J.R Hughes (b.1988, New York, NY) is a Black Caribbean-american writer and self-taught allodisciplinary practicing craftswoman living in Sickle-cell SC disease. Utilizing creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, anagramming, tweet threads, visual and performance art, knitting and archival study, she works to untangle the language(s) of liminality; instruments abstractions on the conditions of Blackness; interrogates reclamation and refusal through play; and reappraises societal perceptions of ability, chronic illness and disability to imagine and concretize alternative passages of survival and living. She’s performed at bookstores and art centers around New York City including The Strand, Bronx Art Space, Participant Inc, and National Sawdust.
Readings & Performances
2020
Microcosmos: A Zoom Reading Series, Everywhere the Internet Touches, April 5
Audre Lorde: A Celebration of a Black Lesbian Mother Warrior Poet at Cult Party, Brooklyn, NY, February 23
2019
heartbeats.exe :: abstract [body] at Peninsula Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, November 8
Poetry at the Baumann IX, Brooklyn, NY, October 18
Stage Garden Rumba at Taqwa Community Farm, Bronx, NY, August 24
Absolute Love at PARTICIPANT INC, New York, NY, July 21
Kitchen Islands for Happy Family Night Market, New York, NY, July 13
Baby Universe (co-curator) at Footlight Bar, Queens, NY, April 19
Sparkle Nation Book Club at Larrie Gallery, New York, NY, April 18
L'Rain Residency at National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY, April 5
Book Row, Brooklyn, NY, April 4
A Love Letter Reading 7 at POWRPLNT, Brooklyn, NY, February 14
Sincere Hate Zine Release at Baby Castles, New York, NY, January 16
2018
Molasses Books, Brooklyn, NY, October 19 & November 15
Crush Curatorial, New York, NY, October 13
Final Fantasy at Friends and Lovers, Brooklyn, NY, September 25
Unnameable Books, Brooklyn, NY, September 15
Shoestring Studio, Brooklyn, NY, July 14
The Strand, New York, NY, July 11
New Women Space Open Mic, Brooklyn, NY, June 1
Odiosas Open Mic at Bronx Art Space; Bronx, NY, April 20
Art Books, Interviews & Publications
2020
Newsletter: Black_Space'd , self-published, digital
2019
Micro essay: Ten Women Weight In On What They Learned About Love in Their Twenties, Madamenoire, digital, December 13
Poem: "An Abstract to Solange" in Ocean State Review, print
Zine: Vitamin See, self-published, 59 print copies, July 21
Zine: For Lovers Who Need More Than They Get, self-published, 15 print copies, Jul 21
Interview: Five Questions Interview, digital, May 25
https://fivequestions.club/post/184987067512/joselia-hughes
2018
Art Book: Traumagrams: A Book of Abstractions, self-made, August-November
Zine: Heartbeats But No Air, self-published, 85 print copies & digital edition , July 11
2012
Zine: HbSC, self-published, digital edition
2011
Micro essay: "Concealed Revealed: In The Bedroom", Jewish Currents: Summer & Autumn, print
Zine: An Unraveling, self-published, digital edition
Group Exhibitions
2020
TO BE ANNOUNCED
2019
"My Body Is A House That We Live In" curated by Ezra Benus at Gibney Dance Studio
September 25-October 10