortly thereafter got sober – 13 years later, Jack earned a Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in museum studies. Since then, they have enjoyed the world of art as it pertains to representing human experiences that spans topics from social injustices to personal identities. Who is Jack today? Jack is a human having adult experiences due to recently coming out to family and friends as non-binary. The journey has been arduous, rewarding and humbling, sometimes all rolled into one (no wonder their past was filled with such angst).

Today, Jack is an art historian, a college professor, a social activist who is currently focusing on removing the Eurocentric lens through which art history is taught in college to bringing awareness for a safe environment for trans and non-binary students on college campuses where they currently teach. A full life with purpose is worth living – it takes SISU to continue moving forward and that term is sewn on Jacks skin and permeates every fiber within – SISU has enabled Jack to continue on a journey that only those who battle similar circumstances can understand.