Roxane Jessi writes about grassroots activism, community-led programmes, and the art that comes out of them.

She actively reports for the Burning Man Journal, covering the global regional network and Burners Without Borders, a volunteer-driven network that supports community resilience and civic action across dozens of countries. Recent pieces have looked at Burner land projects, how people take the ethos into civic work, and the role of grants in funding community art. She has also written on the art grant programmes that regional events run for their participants, and how art is used for community building and collective healing.

Her subject and interest is how communities organise, fund and sustain their own work, and the place of creative and cultural expression in it. As institutional funding retreats, community-led models are being asked to carry more.

Her book Once Upon a Time in the Dust: Burning Man Around the World was published by Burning Man Publishing in 2023. It follows a year spent at seven regional events on five continents.

She has worked extensively on international development projects, evaluating how programmes are designed, funded and sustained.

She has travelled to more than 80 countries and loves documenting what she experiences through writing and photography.