LIMINAL SPACES

Liminal Spaces.mp4

MARCH 23, 2016

The liminal space is the threshold--the moment of becoming, the moment of intersection, the moment of occupying two spaces at the same time. It is the moment when the writer's pen hits the page and the imagination becomes real; it is the moment when inertia and motion are one; it is the moment when the past transitions into the future. Students, artists, scientists, scholars, writers, musicians, and athletes were invited to explore the liminal spaces in their own disciplines and in their own lives and they took part in TEDxPineCrestSchool's LIMINALSPACES.

FEATURED GUESTS

CHRIS CAMPANIONI

Chris Campanioni seeks to blur boundaries. He is a first-generation Cuban- and Polish-American writer who has worked as a journalist, model, and actor. Today he teaches literature and creative writing at Baruch College and Pace University, and new form journalism at John Jay College. He was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2013 for his collection, In Conversation, and his novel, Going Down, was selected as Best First Book for the 2014 International Latino Book Awards. He is also the author of Once in a Lifetime, a book of poems from Berkeley Press, and Tourist Trap, a novel. In the last month, his work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Carbon Culture, Fjords Review, Minor Literature(s), Origins, Thin Noon, Quiddity, Rosebud, The London Journal of Fiction, and Prelude. For more information: http://chriscampanioni.com

JILLIAN POWERS

Jillian Powers is a lecturer in American Studies at Brandeis University and the 2015 Association of Jewish Studies’ Berman Early Career Fellow. Previously she was the Florence Kay Fellow in the Department of Sociology and American Studies with a specialization in Immigration and American Society. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at Duke University and served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Powers’ work examines issues of American heritage, culture, and racial and ethnic group identity. Currently, she is working on her book manuscript on homeland tourism. Traveling to Belong (New York University Press) examines the experiences of three groups of Americans—Jewish-Americans, African Americans, and adopted Chinese children with their American families—as they hire tour guides and travel to their places of ancestral, natal, and symbolic origin: Israel, Ghana, and China. The book examines how racial and ethnic identities are constructed and negotiated at the intersection of diasporic heritage and international travel, and, in the process, it reveals what it means to be American in a globally imagined world. She enjoys traveling globally, eating locally, and spending time with her dog Brutus. For more information: http://www.jillianpowers.com.

JANE WONG

Jane Wong holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is a former U.S. Fulbright Fellow and Kundiman Fellow. Her poem "Thaw" was recently chosen by Sherman Alexie in the Best American Poetry 2015 anthology. She is also the recipient of scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Currently, she teaches literature and poetry at the University of Washington and the Richard Hugo House. The recipient of Meridian’s Editors’ Prize, poems have appeared in places such as Pleiades, Hayden’s Ferry Review, ZYZZYVA, Mid-American Review, Salt Hill, Best American Poetry 2015 (Scribner), Best New Poets 2012 (The University of Virginia Press) and The Arcadia Project: North American Postmodern Pastoral (Ahsahta Press). She is the author of Overpour, forthcoming in 2016 (Action Books). For more information: http://janewong.tumblr.com