education
PhD English Literature : Creative Writing : University of Denver
Committee : Laird Hunt (director), Brian Kitely, and Bin Ramke
MA Interdisciplinary Art : Performance Studies : Columbia College Chicago
BA Visual Art & Art History : Illinois State University
exhibitions • performances •
public art
2007 – 2012 Box Car
2010 Aurora Borealis
ZephyrZephyr
Lindow Man
2009 She Listens in Caves (redux)
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
2007 – 2009 With All that She Is She Desires to Give Great Pleasure
part of The Grammar of Landscape; State of Illinois Museum;
Chicago, Springfield, Lockport, Rend Lake
2007 pretty pretty pretty over there too
Gallery 400, Hyde Park Arts Center, Mess Hall & Experimental Station
2006 Degrees of Wildness
Chicago Cultural Center
2006 The Charioteer
Iron Street Warehouse, Chicago
2006 Labyrinth
2006 1 + 1 = One
La Mama Prairie Field and Museum, LaPorte, IN
2005 She Listens in Caves
Chicago Cultural Center
2005 The Language of Birds
part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, Northerly Island, Chicago
2005 Atmosphere
Lurie Garden, Millenium Park, Chicago
2005 – 2006 One Wolf, Two Wolf
Fox Valley Farms, Coral, IL
2004 In the Palace of the Night Heron
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2003 – 2004 Thirteen Moon
Teacher’s Island, Harpswell, ME
2001 – 2002 Devotion
Nichol’s Farm, McHenry County, IL
1999 – 2000 Drove Road
22 miles of McHenry County, IL
1998 – 1999 The Story of Animals Eating
Tashua Tree Farm, Trumbull, CT
1997 – 1998 The Architecture of Honey
Volo Bog, McHenry County, IL
1996 – 1997 Flower
Volo Bog, McHenry County, IL
1995 – 1996 Hunter’s Moon
Volo Bog, McHenry County, IL
The following titles were performed often in clubs and galleries between 1989 and 1996:
The Rim of Red Hot, The Something Girl, Hula, Black Cake, White Castle, Mental Beauty/Enduring Affection, Notable American Women with Three Names, Irma’s Injection, This Train Is Blue; and club work in collaboration with Matthew Owens, Lawrence Steger, Iris Moore, Andy Somma, Cheryl Trykv, Paula Killen, Jenny Magnus … others
1988 – 1991 And as part of Goat Island
We Got A Date, Can’t Take Johnny to the Funeral
Performance venues and spaces:
PS 122 (NYC); Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles); Lawrence University (Wisconsin); Portland State University (Oregon); 3rd Eye Center & Center for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow, Scotland); Institute for Cotemporary Arts (London, England); Chicago area: Chicago Cultural Center, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, Randolph Street Gallery, Mess Hall, N.A.M.E., Experimental Station, Ax Street Arena, Links Hall, UIC Gallery 400, Cabaret Metro, Club Lower Links, Chicago Center for the Book & Paper Arts
1989 – 2001 Starting in 1989 and continuing until I began teaching full-time, I worked as a designer and production artist in collaboration with others – most prominently Jim Green and John Boesche – to produce such diverse projects as a media wall installed at Rockefeller Center in New York detailing seasonal change in Tuscany, two of Peter Sellar's operas (Tannheuser, The Death of Klinghoffer), a visitor’s center set atop the banks of the Mississippi for the state of Iowa, and the theater-as-science project Biosphere II in Oracle, Arizona.
awards • fellowships • commissions
2008 – 2011 University of Denver Fellowship (PhD)
2009 – 2010 Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Graduate Writing Scholar
2007 Experimental Sound Studio/Crosscut Award
2006 Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (Commission)
2006 Illinois Arts Council Project Grant
2006 Columbia College Faculty Development Award
2005 Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (Commission)
2004 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship
2002 Illinois Arts Council Project Grant
2001 Driehaus Visual Arts Award (Finalist)
2001 Cal Arts/Alpert Award in the Arts (Finalist)
2000 Columbia College Excellence in Teaching Award
professional experience : teaching
My experience as an educator ranges from kindergarteners to graduate students with my oldest — and one of the best students — being age 75. The population of younger students I’m most familiar with is made, primarily, of the children of Mexican migrant workers in a rural school district in northwestern Illinois; I taught grades K-12. In addition to the more usual curriculum, I also taught “Salad” and “How to Make Barbeque Grills from Trash Cans.”
The adults I’ve taught are primarily working people who go to school at night though I have also taught more “typical” undergraduate and graduate students who go to school full-time and have little working experience. For 16 years, I was on the faculty of the Interdisciplinary Arts Department at Columbia College Chicago where I developed and taught curriculum for classes in writing, performance, thesis, media, and spirituality in the arts. These classes were theory and studio-based. During this time, I served as the department chair and associate chair, thesis advisor and coordinator of thesis production for all exhibitions and performances. I also taught regularly at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and, as a visiting artist and writer, in schools around the United States as well as the United Kingdom.
