the blueshift journal

A.J. McClenon is a writer, performer, and interdisciplinary visual and sound artist based in Chicago. Their work sets personal narratives alongside empirical data, leveling hierarchies of truth. They work across media incorporating aspects of sound, film, video, drawing, animation and collage throughout their work. 

 

McClenon holds a Masters in Fine Arts with an emphasis in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.They received a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in creative writing from the University of Maryland College Park. They have also studied at Eugene Lang College. 

 

McClenon is currently an educator at the Montessori Academy of Chicago and is co-organizer of Beauty Breaks, an intergenerational beauty and wellness workshop series for black people along the spectrum of femininity. They have received numerous awards for their writing and art works. McClenon received the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) MFA Writing Fellowship award in 2014 and SAIC’s MFAW small grant in 2012. They are also a recipient of the Paula Santan Scholarhip for Art and Stephanie E. Pogue Memorial Award.

 

Their writing has been published widely; most recently, their works have been published in the South Side Community Art Center Anniversary publication, 3rd Language and Stylus Literary Magazine.