Paul Greenstein is co-author of Bread and Hyacinths: The Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles, the only book-length history of the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony, and it's relationship to the Los Angeles Times bombing, the American Socialist movement, and the period in which these events took place. Using the life's of Job Harriman and Harrison Gray Otis as the keys to disparate, but connected events, the book traces both major and minor characters, and the roles they played in shaping America. He interviewed both surviving colonists, and their descendants to form a picture of the day to day arabesques of colony life. He also owns a small but significant collection of Llano California ephemera.
Karyl Newman founded PositionalProjects.org in 2016 to create alternate experiences of place. Using digital map-based exhibits and timelines, she shares local histories and invites other artists and historians to contribute their responses at site-specific events designed to engage guests in stewardship and preservation. She was a 2016-2017 fellow at the Beinecke Library at Yale University where she earned her MFA.
Leora Wien was born in Santa Monica, CA. She holds a B.A. in American Studies/Cultural Studies from Wesleyan University. Her practice includes mixed media art, ‘zines and essays, and performance. Her work has been shown in Venice, Los Angeles, Paris, Basel, and Llano. She helped to produce innovative programming for LACMA’s Institute for Art & Cultures. The first iteration of May Queens, was created by Leora Wien in 2014, and incorporated contemporary feminist punk protest songs with those of Llano’s past.
LA Artists, Anne Baumgartner & Molly C. Meng started The Traveling Postal Club as a public mail art event in August 2017 and grew it into a collaborative art project and community-building initiative. The simple curation of design and materials created a collective aesthetic and allowed people to layer their own stories and ideas onto the blank cards. Two artists with a passion for postal mail and community art outreach. we live and work in urban Los Angeles. Besides promoting and leading our collective project: TheTravelingPostalClub, we each make art and teach around the city. Find us on Instagram @thetravelingpostalclub For Llano's 2018 celebration of ON ALL DAY, we designed and carved unique stamps; as well as created and curated mail-art materials for each visitor to make and mail a memory from Utopia.
Bonnie Tanaka is an artist and designer for all surfaces. Tanaka lives in Northeast LA, working her design /art practice along with teaching graphic design to the next generation of designers at multiple Universities throughout the southland Instagram: @tanakastudents_type.
Louise Mathias is the author of two books of poems, most recently The Traps (Four Way Books). Based in Joshua Tree since 2009, she wanders widely. Instagram: @mojaveforever
Artistic Director of Opera del Espacio. Full-time faculty Department of Theatre and Dance, Cal State LA. Current project brings together teaching work, artistic work and activism/advocacy work: Dreaming of Our Future/Soñando de Nuestro Future, a live-streamed performance centered on the challenges and terrorization of immigrants in the US.Kane-Parry was an OG participant and collaborator on Llano events, beginning with the Next Step in 2013.
Based in Littlerock, California, Monique enjoys being outside studying nature, learning the history of desert places, and finding materials to make baskets with. She also makes jewelry using natural materials such as Juniper seeds and pine needles, and weaves tapestry and other decorative fabric using looms. Instagram: @mojave_mama
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