Profile
Christen Clifford is a feminist performance artist, writer, curator, professor, actor, and mother. Her essay on gender, feminism and aging “Mother,Daughter,Moustache” was published in the 2014 Penguin anthology Women in Clothes,called a “standout essay” by Bookforum and read by Molly Ringwald for Selected Shorts at Symphony Space and on NPR. Other writing has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Salon, Culturebot, PuffHo, and Smith Magazine. Her comic with illustrator David Heatley "My Home Birth" was called "hilarious and uncensored" by Flavorpill. Her performance and video work work has been shown at The New Museum, The Culture Project, PS 122, Galapagos Art Space, Panoply Performance Laboratory, IV Soldiers, Dixon Place, Grace Exhibition Space, Judith Charles Gallery, Postmasters Gallery and abroad in Slovenia, Canada and across the US. As an actor she has performed at The Public Theatre, HERE, NYTW, SoHo Rep, LaMama and many downtown and regional theatres. Clifford is a core member of the feminist performance art collective the No Wave Performance Task Force, and her Feminist Public Action “We Wish Ana Mendieta Was Still Alive” was cited as a “Best Art and Activism of 2014” by Hyperallergic. Her work hasbeen written about in the New York Times, Art in America, Artforum, Art Magazine, BUST, Jezebel, The San Francisco Chronicle etc. She is a curator of the Experiments and Disorders literary reading series at Dixon Place; speaks about feminism and art and writing for places like The Feminist Art Project, Women's Caucus for Art and The Brooklyn Museum and Hyperallergic's Brooklyn ArtTalks; was a mainstage storyteller at The Moth at The National Arts Club; volunteers with Girls Write Now; taught at SUNY Purchase; has been a visiting scholar at NYU and is the recipient of some awards and grants including NYFA, NYSCA, the Audience Award from the NYFF and the Nonfiction Chapbook Award from The New School, where she received her MFA. She lives in Queens and online at @cd_clifford and christen.clifford/tumblr
Degrees Held
BFA in Acting, Tisch School of The Arts, NYU (Artist and Scholar Award)
MFA in Nonfiction Creative Writing, The New School (Nonfiction Chapbook Award)
Professional Affiliation
Girls Write Now, Writer's Guild, Actor’s Equity, SAG, AFTRA, Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Women’s Caucus for Art, The Feminist Art Project
Curator at Dixon Place
Recent Publications
“Mother, Daughter, Mustache” Women In Clothes (Heti, Julavits and Shapton, eds. Penguin, 2014) also Symphony Space and NPR
“Fragments of Feminism” The Brooklyn Rail, 2014
Performances and Appearances
Untamed performance (2015) Vox Populi, Philadelphia
Accused of Emotion panel (2015) Vox Populi, Philadelphia
Pervasive Feminisms performance (No Wave Performance Task Force, 2015) Milk and Night, NYC
Feminist Peep Show performance (2015) Judith Charles Gallery, NYC
Women in Art panel (2015) Judith Charles Gallery, NYC
DIS: feminist performance and visual art ABILITIES curator (2015) Women's Caucus for Art/Dixona Place
Crying; a protest performance (No Wave Performance Task Force, 2015) outside Dia:Beacon
BROOKLYN ArtTalks Art and Activism panel (2014) The Brooklyn Museum/Hyperallergic
Wolf Woman performance (2014) The New Museum, NYC
We Wish Ana Mendieta Was Still Alive performance (No Wave Performance Task Force, 2014) outside Dia:Chelsea, NYC
The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art panel The Feminist Art Project at CAA (2014)
Research Interests
Gender, sexuality, queer culture, equality, the feminine, feminism, activism, sexual assault, rape culture, performance art, theatre, nonfiction literature, video art, writing for performance, solo performance, art and activism, feminist performance art, memoir, essay, storytelling.
Awards And Honors
Gregory Millard Fellow in NonFiction
Best of 2014 Art and Activism Hyperallergic
New York Foundation for the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
President’s Award (Faculty) SUNY Purchase, Theatre and Performance
Audience Award NYFF
Best of Fringe SFFF