Author Bios

Aren Z. Aizura is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. He's currently completing a Ph.D. on transness and travel and maintains a weblog at http://goingsomewhere.blogsome.com.

 

White, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli Clare is a poet and essayist with a penchant for rabble?ousing. He has, among other activist pursuits, walked across the United States for peace; coordinated a rape prevention program in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and helped organize the first Queerness and Disability Conference in 2002. Additionally, he has spoken all over the country at conferences, community events, and colleges about disability, LGBT identities, and other social justice issues. Eli is the author of Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation (South End Press, 1999). More recent work can be found in GLQ: Desiring Disability?ueer Theory Meets Disability Studies, From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond, and Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving. He lives in Vermont and works at the University of Vermont's LGBTQA Services. When not otherwise occupied, you can find Eli having fun adventures with his sweetie, riding his trike, and hanging out with his dog.

 

Gaylourdes was once a secretly passionate pianist. He? a student in Performance Studies and lives in Sydney, Australia. He can be contacted via http://gaylourdes.blogsome.com.

 

Doran George is an artist, dancer, writer, and curator. His "live art" work has been staged across Europe and the United States and has ranged from him being encased in brick for a working day to having a sexual relationship as an art practice. He has been supported by the London Arts Board; The Arts Council of England; The British Council; Chisenhale Dance Space; Arnolfini, Artsadmin; The Finnish Arts Council; The Arts Council of North Savo (Finland); Stichting Fonds De Trut (The Netherlands); and others. He has curated for ?he International Transgender Film Video Festival (U.K. and The Netherlands), ?ital Signs Festival (U.K.)(interfaces between disability politics and contemporary art), and Chisenhale Dance Space. He regularly contributes to symposia and is published in print and on the web in dance, film, and performance art journals and art publications. Doran has a B.A. in experimental dance and choreography and an M.A. in Feminist Performance. He teaches in universities in he United States, Britain, and Central Europe.

 

Jordy Jones is a long time San Francisco resident currently residing part-time in the California High Desert Arts Ghetto of Joshua Tree. He is a scholar, curator, multimedia artist, and community advocate. His work has included the investigation of issues of the human body and its relationship to economics, technology, culture, censorship, and the law. Jones has worked with cultural organizations as diverse as the San Francisco Art Institute; The GLBT Historical Society; The International Lesbian and Gay Association; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions; Intermedia Arts Minnesota; and The Guggenheim Soho, New York. He has served on the governing boards of The San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade Committee, The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, and The Lab. He is a past member of the LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. As male chair of the San Francisco Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force, he was key in implementing trans inclusion in the health benefits package for city employees and for furthering trainings for the police and sheriff's departments. He has a B.A. in Conceptual and InformationArts, an M.A. in Museum Studies and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Visual Studies and Critical Theory at the University of California, Irvine, where he is a UC Chancellor's Fellow. His dissertation, due for completion in 2008, is entitled The Ambiguous I: Photography, Gender, Self. According to Mark Leno, member of the California State Assembly representing District 13: "Jordy Jones is San Francisco's Secret Weapon!"

Bobby Noble (Ph.D., York University) is an Assistant Professor of sexuality and gender studies in the School of Women's Studies at York University (Toronto, Canada). Bobby is the author of the recently published Sons of the Movement: FtMs Risking In-Coherence in a Post-Queer Cultural Landscape (2006, Toronto: Women? Press) and Masculinities Without Men?: Female Masculinity in Twentieth Century Fiction (University of British Columbia Press, Winter 2004) and is co-editor of The Drag King Anthology, a 2004 Lambda Literary Finalist (Haworth Press, 2003). Bobby is currently working on a new book project,
Boy Kings: Canada's Drag Kings & Masculinities in Performance.

Scott Turner Schofield began his performance art career working as a research assistant to Holly Hughes and Carmelita Tropicana at New York City's WOW Cafe in 2000. Now a full?ime performance artist, educator, and producer, he tours his acclaimed one-trannie shows Underground Transit, Debutante Balls, and Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps around the world. He has only been censored once, but boy as that a party! Schofield has been honored with several ommissions for new work and is the youngest recipient of a Tanne Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement and Commitment to Art. He currently lives in Atlanta and will always call the South home.

When Eli J. VandenBerg began transitioning, he also began creating self?ortraits. Throughout his transition, he created and continues to create images of what his body looks like in the mirror and what it looks like in his mind. This series, like his body, is a work in progress. Eli received his B.F.A in Printmaking from Arcadia University and his M.F.A in Printmaking at Pratt Institute. He now works at The Print Center in Philadelphia. He has shown his work both nationally and internationally and was recently featured in ?he National Queer Arts Festival. His works have also appeared in several books and magazines. For more information about Eli and his work, visit www.adventuresinboyhood.com.

 

Tim'm T. West is an author/publisher, poet, emcee, scholar, and activist who, in 1999, co-founded Deep Dickollective and established himself as one of the more dynamic and influential Renaissance artists coming into the 21st Century. In 2003, he released a critically acclaimed poetic memoir Red Dirt Revival, in 2005 a chapbook BARE, and will release his second full-length book, Flirting, through Red Dirt Publishing. Musically, he released his solo debut, Songs from Red Dirt, on Cellular Records. Blakkboy Blue(s) was its highly anticipated follow up. On Some Other was DDC's third full-studio album project. A cultural critic, Tim? is widely published in academic nd literary anthologies, journals, and other publications.