***RSVP is required for this event, RSVP here***
Queer|Art|Mentorship Fellow María José Maldonado (she/they) will be performing a live reading of their novel-in-progress titled “The Last Men On Earth” which takes place in 2126, in a future where cisgender boys and men have begun to menstruate due to the dwindling human population caused by climate change, disease and dangerous governments. “The Last Men On Earth” is a coming of age story set in Queens, NY and follows the life of a newly menstruating seventeen-year-old Salvadoran-American boy named Benicio “Beni” Torres.
María José’s live reading of their novel will be followed by a conversation with their Queer|Art Mentor Charles Rice-Gonzalez, award-winning author of the seminal novel “Chulito,” the first published novel about a gay Puerto Rican experience in New York City.
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This event is part of the 2019-2020 Queer|Art|Mentorship Annual Exhibition, curated by current Fellow Anthonywash.Rosado and titled ARCANUM, open from October 29, 2020 through January 7, 2021. The exhibition will present across multiple formats and locations, including a virtual gallery and public outdoor performances throughout New York City, new work by graduating Fellows of the 2019-2020 Queer|Art|Mentorship program: Brian Gonzalez, Patrick G. Lee, María José Maldonado, Felli Maynard, Olaiya Olayemi, Sarah Sanders, and Sarah Zapata. Learn more at https://www.queer-art.org/arcanum.
About María José Maldonado
María José Maldonado is a Salvadoran-Ecuadorian queer writer, creator, performer, and comedian from Queens, NY. Her work explores queerness, resistance, and anger through speculative fiction, poetry, and comedic performance. Her writing has been featured on Autostraddle and she has performed at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, Center for Book Arts, Settlement University, and Dixon Place. Currently, she’s working on her novel set in New York City about a queer Latinx woman who becomes a lovable serial killer of cisgender men. She’s a graduate of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art’s “Creative Writing from Queer Resistance” workshop, is a co-founder of “Streaks of Lavender” zine, and is launching a podcast focusing on women, trans and nonbinary folx’s rage called “I Killed A Man” in Fall 2019.