You’ve found the intersection of art, politics and instigation. Let the cross-pollination begin!
Jennifer Nix
A former National Public Radio producer (”On the Media”) and staff writer for Variety, Jen’s also written for New York, The New York Observer, The Nation, Village Voice, National Law Journal, Salon, AlterNet, FireDogLake, DailyKos and other media outlets and blogs. As editor-at-large for Chelsea Green Publishing, Jen acquired George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant and pioneered a web-based marketing model that had Lakoff’s work on the New York Times‘ and other bestseller lists for months. In 2006, she acquired and published Glenn Greenwald’s How Would a Patriot Act? with Working Assets Publishing. The book received unprecedented coverage on the top progressive blogs, rocketing it–in one day– from obscurity to the No. 1 spot on Amazon, and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. In between politics and media gigs, Jen has also been a producer for the music radio show, “E-Town“, a contributing editor at the literary journal, Other Voices, and she’s been writing a collection of short fiction stories for what feels like most of her adult life. Oh, and she LOVES modern and contemporary art (just got back from seeing the biggest exhibit EVER of Tamayos in Mexico City). Currently a fellow at the New Politics Institute in San Francisco, Jen thought it was about time to launch her own blog–to help cross-pollinate some ideas and collaborations across the politics, activism, media, arts, literary and music worlds she floats through on a daily basis. You can get a pretty good feel for Jen-Think by reading this, this and this. OK, and this.
Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith is a sculptor living in Boston who was recently overheard saying, “Blog? What’s a blog?” Once Smith discovered the meaning of blog his instincts told him to break out the disc grinder and grind something, anything to distract him from what people call, with a faraway look in their eyes, the blogosphere. Inexorably drawn to the keyboard by a deep-seated hunger to show the world just how clever he is, Smith succumbed to the siren song of the blogosphere. Soon Smith will grow wan and pasty as his muscles atrophy and his ass expands to fill the groaning chair in which he will constantly sit to plunk out his increasingly paranoid manifestos. Soon he will run out of money. His wife and newborn will leave him. Eventually the sheriff will come with an order to evict, and Smith will be found in the fetal position behind the couch clutching the warm laptop against his clammy chest. To see Smith’s work before the breakdown, go to jeffsmith.org.
Mark Myers
Mark is not a big fan of writing bios even though he admits that it does give him the opportunity to speak authoritatively about himself in the third person. He insists, though, that he doesn’t just make up shit based on conversations he has in his head. Despite a life-long addiction to oxygen Mark has managed to lead a reasonably happy and healthy life. Ever curious about music, Mark has explored the depths of way too many sub-sub-genres of music for his own good. But he always seems to find some musical nugget that makes it all worth while. Mark holds a degree in Biology with other academic concentrations in Economics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Mark is the Outpost’s primary music editor, but, like many of us, his interests are varied and also include politics, culture and art. And while he is interested in the interface of science with all three of those domains, he remains convinced that the observer effect does not apply to watching films. Mark is 1/2 Italian, 1/8 Irish and 1/2 2^26 fish.
Nikki Widner
A freelance writer and photographer, Nikki co-edits One Less, a literary arts magazine. Her writing has appeared in American Book Review, Shelburne Falls Independent, TheSavvyGal.com, Venuszine.com, and Verse Magazine. Recent photographic exhibitions include the Boulder Art Association 1st Annual National Juried Photography Exhibition in Boulder, Colorado, the Sleeth Gallery in Buckhannon, West Virginia, the Studio Place Arts Gallery in Barre, Vermont, the Antietam Review, the Art Show Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, the Masters’ MysteryArt Show in Miami, Florida, The Valley Photo Center in Springfield, MA and the Washington County Arts Council Gallery in Hagerstown, Maryland. She currently lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.
David Gardner
David Gardner is the author of two chapbooks, Pull String Canyon & Gaarra. Along with writer/photographer Nikki Widner, he edits, One Less magazine. His writing & photographs can be seen in such literary magazines as Art New England, 26, Chain, & Bombay Gin. His most recent book, Fanteezmo: A Modern Romance, a novel collaboration with poet, Matthew Langley, is the third book in a series published by autonomous earth books. He lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.
