Image of Jen Delos reyes in front of the installation on site at the NAtional public housing museum
Invitation
Artist as Instigator In Residence for the National Public Housing Museum in 2020 I created Invitation. I created and sent out broad-sides with poem fragments by June Jordan and Mary Oliver and letters reminding people to vote to over 1500 people. Two forty-foot banners with these poems will also flank the Museum’s courtyard located at 1322 West Taylor Street, installed on Election Day until the State of the Union, reminding us that we are the ones we have been waiting for.
The open letter to neighbors said, in part:
I want to share with you this recent work I made for NPHM. I hope that both sides of this poster will remind you that your voice is important and that it is crucial to continue to show up in this broken world. I hope this work offers you the strength you need to take resolute action towards justice for all.
Please, take it to the polls, mail it in, vote!
The election was one of the only things that I could focus on, it was incredibly high stakes. During my work with NPHM I thought a lot about what it means to be a neighbor, and how that relates to the mission of the organization. I connected this idea of what it means to be a neighbor to our actions in the 2020 presidential election and how our action or inaction impacts those around us felt like a perfect fit, especially since I am an immigrant in this country. As a Canadian and neighbor from the north I can't vote in this country yet I am deeply impacted by the results. For the poster that I mailed out along with a letter encouraging recipients to vote I called in the words of poets June Jordan and Mary Oliver, reminding readers that their voice is important and that it is crucial to continue to show up in this broken world and work for justice. Poetry is deployed as a call to action, as fuel for social movements, and as respite and sustenance to continue on.
Artists in Presidents
For the 2020 election I was one of 50 artists who came together to make national addresses as part of Artists in President. The project expanded the performance and aesthetics of public leadership with the bodies and voices of people that make up the majority of this country— people of color, indigenous folks, immigrants, LGBTQIA, persons with disabilities, and women.
MATCHING MINORITIES//DOUBTFUL DOUBLES:
A Conversation on Institutionalized Racism,
Tokenism, Microaggressions, and Inclusion vs. Optics
in the Art World
Presentation by Jen Delos Reyes, Lisa Lee, and Astria Suparak
Common Field Convening, Houston, Texas
April 25, 2020
commonfield.org/convenings/3248/program/4034/matching-minorities-doubtful-doubles-a-conversation-on-institutionalized-racism-tokenism-microaggressions-and-inclusion-vs-optics-in-the-art-world
Over 1,700 people participated in this live session or watched the recording afterwards.
Astria Suparak, Jen Delos Reyes, and Lisa Yun Lee have all been mistaken for one another in professional settings, told how much they look like each other, had their individuality and professional accomplishments erased in these moments, and in immeasurable ways all had to grapple with racism in their professional spheres and beyond.
Join them for a conversation on institutionalized racism, tokenism, microaggressions, and inclusion vs. optics in the art world. Attendees will be asked to participate in the conversation by sharing their own experiences, retorts, effective responses, and solutions to overt and covert racism within the art world and academia, and those who have not experienced or witnessed these kinds of biases are invited to check their own assumptions and listen for ways they can serve as allies and change makers for the field.