2010 – 2011 University of Denver : English Department
• Introduction to Creative Writing
2004 – 2008 Columbia College Chicago : Interdisciplinary Arts Department
• Full-time Faculty
• Acting Chairperson
• Associate Chairperson
• Graduate School Advisory Council
• College Council
• Academic Advisor
• Thesis Design & Production
• Curriculum Design/10-Year Review
1992 – 2004 Columbia College Chicago : Interdisciplinary Arts Department
• Adjunct Faculty
• Academic Advisor
• Thesis Design & Production
• Curriculum Design and Implementation
Courses: Collaborative Praxis, Connected Images, Performance Aesthetics, Art as a Spiritual Practice, Thesis Seminar I and II, Objects of Performance, Performance as Site, Writing the Landscape, Visual Images
1995 – 2004 School of the Art Institute of Chicago :
1st Year Program, Performance Studies, Sculpture, Film and Video Departments
• Part-time Faculty
• Visiting Artist / Writer / Lecturer
• Undergraduate and Graduate Advisor
Courses: The Roots of Feminist Performance, 4D
1995 – 1996 Illinois State University : Gifted Program : Artist-in-Residence
Selected Thesis Students
Amsale Yirga Alem, Shay Atkinson, Paté Conaway, Amy Cook, Jet Eveleth, Nicole Garneau, Jasmine Greer, Ania Greiner, Heather Hartley, Janeen Hayes, Jill Huntsburger, Lisa Johnson, Diandra Jones, Young Kim, James Kinser, Holly Laurent, Meeha Lee, Elsa Madrigal, Christine Maraia, Rosanna Marks, Lisle Mitnik, Clover Morell, Casey Murtaugh, Wendy Parman, Camille Severinsen, Chante Stepney, Paula Thum, and Gwynedd Tremblay.
professional experience : Writing Consultant
2008 – 2010 University of Denver Writing Center
2008 – 2010 The Writing Program at the Gathering Place
2008 – 2009 Community College of Denver Writing Center
professional experience :
arts administration & curatorial
2006 – 2008 Chicago Performance Network
2000 – 2004 In 2001, I collaborated with educator, Lorraine Moretti, Senior Seminar students from Columbia College Chicago (CCC) and a group of grade school students from Frederic Von Schiller School (at the time, one of two remaining schools at the Cabrini Green Housing Project) in Chicago in the creation of a mosaic for the entryway of Schiller School. The scope of the project included months spent in class with a mix of college students and grade school students intent on creating together as artists and writers. In addition to the finished mosaic with its themes of home and community, (the housing project was in the process of disappearing to make way for expensive real estate; these children were being displaced along with the buildings), we created a website containing original, collaborative poems, songs, and stories about Cabrini, and documentation of the project.
In the spring of 2004, my performance class in the Interarts Department at Columbia College Chicago developed work addressing issues of bird migration and the environment at the Calumet Open Space Reserve in collaboration with artist, Jennifer Monson, the Department of the Environment, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago. My students combined original writing with with the development of a postcard art series, a limited edition artist book, as well as a site specific performance called In the Palace of the Night Heron produced by the MCA.
1990 – 1997 As a member of the Time Arts Committee and, later, as the Time Arts Director, of Randolph Street Gallery (RSG), I was responsible for the development, production, and presentation of all live events including performances, film and video screenings, installations, public art projects, and workshops. During my time at the gallery, I focused on the integration of the arts with various kinds of educational projects including artist residencies, workshops and other classes developed by and for students, community members, and working artists. Organizations included: Street Level Video, Madhousers of Chicago, Experimental Sound Studio, Pros Arts Studio, Women in the Director’s Chair, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, and Chicago Filmmakers and such artists as John Jesurun, Guillermo Gomez Pena, Coco Fusco, Chris Sullivan, Theodora Skipitares, Maris Bustamante, Root Wy’mn Theatre Company, Sacred Naked Nature Girls, Michelle Parkerson, Portia Cobb, Suzi Silver, Diamanda Galas, Carolee Schneemann, Lourdes Portillo, Pomo Afro Homos, Carmelita Tropicana, Jo Spence and Rosy Martin, Lawrence Steger, Goat Island, Ron Athey, Maureen Seaton, Jaap Blonk, Natsu Nakajima, and Nao Bustamante.
My work at RSG also included the design and implementation of several public art projects such as the first Day without Art in collaboration with the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, the University of Illinois, and the First Presbyterian Church. On December 1, 2, and 3 of that year, portraits of people living with AIDS were projected at various locations throughout Chicago: the ballroom of the museum, the student union of the university, and outdoors along the gold coast of Michigan Avenue on the walls of the church.
