<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font color="#1d2129"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Many thanks to Jerry, Chase, Kale, and Erica for last week's incredible discussion on Queer Methods, Ethnography and Play. It's a honor to engage with everyone's insights and work. I hope the conversation continues with the many intersections with racial/decolonial play.
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</span></font></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font face="times new roman, serif"><span style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap">For this month's discussion, we're </span><font color="#1d2129"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">interested in artists, thinkers, and activists with artistic practices that cross over boundaries and intervene in dichotomous logics. With attention to justice, we explore how multiple forms of art practices prompt us to reimagine different kind of worlds, as strategy and survival. We're honored and grateful to our participants this week on Racial and Decolonial Play: Maria de Los Angeles, Craig Santos Perez, LeConte Dill, and </span></font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Gabriela Córdoba Vivas. </span><font color="#1d2129"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">
</span></font></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font color="#1d2129" face="times new roman, serif"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="times new roman, serif"><font color="#212121" style="color:rgb(29,33,41)"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">In particular, the artists of this week engage with activist practices and play, from </span></font><font color="#212121"><font color="#1d2129"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">painting on paper dresses in </span></font><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">advocacy</span><font color="#1d2129"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> of undocumented women by Maria de Los Angeles, collective artistic and political action in Columbia by </span></font></font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Gabriela Córdoba Vivas</span><font color="#212121"><font color="#1d2129"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">, the collaborative public health interventions with poetry and public health in Black communities with LeConte Dill, and the advocacy of Pacific Islander communities and politics through poetics and publishing by poet and scholar Craig Santos Perez. All of the artists of this week provide a model for activist practices of collaboration and play across borders and mediums and writing. </span></font></font><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font color="#1d2129" face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="times new roman, serif"><font color="#212121" style="color:rgb(29,33,41)"><span style="caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">Our participants provide vital interventions in their work and </span></font><span style="color:rgb(29,33,41)">I've</span><font color="#212121"><font color="#1d2129"> been deeply moved by their </font>interventions<font color="#1d2129"> and artistic and collective practices of collaboration. I invite them to share further about their projects, their activism, and if and how play impacts their approaches and creative, and collaborative practices? </font></font></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><div style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap"><div style="direction:ltr"><font face="times new roman, serif"><b>On Practice and Play: Gestures Across Genre</b></font></div></div><div style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="times new roman, serif">
</font><div style="direction:ltr"><font face="times new roman, serif">In this month's -empyre- forum, we take up the question of productivity and and the politics of play, and how playing across genres, mediums, forms, disciplines, and departments, etc. makes for new kinds of innovative art, thinking, and community; and in doing so, better intervenes and gestures toward transformative futures. The current conspiracy-us versus them- culture perhaps exemplifies the problem of singular thinking and the need for creative,
eclectic, and innovative practices more than ever. We’re interested in artists, thinkers, and activists with practices that cross over boundaries and intervene in dichotomous logics. With attention to justice, we explore how multiple forms of art practices
prompt us to reimagine different kind of worlds, as strategy and survival. Initially inspired by Tony Conrad's work, his practice spans across film, music, writing, and sculptures, we playfully ask how play lends itself to more libratory ways of creation and
practice. </font></div></div><div style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="times new roman, serif">
</font><div style="direction:ltr"><font face="times new roman, serif">We begin with the first week on media and new media art in conversation. with Tony Conrad's playful work across mediums, we then move into a second week asking questions on poetry and playing across the visual, cinematic, and theoretical, the third week is dedicated to the theme of ethnography across forms such as photography, film, and poetry, the forth week focuses on the ways artists advocate for decolonial and racial resistance through playing across
genres and forms. While seemingly diverse, we hope the loosely organized topics will lend itself to connections between the weeks, and across the genres and themes presented. With attention to questions such as capital, creativity, institutional critique,
and justice, we’re honored to have the following artists and thinkers join us for this conversation and reflect on the possibilities of practice, gestures, and play.</font></div></div><div style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="times new roman, serif">
</font><div style="direction:ltr"><font face="times new roman, serif">We also invite our -empyre- subscribers, whose own work broadly resonates with the themes of practice and play, to join the conversation. What are the ways your practice has played or plays across genres? Have you faced institutional challenges in crossing disciplinary divides, and if so, how did you overcome them? Is play and practice productive? We explore this topic of play through four loose themes. We welcome our guests and all -empyre- subscribers
to actively participate and post this month and share your practices and experiences of playing across genres and any questions that arise. We look forward to the conversation.
