Part of Creative Writing ‘Writing Now’ Series Spring 24, A symposium organised by members of the 2024 CW MFA cohort, followed by reception.
As part of the Writing Now Reading Series, the "Becoming the Archive" symposium centers around the preservational and conservational efforts Southern Californian artists are making alongside local organizations to celebrate artistic voices, both individually and communally. Through a creative showcase and moderated panel, "Beyond the Archive" invites four individuals at the intersection of creativity and sustainability to discuss how past and present come together to inform their visions for the future. Guests include Chiwan Choi of Writ Large Projects, Carribean Fragoza of Huizache and the South El Monte Art Posse, Hailey Loman of the Los Angeles Contemporary Archives, and Jimmy Vega of Beyond Baroque.
The School of Critical Studies is honored to host a discussion of their work and efforts within the contemporary artistic landscape.
Afterwards, please join us for a reception and celebration of CalArt's newest art and literary magazine, Strip Mall! Refreshments and light fare provided. All are welcome.
Chiwan Choi is a poet, writer and publisher, author of four full length books of poetry—The Flood (Tia Chucha Press, 2010), and the Daughter Trilogy: Abductions (Writ Large Press, 2012), and The Yellow House(CCM, 2017) & my name is wolf (2022) – and multiple poetry chapbooks, including Time Out of Space and lo/fidelity lovesongs. Chan wrote, presented, and destroyed the novel Ghostmaker throughout the course of 2015, as part of an ongoing examination on the meaning of a book, with the audience tasked with remembering and recreating a work that has disappeared and in turn creating a new version of a book that never really existed. Chan is a partner at Writ Large Press and the Editor at Cultural Daily.
Carribean Fragoza is a writer and poet from South El Monte, LA County. As a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), she pushes the boundaries of Chicanx literature using experimental approaches and devices, borrowing from international queer and feminist literary movements. She has published fiction and poetry as well as arts/culture reviews and essays. She is also the founder and co-director of the South El Monte Art Posse (SEMAP), a multi-disciplinary arts collective.
Hailey Loman runs the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA), a public archive and library dedicated to contemporary art-making. LACA collaborates with artists to build archival collections, which include studio leases, contracts, paystubs, performance apparel, set pieces, police reports, text messages, class syllabi, and materials from formally running art spaces. These collections enable us to learn from each other’s experiences and create new works that privilege the desires and needs of our communities. LACA also includes the Oral History Center, OHC, a street-level storytelling project in Chinatown, LA.
jimmy vega is the child of Mexican immigrants, a Chicanx Los Angeles born and raised poet, writer, educator, artist, and curator. His debut poetry collection will be published by What Books Press in 2025. He holds an MFA from the School of Critical Studies, Creative Writing Program at CalArts, where they co-created the MFA in Creative Writing’s HYPERLINK reading series and a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from UCLA. In 2023 their work was on view at The Reef Los Angeles as part of the group exhibit, Spell/ing. He is a former 2023 ELL Faculty Fellow at CalArts and is the Associate Director of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts/Center. He lives in Los Angeles, on unceded Tongva land, with his partner Gladys, and schnauzer, Olive. Find more at jimmy-vega.com @jimmyyvega