SCHOOL'S OUT FOREVER

I feel like I've been thrown in to summer with no warning.



Ta-da! All of a sudden I'm a Master. How did that happen?

Anyway, I started interning at Hyperallergic last Friday and the first day was great. I started an inventory of all of the mail art we've received and wrote an article about the history of mail art & Ray Johnson for the site, based on three of the letters sent to HQ. A perfect project for a recently graduated historian.

BOLDNESS, JOY, SLEEP, & GRATITUDE

Those are the things that Arianna Huffington told myself and my graduating class to be sure to use more of in our future ventures, and I concur with her. The idea of living and producing with more JOY is not something I had thought much of until I saw Karen Finley perform at Barnes & Noble last month. Joy is a central part of her artistic practice, which she emphasized to the audience. She even signed my book, "With Joy, Karen Finley." The idea doesn't really come naturally to me, so I will keep it in mind.

CREATIVE EYE

The lovely folks at Scoutmob profiled me on their "Creative Eye" section today. It was pretty neat because they asked a lot of questions and gave me free reign to answer! I disclose all my favorite sweet spots, artists, bands, and the like.

So, you're tired of the standard museum and Chelsea gallery routine, and you want to soak up the raw energy of the Brooklyn art world—but you don't have any clue where to start? We feel your pain, so we sought out Kate Wadkins, a gallery manager, visual artist and writer with her ear to the ground of the North Brooklyn scene. We caught up with Kate recently to find out about her latest work, her most abiding influences, and her recommendations for where we should all go next.

Read the full story here.

ANNOUNCING: MAIL ART SHOW AT HYPERALLERGIC

Photo courtesy of Hyperallergic

In tandem with Northside Open Studios, Hyperallergic will be curating a Mail Art show from June 16-19, 2011. Hyperallergic HQ will be in the midst of the action during the four-day event, and the Mail Art show will be displayed in our space.  We want YOU to submit your mail art to be featured in the show and of course, we will also be pulling from the submissions we have already received.

We are looking for a wide range of submissions, so be as creative as possible! Mail art as a medium has the potential to include layers of meaning and performance, due to its temporal qualities. Consider all the different piecesthat make up mail visually and manually: stamps, envelopes, paper, and/or non-traditional contents and containers; plus the acts of opening, unfolding and reading.

I will be curating this show at Hyperallergic HQ and can't think of a better way to kick off the summer! Submissions are due June 8th, read the full story here.

NOTE: To clarify, your piece becomes mail art as you submit it to Hyperallergic via the postal service. You do not need to dig up older mail art works / the work does not require having been sent to another recipient aside from Hyperallergic.

FREAKIN' OUT: THESIS PRESENTATION

LAST NIGHT I presented my thesis with my cohorts and was super proud to do so.

5:30pm @ Slonim Living Room

Sarah Lawrence College

Free & Open to the Public

The Women's History Graduate Program Presents:

Class of 2011

Thesis Presentations

Rosamund Hunter: The Source of Hip: Race, Politics and Masculinity in Cold War America

Hana Kabashi: Women's Work: Experience, Progress and Change in Kosovo, 1989-2001

Alexandria Linn: "Do You Want A Man Or Not?": Sexuality, Deviance and Proper Womanhood in Relationship Self-Help Books from 1980-2010

Alexandria Lust: TLC: the Political, Musical, and Artistic Complexities of Hip Hop Feminist Thought, 1991-2002

Sheelagh Lynch: Easter Lillies: Hidden Heroes of the Irish Revolution

Lisa Merolle: "...And Do Righteous Deeds": Women, Islam, and Grassroots Organizing in the United States

Thea Michailides: Performing Panethnic Identities: South Asian Women Leaders, Coalitions and the Re-Conceptualization of Citizenship

Chandeen Santos: Rebels in Paradise: an Oral History of the Goa Expatriates

Steven Sharper: Radical Perspectives on Sex, Rape, and Race

Elsa Sjunneson-Norman: Legal Morality, Stripped Down: Obscenity Law, Gender Discourse and Burlesque in America

Monica Stancu: Discovering the Voices of Roma Women: Roma Women's Activist Movement in Post-Communist Romania

Nydia Swaby: "Woman Radical, Woman Intellectual, Woman Activist": The Political Life of Pan-African Feminist Amy Ashwood Garvey

Katherine Wadkins: "Freakin' Out": Remaking Masculinity through Punk Rock in the 1970s

After the jump, check out some videos I took of Roz Hunter's and Nydia Swaby's presentations. Two of my truest collaborators and friends, they did a really excellent job.

FREAKIN' OUT

Finally. After footnote fudge-ups, six superfluous copies made and fifty excess dollars spent...

IT. IS. FINALLY. DONE.

Remember Us in Tucson: The Battle Over Ethnic Studies in Arizona

I posted this at RE/VISIONIST today, please give it a read.

A close friend and comrade of mine is an educator in Tucson, Arizona. As the battle over multiethnic education wages on, she repeatedly demands, “Remember us in Tucson!” It is imperative that we keep Arizona on our minds; these efforts against ethnic studies are wrapped up in the other major struggle of the southwest: immigration. SB1070, the staunchly anti-immigrant bill, recently reached its one year anniversary; Huffington Post reporter Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto discusses its beginnings as a Tea Party stimulant and its recent defeat, due in part to the economic toll it has cost Arizonians already. DeFrancesco Soto also lists the anti-immigration bills that have been introduced to Arizona in 2011; she states, “The targeting of immigrants from 2010 grew into an assault on their sons and daughters.” To this end, the vehement effort to end ethnic studies comes as no surprise.

Read the full article here.

Also, my time at RE/VISIONIST is technically over. The founding staff members: myself, Roz Hunter, Victoria Sollecito, Nydia Swaby, and Thea Michailides, just handed R/V over to a new, three-person staff, all first year students of Sarah Lawrence's women's history program. We are thrilled to see the publication in new hands. Please check out our parting words in this month's issue.

Farewell, R/V! It's been fun.

MILEMARKER

Self-portrait within 24 hours of submitting my Master's thesis. The final product rung in at 96 pages; and so starts the beginning of the end.