Randolph Street Gallery : Selected Time Arts Programming
1996 Goat Island; How Dear to Me the Hour When Daylight Dies (Performance/Workshop)
Carmelita Tropicana; Milk of Amnesia (Performance @ RSG/Lecture @ SAIC)
Nancy Andrews; Falling between the Cracks (Performance/Film)
Blonkfest! w/ Jaap Blonk. Jim O’Rourke, and Michael Zerang (Performance @ RSG/Workshop @ ESS)
Listening for My Name (Performance)
Grotto d’Amore (RSG Fundraiser w/ Matthew Owens et al)
Bar-K (Open mic cabaret evening)
20th Annual Performathon; Columbia College Chicago (Performance)
Crisus; Crisus (Performance)
Sacred Naked Nature Girls; Untitled Flesh (Performance by Danielle Brazell, Laura Meyers, Akilah Oliver,
Denise Uyehara, and Sharon Bridgforth)
Mark Bello; Beneath the Bread (Performance)
In the Flesh (Reading series w/ Kitty Tsui, Maureen Seaton, and Linda Smukler)
Tommy Eddy; They Call It Cancer (Performance)
1995 Twisted Trees: Musings on the Family Tree (Readings by Quraysh Ali, Felice Lichaw, Raul Nino, and Patricia Smith)
Dolores Wilber, Two Men Are Dead; Mike Geither; Bare Handed (Performance)
Grotto d’Amore (RSG Fundraiser w/ Matthew Owens et al)
Bar-K (Open mic cabaret evening)
Dancing Near the Edge; Movement Series:
Tom and Sally (Performance by Doug Cooney and Karen Stephens)
Marianne Kim, Licking the Jigsaw; Kate Thomas; She Would Always Follow
High Risk Group; Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (Performance/Workshop)
Lawrence Steger; The Swans (Performance)
Off-site Specific; Various Artists (Public Art)
14th International Women in the Director’s Chair Festival (Film/Video)
Wallflower; Video Art Group Show w/ Elisabeth Subrin
Diane Torr; Drag Kings and Subjects (Workshop)
Experimental Sound Studio presents Audio Angels (Performance/Workshop with George Lewis, Hal Rammel,
and Terri Kapsalis)
Sounds Good to Me with Laetitia Sonami and Bill Close (Performance)
Virtual Chicago (Simultaneous poetry reading in Chicago and New York by Lisa Buscani, Katherine Boyd,
Bryn Magnus, Lydia Tomkiew, and Carl Watson)
Useful: Cooking and Eating (Performance w/ David Kjell, Douglas Grew, Frank Melcouri,
Lionel Bottari, and Cooking Sheri)
Bill Close; The Alternative String (Instrument Making Workshop)
Leah Gilliam; Elisabeth Subrin; True Lies (Video)
Coco Fusco; English Is Broken Here (Reading)
Xu Bing; Illinois Cultural Connections (Lecture)
1994 Lynn Book; Gorgeous Fever (Performance)
John Jesurun; Slight Return (Performance)
Experimental Sound Studio presents Now Hear This/Open Mouth Audio Art Festival
(Performances/Workshops with Jaap Blonk, Paul Dutton, Gregory Whitehead, Bill Close,
Bill Wallace, Gene Coleman, M.W. Burns, Lynn Book, Shanna Linn, Lou Mallozzi, Terri Kapsalis,
John Corbett, and Hal Rammel
Janet Cardiff; An Inability to Make A Sound (Installation/Project Space)
Eileen Myles; Chelsea Girls (Reading)
Rosy Martin; Opening Up the Family Album (Installation/Workshop)
Passage of the Word: Indigenous Storytellers, Pt. One (Reading)
Maris Bustamante; Del Corazon (Performance w/ Lorena Orozco, Cesar Martinez, and seven living doves)
13th International Women in the Director’s Chair Festival (Film/Video)
Mass Ensemble; The Rhythm of the Drone (Performance/Workshop)
Stuart Sherman; Object Manipulation (Performance)
Root Wy’mn Theater Company; Lovve Rituals and Rage (Performance by Anoa Monsho, Sonja Parks,
Sharon Bridgforth, Arriama Matlock-Abdullah, and Kaci Fannin)
1993 Coco Fusco; Guillermo Gomez Pena; The Couple in the Cage (Performance)
Coco Fusco; Guillermo Gomez Pena; The Year of the White Bear (Performance)
Theodora Skiptares; Underground (Performance/Workshop)
Joe Silovsky; Poemotion II (Performance)
Dina Morelli; Shinestand (Performance)
Chris Sullivan, White Lightning’s Still the Biggest Kick of All; Brendan DeVallance, The Sound Is Furry (Performance)
Mario Gonzalez Jr. and Rafael Almaguer; Hip-hop (Performance)
Susan Abelson; Alone of Your Sex (Performance)
Ron Athey; Martyrs and Saints (Performance)
Joan Jett Blakk, Gurlene & Gurlette Hussey, Cheryl Trykv; Séance (Performance)
In through the Out Door (Performance/Video/Installation Series) w/ Victoria Goodwin Baker and Neon
