THE NEO-SPINSTERS

Dora McQuaid Pat Payne Reina Prado Evie Shockley

The Neo-Spinsters next performance is “Second Wind” for the Performance Studies International Conference at Brown University, Providence , R.I.

Ashamu Studio April 1, 2005 . 8:00pm

CLICK HERE TO READ THE PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING THIS SHOW!

Pat Payne is a Caribbean-American multi-media installation/performance artist, poet, visual artist, reluctant shaman, and self-avowed troublemaker
transplanted from Brooklyn to Los Angeles .

A founding member of the NeoSpinsters poetry troupe, Payne holds the 2002 and 2003 Taos Poetry Circus
Heavyweight Title. A former member of the Taco Shop Poets and the Rachel Rosenthal Performance Company, her one-woman shows and poetry have been presented at numerous national and international venues and conferences,
including the Los Angeles Women's Theater Festival, Sushi Performance Space & Gallery, Calgary/Banff Poetry Festival, Nuyorican Poet's Café, University of Stirling, Edinburgh, Scotland, Beyond Baroque, and Highways Performance Space.

Payne is currently dancing with choreographer Keith Glassman¹s group on a
new work to be premiered at Highways Performance Space in June. She is also
a founding member of the interdisciplinary NeoSpinsters Collective.

Publications:
ArtLife, November 2004
Bold Ink, WriteGirl Anthology, 2003
”The F-Word”, and selected poetry, Loudmouth Magazine, edited by Stephanie
Abraham, published by Cal State Los Angeles, September and November, 2003
Vox Populi: Seattle Poetry Festival Anthology, 2002
2001: a di-verse-city odyssey, edited by Scott Wiggerman, Austin International Poetry Festival Anthology, published by Austin Poets International 2001
The Architect, Poetry and the City: SCIARC Faculty Interviews, Aino
Paasonen, Southern California Institute of Architecture Public Access Press #40/Tapir Press
Taco Shop Poets Anthology: Chorizo Tonguefire, edited by Taco Shop Poets and
Stephanie de la Torre, Chorizo Tonguefire Press, 9/99

Chapbooks:
Reluctant Shaman, Taos Remix, etc…

photo credit Patrick “Pato” Hebert

reina alejandra prado challenges the taboos imposed on Latina women by delving into the realm of the erotic in her published poetry collection Santa Perversa and Other Erotic Poems (San Diego: Calaca Press, 2001). In the midst of the Arizona monsoons, Prado carved out her poetic niche affirming that sexesmiotroerórtico (sex is my other erotic). The aridness of the Sonora desert delivered her to the foggy landscape of San Francisco and the smog concrete milieu of Los Angeles . She has read to audiences throughout the U.S. Southwest, New York , Mexico , and Scotland .

In April 2005, she performs with the Neo Spinsters for the Performance Studies International Conference at Brown University , Rhode Island . In June 2005, she premieres The Ghost of Us, included in “Not About Me,” curated by Denise Uyehara at Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, California.

Currently she is a doctoral candidate in the Program of American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California . Awarded a Smithsonian Institution Latino Studies Fellowship, Prado will complete research at the Archives of American Art (2004-2005). As a cultural activist, she has curated exhibitions on contemporary American Art, organized arts education events for LACMA, SPARC and Plaza de la Raza. She has also taught university courses in Chicano Studies, Women Studies, and Mexican Art History.

Reina Prado can be contacted for readings via email at santaperversa@yahoo.com

Evie Shockley is a graduate fellow of Cave Canem and a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective. A literary scholar as well, she is currently Assistant Professor of English at Wake Forest University and is at work on a project examining the relationship between innovation and race in African American poetry.

Publications:

African American Review
Asheville Poetry Review
Beloit Poetry Journal
Crab Orchard Review
Hambone
Nocturnes (re)view of the literary arts,
Oyster Boy Review, Talisman, and Titanic Operas. She also has work anthologized in
Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam
Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, and
Poetry Daily: Poems from the World’s Most Popular Poetry Website.
Carolina Wren Press published her chapbook, The Gorgon Goddess, in 2001;

Her full-length manuscript, “a half-red sea,” was a finalist in the 2004 competition for the UGA Press Contemporary Poetry Series. She has been awarded a residency at the Hedgebrook Women Writers’ Retreat in 2003.

THE NEO-SPINSTERS GO ON TOUR!

Dora McQuaid, Pat Payne, and Reina Prado
travel to perform “second wind” together at the

The Poetry and Sexuality Conference

The University of Stirling, Scotland
June 30- July 4, 2004
“Second Wind” at 5:30, on July , Pathfoot Lecture Hall

Pat Payne and Dora McQuaid join Laura Myers
HOUSEWORKS!
March 2, 2004
Brooklyn, NY
Laura is creator of the solo-show Laura Myers is Chicken!
http://www.lauraischicken.com

Dora joins Pat Payne during her Urbana/Bowery Poetry Club Feature
March 25, 2004
308 Bowery, New York , NY 10012

Pat Payne and Dora McQuaid at BAR 13!
NYC Union Square Slam team home venue
March 22, 2004
35 East 13th Street @ University Place , 2nd Floor

Celebration of Women in the Arts showcase
Penn State University
Friday 3/19/04
Dora performs with performance artist and poet, and two-time Heavyweight
Champion of the World Poetry Circus, Pat Payne, as featured artists.