Maya Escobar On Display!

The St. Lou Jew's favorite Guatemalan-Jewish Artist, Maya Escobar is on display!

Frida Kahlo played with the identity that she wanted to project and the identity that was placed on her by others. Kahlo used her clothing, political affiliations, sexual escapades, and personal traumas, to create a character that informed her body of work. She inscribed her identity, painting her image over and over, constructing a mythology around her persona.



In el es frida kahlo artist Maya Escobar confronts the ambivalence she experiences as a result of her simultaneous obsession with Frida Kahlo and weariness towards her commodification. Viewed from a tiny pinhole, Escobar, dressed as Kahlo stands before a reproduction of one of her self portraits. With a mixture of rage, anxiety, and complete fear, she chants “el es Frida Kahlo, ella es Frida Kahlo, el es Frida Kahlo, yo soy, yo soy, yo soy Frida Kahlo,” he is Frida Kahlo, she is Frida Kahlo, I am, I am, I am Frida Kahlo. As Escobar yells, the painting behind her begins to fall. She violently tears down her braids and smudge off her makeup while continuing to yell “I am Frida Kahlo, I am Frida Kahlo, yo soy Frida Kahlo!”

el es frida kahlo will be on view at the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, MO from 1/22-3/6. Read More......

Shomer Negiah Panties: Maya Escobar Is At It Again

From the same artist who brought you Berlin's Eruv and Acciones Plasticas now comes Shomer Negiah Panties!

That's right, The St. Lou Jew's favorite Guatemalan-Jewish artist, Maya Escobar, has just releases her Shomer Negiah Panties on Etsy.

Shomer Negiah literally means to guard touch, and refers to adherence of orthodox Jews to a ban on physical contact with members of the opposite sex aside from one's spouse and family.



Escobar's juxtaposition of this stringent code with ladies' undergarments is interesting for a few reasons. She sees this project as something that allows Shomer Negiah women to have a bit of fun with their observance, allowing them to feel sexy without doing it immodestly. One comment on Escobar's site read, "I can see all of the SN girls giving these to each other as an inside joke".

As a special double St. Louis bonus, another St. Lou Jew favorite, Randy Vines was able to play a role in helping print the panties.

For more on Maya check out www.mayaescobar.com
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Together We Hope

After a weekend full of food, friends, Bailey's, reunions, and more food, we are back in action!

Read on for an update on Maya Escobar, our favorite StlouJew artist.

It was election day, Maya was waiting in some of the longer lines, surrounded by eager, hopeful voters. She wanted to capture the environment and engage those around her. Maya and Carianne Noga, her colleague and frequent collaborator had the idea to take a bunch of tags and let people write their hopes on them. The tags were put on display for all to see.

Out of this spur-of-the-moment project came togetherwehope.com a simple site that allows people to write their hopes, immediate or long term, material, spiritual, idealistic or realistic.

The project has already started to take off, with an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Maya and Carianne will be turning the tags into a public art installation in front of the University City Post Office, so hit up togetherwehope.com while there is still time and ensure that your hopes are heard.
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Exhuberance: Obama is thy name

Yesterday, I received possibly the best birthday present ever, the election of Barack Obama to the office of President of the United States of America.

I witnessed John McCain, seemingly returning to his previous centrist self, give the best speech of his bid for election, which ironically came in the form of concession.

Immediately, I headed to the Chase Park Plaza for the victory celebration, and the change that was promised was more immediate than I had anticipated. On one of St. Louis' hip hop stations, the DJ was freestyling about Obama.

"WE GOT A BLACK PRESIDENT!" was the first thing we heard, followed by, "McCain didn't even break 200 (electoral college votes)."

Never have heard so much excitement about an election on a rap radio station. In fact, the only mention I've ever heard of rap and politics in the mainstream is the good old 'Buck Fush'.

We arrived at the Chase Park Plaza jumping up and down with excitement. The place was packed with all sorts of people, from students to the elderly, all shades and creeds of people, hugging each other, dancing, crying...it was as if we had just won a war and in some ways, we had.

