Artist and archivist Onyedika Chuke lives and works in New York. His largest body of work titled The Forever Museum Archive (2011-present) is a disquieting collection of sculptures, text, and images in which Chuke analyzes social, cultural, and political structures. His practice has been supported by venues such as The Drawing Center, SCAD Museum, The Shed, Sculpture Center and The American Academy in Rome. From January 2018-2019, Chuke served as New York City Public Artist in Residence (P.A.I.R). The position placed him in the offices of Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and Department of Corrections (DOC) Rikers Island. Co-commissioned by LMCC and Pioneer Works, The Forever Museum Archive-Circa 6000BCE is on view through October 31, 2021.
Born in Berkeley, California and raised in central Mexico, Gabriel Florenz was trained as an artist focused on sculptural techniques including glass-working and ceramics; later, he shared and managed glass studios in Oakland, California while studying art. In 2009, he moved to New York City and became Director of Operations for the studio of artist Dustin Yellin. Subsequently, in 2011 he led the renovation and redesign of the century-old building that once housed Pioneer Iron Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In 2012, he helped found Pioneer Works leading its development into a nonprofit and the formation of its various departments. Florenz is currently the Founding Artistic Director and Lead Curator of Pioneer Works.
Writer and strategist Lee Ann Norman loves to tell good stories about the arts in our everyday. Her scholarly investigations and creative yarns highlight an interest in designing spaces that allow people to learn about each other and themselves through the arts. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including BOMB, Studio, the Studio Museum of Harlem’s magazine, and the Penn GSE Journal on Urban Education, and the Brooklyn Rail. Lee Ann studied art criticism and writing at the School of Visual Arts. She is currently based in New York.
The Rail has a tradition of ending our conversations with a poetry reading, and we’re fortunate to have
I.S. Jones
reading.
I.S. Jones
Queer American Nigerian poet and music journalist, I.S. Jones is a Graduate Fellow with The Watering Hole and holds fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT Writer’s Retreat, and Brooklyn Poets. I.S. hosts a month-long workshop every April called The Singing Bullet. She is an editor at 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Guernica,Washington Square Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Hobart Pulp, The Rumpus, The Offing, Shade Literary Arts, and elsewhere. Her chapbook Spells Of My Name is forthcoming with Newfound in 2021.
The New Social Environment — Daily conversations with artists, writers, filmmakers, poets around the world where we discuss creative life in the context of our new social reality.
❤️ 🌈 We'd like to thank the The Terra Foundation for American Art for making these daily conversations possible, and for their support of our growing archive.