curated by Lawrence Steger and Suzi Silver
Natsu Nakajima; Toward Diane Arbus (Performance, Video Screening, Panel Discussion and Workshop)
Jeff Abell; Music for the Tooth Filing Ceremony (Performance)
12th International Women in the Director’s Chair Festival (Film/Video)
1992 Coco Fusco; Guillermo Gomez Pena; The Couple in the Cage (Performance)
Coco Fusco; Guillermo Gomez Pena; The Year of the White Bear (Performance)
Nancy Bardawil, Autopsy; Frank Melcori; Mildred (Performance)
Flying Words Project (Performance by Kenny Lerner and Peter Cook)
Robyn Orlin; How Beautiful Is the Princess Tonight (Performance)
Mathew Wilson; Bread (Performance)
Cecilia Dougherty; Coal Miner’s Daughter (Video/Discussion)
Revisions: Public Resources by and for Women; (Public forum with Carole Tormollen, Ayanna Udongo,
Stephanie Riger, Norma Garcia, and Treasure Smith)
That Time of the Months (installation work by Carolee Schneemann; performances with Jenny Magnus)
1991 La Vache Qui Rit (Performance)
Experimental Sound Studio presents George Lewis and Doug Ewart; Rio Negro (Performance)
Larry Duckette and Essex Hemphill; So Many Dreams (Reading)
Stuart Sherman; The 15th Spectacle (Performance)
Eileen Myles; Leaving New York (Reading)
High Risk Group (Performance)
Vibrant Voices: People of Color (Readings by Ayanna Udongo, Dalida Maria Benfield, Salim Muwakkil,
Dread Scott, Roger Njeri, and Tyler Akua)
Andy Soma; Free’s Last Laugh (Performance)
Spiderwoman Theater; Power Pipes (Performance/Workshop/Discussion)
Jennifer Monson and Yvonne Meier; All Fall Down (Performance/Movement Series)
Burletta (Open mic performance)
1990 Terry Galloway; Out All Night and Lost My Shoes (Performance)
E.J. Sims and Andrea Polli; This Is Not A Love Letter (Performance)
Coincidental (Performance by Ellen Fisher, Hearn Gadbois, and Andrea Polli)
A Tool, A Weapon, A Witness (Video/Discussion)
Richard Elovich; If Men Could Talk the Stories They Would Tell (Performance)
Split Britches; Anniversary Waltz (Performance)
David Sedaris and Dominique Dibbell (Reading)
Zone West: The History of Corporations from Just This Side of the Game (Performance)
Experimental Sound Studio presents RadioActive (Performances w/ Susanna Ruth Berger, Lynn Book,
Mwata Bowden, Gene Coleman, Robert Metrick, Brigid Murphy, Achy Obejas, Hal Rammel, and Cin Salach)
professional experience :
farming & environmental restoration
1994 – 2008 During a 12-year period, I based my performance work where I lived in McHenry County, Illinois. When I first moved to the county, I lived at the northern end of a 200-acre wetland sanctuary called Volo Bog. The areas directly adjacent to the silo and barn in which I made my home had radically different topographical features: there was an alfalfa field farmed to feed the horses who pastured and boarded in a nearby stable; a sphagnum moss bog, nesting ground for voles, rabbits, mink, fox, and feral cats lay directly west of that field; savannas of bur oak surrounded the bog which itself gave way to a manmade pine forest, to other fields, and to more bogs. This rich confluence was my home and the foundation for what has become my life’s work. During that time, I worked in various capacities — as a farmer, a tree consultant, and as a restoration ecologist — for several organizations.
Nichols Farm and Orchard
Farm Bureau
McHenry County Conservation District
McHenry County Master Gardener
Midwest Ecological Prescription Burn Crew
professional affiliations • conferences • lectures • residencies
Chicago Performance Network, Women in the Director’s Chair, Whitewalls Editorial Board, p-Form Editorial Board, Museum of Contemporary Art, Columbia College Dance Center, Experimental Sound Studio, Randolph Street Gallery, N.A.M.E. (all in Chicago); The Land Institute (Salina, Kansas); Lawrence University, (Wisconsin); Conference on Integrative Studies, (Portland, OR); College Arts Association, (NYC); Gallery A, (Harpswell, Maine); Institute of Contemporary Art (London); Path of the Ceremonial Arts (Boulder, CO); National Performance Network; University of Denver (Denver, CO)