As Obama gave his acceptance speech, it was clear, just by the feeling that swept the room, that something had fundamentally changed. Suddenly, this mishmash of peoples with very ostensibly very little in common were sharing a deep bond of hope, a sense of belonging, community, and feeling of enfranchisement as citizens, as Americans.

In a very big way, the victory of Barack Obama represents a major victory in the philosophical war between an older generation fueled by fear, and a younger generation, mobilized by hope.

Zuz mentioned that no one believed Obama would actually get college kids and African Americans to vote.

Obama succeeded in this endeavor because behind a bold message of hope, reconciliation, and pragmatism there was a disciplined organization that lived the values it embodied.

Everyone that I spoke with who canvassed or made phone calls remarked on how amazing it was to go out and meet and engage their neighbors in the political process.

There is a name for this type of organizational work, it's called community organizing. Yes, the same community organizing that Palin tried to insult.
This community organizing and community building is what set Obama apart, and has the potential to be truly transformational.

Here lies the difference between socialism and capitalism within a socially minded populace. In socialism, the populace is forced to redistribute wealth and power.
Capitalism within a socially minded populace is where people take care of their neighbors because they know their neighbors and see them as fellow citizens.

Is this not the America we so desire, in which we feel connected to our fellow citizens? Where we happily make coffee, tea, and baked goods for those waiting hours in line to vote, as Maya Escobar did on the Loop in University City. Where we congratulate each other for a truly collaborative effort in electing the first non-Caucasian leader of a majority Caucasian nation EVER.

Perhaps these symbolic victories won't bring the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 6000 points overnight. Neither will they ease up the credit market. But what if this victory inspires students to aspire to greater heights? What if those who hold ambivalence (at best) towards us begin to feel that we will deal justly with them, and hold ourselves to the standards to which we have long held them.

The significance of these symbolic victories is not lost on me.
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Living Jews: Maya Escobar

Maya Escobar is a living Jew.

Currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts at Washington University, Maya was generously loaned to St. Louis by the rest of world Jewry.

From West Rogers Park, Chicago, where the young artists was raised, a Reconstructionist in an Orthodox neighborhood.

From Guatemala, where her father evaded political unrest and violence.

From Berlin, where she found new Jewish identity springing from the ashes. An identity that refused to be wholly tied to a catastrophic event of death and destruction, and prefers to be seen through life and creation.

Maya considers herself an educator before an artist, and her art is proof of that. Her latest project, entitled 'Berlin's Eruv'is about "the changing face of Jewish identity as delineated through social spaces" and contains interviews with members of the Berlin community. Just listening to the audio she provides online opens one up to a world far from the comforts of American Jewry.

Which is the point, says Maya. In America, she explains, you don't really have to acknowledge being Jewish, whereas in Europe, it is a fight for identity, a struggle.

Maya went on to explain that she is really looking to elucidate what it means to 'be a stranger in a strange land', and that the answer for these Jews is far different than our might be.

In challenging what it means to be a Jew, and including narratives that haven't traditionally been part of the (Ashkenazi) mainstream identity, Maya expands the notion of Jewish identity and creates a space for discussion and education.

Part of this comes from her own experience, and having the identifier, 'Jew of Color' placed on her. By being effectively 'raced', and made exotic, there is a lot of potential for her work to be put in a box, but after you spend some time with the art itself, you find the ideas are too big to be contained.

Truly, then, this is the work of a living Jew.

Maya's Hiddur Napkin (a hand embroidered challah cover), can be viewed at the Bruno David Gallery called Over View _08, (Jul 11- Aug 23) *
In late September, a survey of her work will be on display at Washington University in St. Louis. "This solo show is thematically centered around art education functioning as a catalyst in promoting cross-curricular and intercollegiate discourse. As a facet of this exhibition, she will be leading a series of lectures and workshops for undergraduate students in the following departments: Jewish Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and Latin American Studies."

Additionally, Maya will be working with Rabbi Susan Talve of Central Reform Congregation this fall to create a multi-media, interactive Jewish Time Line at the Synagogue.

Check out Maya's Blog and stay tuned for future updates about Maya and her work.

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