[-empyre-] introducing Jennifer Flores Sternad

[Christina McPhee]

dear --empyre-

apologies for English only, here-- my limitations...


Please welcome Jennifer Flores Sternad (US)

I had the pleasure of meeting  Jennifer last November during the "Just  
Spaces" exhibition at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Editions).  This  
was the public project-- exhibitions, symposia, etc. organized by - 
empyreans- Nicholas Brown and Ava Bromberg  http:// 
www.justspaces.org/ . Ava and Nick wrote:
"Everyday we confront spaces that don't work - from our neighborhoods  
and parks, to our prisons, pipelines and borders. In this exhibition  
and programming series, artists, scholars and activists reveal how  
these spaces function - and dysfunction - making way for thought and  
action to create just societies and spaces....

Ava and Nick's effort attracted Jennifer's collaboration with her  
closely related project in Los Angeles  called Transitorio Público   http://www.publicotransitorio.com/ 
   in mid November.  Jennifer was the mastermind behind this series of  
events, and she brought a great mix of people and ideas together-- you  
could say-- acting out 'just spaces.'
Jennifer also connected Transitorio Público with a third related  
context,  Political Equator II , which was a conference or 'trans- 
border event' in San Diego / Tijuana, organized by  Grant Kester,  
Teddy Cruz, Denise Bratton, Eloisa Haudenschild, Steve Fagin, and  
Carmen Cuenca.  Here, I met several artists
who are now graciously agreeing to join us on -empyre- !-- among them  
Alejandro Meitin and Silvina Babich of Ala Plástica-- and many more.

Please welcome an incredibly dynamic, and passionate advocate for  
Latin American art in its most radical contexts-- I am very happy  
Jennifer Flores Sternad can share her enthusiasm and depth of  
knowledge with all of us this month.

I'll be moderating the 'chore' side of things (getting rid of spam,  
etc).    Jennifer will be introducing Brian Whitener as well, who is  
going to help with translations.

Our posts can be in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and we'll just  
have fun sorting through all the different threads--even more  
complicatedly than usual.  A Borgesian moment I hope.


Here is Jennifer's longer bio:

Jennifer Flores Sternad is a critic, curator, and writer. Since 2001  
she has been doing research on militant art practice and media  
activism in the US and Latin America. She received a Bachelor's degree  
in Literature from Harvard University. Upon graduating she spent a  
year doing research on performance and interventionist art in Chile  
and Argentina as a George Peabody Gardner fellow. While living in  
Argentina Jennifer was the South American Coordinator for the School  
of Panamerican Unrest and a guest curator for the first DEFORMES  
Performance Biennial in Santiago, Chile. She received a Master’s  
degree in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles,  
where she is currently a doctoral student and Cota-Robles fellow. In  
2007 she organized and produced PUBLICo TRANSITorio, an eight-day  
itinerant public conference in Los Angeles that brought together  
artists and activists from throughout Latin America and the US. (www.publicotransitorio.com 
). Her interviews and essays have been published in GLQ: A Journal of  
Lesbian and Gay Studies , Contemporary Theatre Review , Aztlán ,  
interReview , Journal of American Drama and Theater , and online at www.latinart.com 
  .


best wishes,

Christina












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