</font></div></div></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><b><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></b></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font face="times new roman, serif"><b>Racial and Decolonial Play </b><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><b><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></b></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font face="times new roman, serif"><span style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap"><b>Biographies</b></span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font face="times new roman, serif"><span style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap"><b><br></b></span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><font face="times new roman, serif"><b style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Dr. Craig Santos Perez</b><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">is an indigenous Chamoru poet and scholar from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the author of five collections of poetry and the co-editor of four anthologies. He is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Hawaiʻi, Manoa, where he teaches creative writing, eco-poetry, and Pacific literature. </span><span style="color:rgb(29,33,41);white-space:pre-wrap"><b><br></b></span></font></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"><font face="times new roman, serif"><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>Dr. LeConté Dil</b>l was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles and is currently creating a homeplace in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. She holds degrees from Spelman College, UCLA, and UC Berkeley, has participated in VONA Voices and Cave Canem workshops, and was a 2016 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop Fellow. LeConté's work has been published in a diverse array of spaces, such as</span><i style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"> Poetry Magazine</i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">, </span><i style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Mom Egg Review</i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">, </span><i style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">The Killens Review of Arts & Letters</i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">, </span><i style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Journal of Poetry Therapy</i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">, and </span><i style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">The Feminist Wire</i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">. She is a scholar, educator, and a poet in and out of classroom and community spaces, and is currently the Director of Public Health Practice and a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU.</span></div></font></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"><font face="times new roman, serif"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51)"><br></span></font></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"><font face="times new roman, serif"><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33);margin:0px 0px 10px"><font size="2" color="#333333"><b>Maria de Los Angeles</b> is a multidisciplinary artist addressing issues of migration, displacement, identity, and otherness through her drawing, painting, printmaking, and fashion. She holds an MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale School of Art (2015), a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute (2013), and an Associate Degree in Fine Arts from Santa Rosa Junior College (2010). She was awarded the Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize by Yale University (2015) for her artwork and her role in the community.</font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33);margin:0px 0px 10px"><font size="2" color="#333333">De Los Angeles has been an Artist in Residence at several notable institutions such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), El Museo del Barrio in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Mana Contemporary in New Jersey, Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, and the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon, where she had a solo exhibition in 2018. Her work is currently on view in "Tierra de Rosas" a solo exhibition at the Museum of Sonoma County in Northern CA. </font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33);margin:0px 0px 10px"><font size="2" color="#333333">Recent exhibitions include group shows with Every Woman Biennial, Self Help Graphics, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, St. Johnʼs University, Robert Mann Gallery, and E.TAY Gallery. She participated in a panel discussion on xenophobia and deportation in America at Gavin Brown's Enterprise. Her work has been featured in <i>Hyperallergic</i>, <i>NY Magazine, HelloGiggles</i>, and <i>The</i> <i>Observer</i>.</font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33);margin:0px 0px 10px"><font size="2" color="#333333">Maria de Los Angeles says of her work, “Currently, my work is rooted in my immigrant experience in the United States and how cultural identity is built. As a bi-cultural person, I portray the images that have cultural meaning, criminalization of migration, definitions of citizenship, biculturalism, and how cultural identity is perceived by some in this time of division and rising nationalism. I begin by drawing from my imagination then, later, from photographs, combining the two to create a macro migration narrative. Geographically, the imagery combines symbolism, fictional and actual moments on the US-Mexican border; I emphasize what life is like for undocumented persons in the United States.” </font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33);margin:0px 0px 10px"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Instagram @delosangelesart </span></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33);margin:0px 0px 10px"><div><b>Gabriela Córdoba Vivas </b>is a Colombian interdisciplinary artist and scholar. She has worked in the intersection between artistic practices, social justice, and social sciences for the last 10 years. In 2012 she co-founded the collective CaldodeCultivo with which she has developed projects that deal with the construction of dignified narratives of communities in resistance and the amplification of their struggles in cities like Bogotá, Gdansk, Barcelona, and Detroit. In 2017 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study a Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo. <br></div><div>---</div><div>About the collective</div><div><a href="http://caldodecultivo.com/" target="_blank">http://caldodecultivo.com/</a></div><div>CALDODECULTIVO, a Colombo-Spanish collective, whose work focuses on subverting the impositions, exclusions, and violence of neoliberal policies. Transiting from aesthetical to political strategies, we amplify the struggles, the resistance tactics and the survival strategies of those who are excluded from “development” but are the primary victims of it. CALDODECULTIVO addresses conflicts of a global nature that manifest in the local, using different artistic languages to create devices of counter-information, agitation, and provocation, that work as mechanisms for altering the quotidian and as catalysts for dissent.</div></div></font></div><div style="color:rgb(33,33,33)"><div><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div></div></div><font face="times new roman, serif">-- <br></font><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif">Margaret Rhee, Ph.D. </font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif">College Fellow in Digital Practice (2018 - 2019) </font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif">Department of English </font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif">Harvard University </font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif">Assistant Professor in Media Theory (2019) </font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif">Department of Media Study </font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face="times new roman, serif">SUNY Buffalo </font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>