Join us for a panel discussion Moderated by Professor Cristel Jusino Díaz, on the DIY spaces being created to counter Latinx invisibility in media, art, and publishing worlds.
“DIY" (Do It Yourself) publishing has created an outgrowth of Latinx cultural production calling to question the overwhelming invisibility of Latinx writers and creators in many arenas of published and digital media. If the materials exist, why are they not published by traditional outlets and publishing houses? For example, Zine Fairs have become a platform for independent publishers- creating new micro-economies for artists while also providing space for the distribution of emerging artists, writers, and makers.
What can we learn from these writers, artists, curators, and bookmakers about the importance of independent publishing and the archives that have naturally grown from this work? Artist and founder of PreCog Mag Florencia Escudero, Smithsonian curatorial assistant and Puro Chingon Collective cofounder Claudia Zapata, and Luz Magdaleno of Brown n Proud Press will be in conversation. RSVP here.
Florencia Escudero was born in Singapore in 1987 and grew up in Mendoza, Argentina. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Escudero received a Master in Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Yale University School of Art in 2012 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of Visual Arts in 2010. Her works have been exhibited at Instituto Cervantes, New York, NY, The Steuben Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York, NY, Selena Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, and Etta Project Space, Seoul, Korea, among other venues. She was a 2016 year-long Artist in Residence at the Loisaida Center, New York, NY, and has also completed residencies at Art Farm, Marquette, NE, and Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA. Works by Escudero have been discussed in Editorial Magazine, Aether Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, and The American Reader. She is an editor and founder of Precog Magazine. Escudero’s Instagram, @floescu
Claudia Zapata is a doctoral candidate in Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture: Ph.D. Program in Art History. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the University of Texas in Art History, specializing in Classic Maya Art. Her research interests include curatorial methodologies of identity-based exhibitions, Chicanx and Latinx art, digital humanities, people of color zines, and designer toys. From 2010 to 2014, she served as the Curator of Exhibitions and Programs at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas. Zapata has curated over 30 exhibitions at the Mexic-Arte Museum and other Texas institutions, including A Viva Voz: Carmen Lomas Garza (2010), Sam Coronado: A Retrospective (2011), Death to Dollars: The Commercialization of Day of the Dead (2011), and Fantastic & Grotesque: José Clemente Orozco in Print (2014). Her recent projects include co-founding the Latinx art collective, Puro Chingón Collective in 2012. Within this experimental art group, she develops art zines, prints, apparel, design, and art toys. Claudia has published articles in Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, Jollas: Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies, and the Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. She is currently pursuing her dissertation project, “Chicano Art is Not Dead: Politics on Display within Major U.S. Exhibitions.” From 2018-2019, Claudia is the Latino art curatorial assistant at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in support of the exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965-Now.
Luz Magdaleno Flores is a Queer Chicana storyteller, layout editor, content creator, and photographer. Born and raised in Oxnard, CA, she has been living and organizing in Chicago, IL for the past six years. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Gender Studies from Roosevelt University, has self-published La Pera Chapbook and Bajito & Suavecito Foto Zine, is co-founder of SERIO? Zine has been published through Reverb LP, Chicago’s South Side Weekly, Canada’s Broken Pencil Magazine, Xicanation.com, and her photography has been displayed in San Francisco’s Galeria de la Raza and NYC 7th Annual Zine and Self Published Photo Book Fair. As a layout designer, Luz has created Love Notes from the Kitchen for Necia Media Collective, From My Lips Chapbook by Lupita Carrasquillo, Sana Sana by Marisol Ceron, and has contributed and designed On Struggling Queerness Anthology, Secretos: From One Hoe to Another, On Struggling Relationships Anthology, Home Anthology, and Cuentos de Gringolandia: Stories From the Other Side in collaboration with Brown and Proud Press and Xicx Zine Collective. Current projects include co-hosting Radio Luzifer, a bilingual horror podcast, working as a domestic violence resource advocate, and organizing as lead editor for Brown and Proud Press. Flores’ Instagram, @lightofyourvida
Cristel M. Jusino Díaz completed her Ph.D. in The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University. She holds a Masters in Spanish from New York University in Madrid and a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies from the Universidad de Puerto Rico-Recinto de Río Piedras. Her dissertation, “Balance Prepóstumo: Queer Temporality and Latin American Literature, 1983-1993”, focuses on questions of queer temporality in Latin American literature written during the HIV-AIDS crisis. Díaz is the Assistant Director of Student Affairs at The Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University.
Event Recap
On October 8, 2019, The Latinx Project hosted “Our Curated Scene: DIY Publishing, Zines & Archives,” a panel discussion organized in conjunction with the exhibit el zine: contemporary underground archives, which is currently on display at the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU.
This event included presentations by each of the panelists. Claudia Zapata of Puro Chingón Collective spoke first, narrating the history of the group, which was formed in 2012 following the creation of the arts publication ChingoZine. Zapata went to discuss several subsequent initiatives that the collective has organized, such as “The Puro Chingón Social Club” and the Pachanga Latino Music Festival.
Next, Florencia Escudero delved into her role as founder and editor of Precog Magazine, which focuses on science, technology, cyber culture, and feminism. Luz Magdaleno Flores, lead editor of Brown and Proud Press, then gave a presentation on her community work in Chicago, followed by a conversation moderated by Cristel M. Jusino Díaz, Assistant Director of Student Affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Science at NYU.
