Description
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: “The Promised Party: The Fury, Ecstasy and Danger of ’70s Mexico City and ’80s New York”
Jennifer Clement lived an unorthodox and bohemian childhood in Mexico City, living next door to Frida Kahlo’s house and alongside artists, communists, revolutionaries and poets. Leaving behind the revolutions in Latin America for the burgeoning counter-culture scene in ’80s New York, Clement quickly became a fixture on the art scene, inhabiting the world of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Colette Lumiere and William Burroughs. Clement will talk about this memoir as a portrait of the artist as well as being a portrayal of two great cities and their artists.
About Jennifer Clement
Jennifer Clement is the author of five novels, two memoirs, and several books of poetry. Two of her novels were New York Times Editor’s Choice books. Both Elle Magazine and the French Ministry of Education awarded prizes to her novel Prayers for the Stolen, which was made into a movie in 2021. Her novel Gun Love was an Oprah Book Club selection and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Time Magazine and several other publications named it one of the ten best books of 2018. Her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages.
Clement is the only woman to hold the office of President of PEN International, 2015 to 2021. Under her leadership, the groundbreaking PEN International Women’s Manifesto and The Democracy of the Imagination Manifesto were created. When she was President of PEN Mexico, she was instrumental in changing the law to make the crime of killing a journalist a federal crime.
Jennifer Clement has received awards for both her writing and her humanitarian work, including fellowships from Guggenheim, NEA, MacDowell and Santa Maddalena; a Hispanics in Philanthropy Award for her contribution to Latino Communities; the 2023 Freedom of Expression Honorary title for World Press Day in Brussels; and numerous other awards.
Clement was raised in Mexico City. Together with her sister Barbara Sibley, she founded and ran Poetry Week every January in San Miguel de Allende for many years.
By Jennifer Clement:
