Frances Negrón-Muntaner
(born 1966) is a
Puerto Rican filmmaker, writer, and scholar. Her work is focused on a comparative exploration of
coloniality, primarily in Puerto Rico and the United States, with special attention given to the intersections between race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and politics. She is an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York City. She has also contributed to the Huffington Post, El Diario/La Prensa, and 80 Grados, and since 2008 has served as a Global Expert for the United Nations Rapid Response Media Mechanism. She is one of the best-known Puerto Rican
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
artists currently living in the United States.
Life and education
Negrón-Muntaner was born in
Santurce, Puerto Rico
Santurce (, from the Basque ''Santurtzi'' which means Saint George) is a barrio or district in the municipality of San Juan. Its population in 2020 was 69,469. It is also the biggest and most populated of all the barrios in the capital city wit ...
. She comes from a family of academics: both of her parents were professors at the
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and ...
,
Río Piedras
Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for " river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil.
Rio or Río may also refer to:
Geography Brazil
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rio do Sul, ...
.
["Biography"]
. ''Frances Negrón-Muntaner Home Page''. Retrieved on July 6, 2009. Her grandfather encouraged her to study film when she was a child. She obtained a Bachelor's in sociology at the University of Puerto Rico (1986), a Master in Visual Anthropology and a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Video at
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
(1991, 1994), and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
,
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
(2000).
[
]
Films
Since the late 1980s, Negrón-Muntaner has been exploring issues of sexuality, colonialism, nationalism, and migration in Puerto Rican/Latino diasporic communities. In 1989, with Peter Biella she co-directed ''AIDS in the Barrio: Eso no me pasa a mí'', an educational documentary about the situation of the Puerto Rican community in Philadelphia and their responses to the HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
crisis. In 1994, she released the award-winning ''Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican'' (1995 Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
, Audience Award at the 1995 San Juan CinemaFest and a Merit Selection at the 1995 Latin American Studies Association
The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 12,000 members, 45 percent of whom reside outside the United States (36 percent in Latin America and the C ...
Film Festival), the first Puerto Rican film to examine issues of race, gender and homophobia in the context of migration. This documentary/fiction film is based on Negrón-Muntaner's experiences as a diasporic Puerto Rican lesbian artist and activist in Philadelphia and took five years to make.
Scholarship
Negrón-Muntaner is a prolific, interdisciplinary cultural critic whose scholarship has made significant contributions to Latino Studies and Caribbean Studies among other fields. In 1997, she co-edited with Ramón Grosfoguel the anthology ''Puerto Rican Jam: Rethinking Colonialism and Nationalism''. In 2004, Negrón-Muntaner published ''Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture'' (CHOICE Award 2004), a collection of essays that included "Jennifer's Butt!, a landmark text for the discussion of contemporary U.S. popular culture. In this essay, the author focuses on media representations of Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series '' In Living Color'', where she re ...
. The book also has chapters on ''West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...
'', Ricky Martin
Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...
, and Holly Woodlawn
Holly Woodlawn (October 26, 1946 – December 6, 2015) was a transgender Puerto Rican actress and Warhol superstar who appeared in the films ''Trash'' (1970) and '' Women in Revolt'' (1971). She is also known as the Holly in Lou Reed's hit glam r ...
, with interesting insights about Puerto Rican homosexuality in the United States. Negrón-Muntaner has also edited several additional books, including ''None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era'' (Palgrave 2007)[Negrón-Muntaner, Frances. ''None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ] and ''Sovereign Acts'' (South End Press, 2009).
Political activism
In 1997, Negrón-Muntaner wrote the first draft of what was to become "The Radical Statehood Manifesto", a political intervention that sought to challenge conventional ideas of sovereignty in the Caribbean.[
]
Media advocacy
Negrón-Muntaner has also contributed to the founding of programs and institutions to disseminate the work of Latino filmmakers and intellectuals. She is the founder of Miami Light Project's Filmmakers Workshop, the organizer/fundraiser of several conferences on Puerto Rican/Latino affairs, and a founding board member and former chair of NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers.[
During her three-year tenure as NALIP's board chair, Negrón-Muntaner actively participated in the creation of the organization's signature programs (the annual conference, Latino Producers Academy, and Latino Writers Lab). She has also been part of the leadership responsible for the organization's transformation from a startup operation with a few hundred members in 1999 into the country's most important Latino producer organization, with over a thousand members and a $1 million budget.][
]
Awards
For her work as a scholar and filmmaker, Negrón-Muntaner has received Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
, Truman, Scripps Howard, Rockefeller, and 1994 Pew Fellowships in the Arts
A pew () is a long bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom.
Overview
The first backless stone benches began to appear in English churches in the thirt ...
.[ Major foundations and public television funding sources have also supported her work. For her work as a filmmaker, advocate, and scholar, she was named as one of the nation's "100 Most influential Latinos" by ''Hispanic Business'' magazine in 2005.][
]
See also
* LGBT literature
* LGBT rights in Puerto Rico
* List of Puerto Ricans
* List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people
*List of LGBT writers
This list of LGBT writers includes writers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender or otherwise non-heterosexual who have written about LGBT themes, elements or about LGBT issues (such as Jonny Frank). Works of these authors are part of LG ...
*List of Puerto Rican writers
This is a list of Puerto Rican literary figures, including poets, novelists, short story authors, and playwrights. It includes people who were born in Puerto Rico, people who are of Puerto Rican ancestry, and long-term residents or immigrants ...
*Puerto Rican literature
Puerto Rican literature is the body of literature produced by writers of Puerto Rican descent. It evolved from the art of oral storytelling. Written works by the indigenous inhabitants of Puerto Rico were originally prohibited and repressed by th ...
*Puerto Ricans in the United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans ( es, link=no, Puertorriqueños de Estados Unidos), also ambiguously known as Puerto Rican Americans ( es, link=no, puertorriqueño-americanos,), or Puerto Ricans in the United States, are Puerto Ricans who are in the U ...
*Queer studies
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the education of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoria, asexual, queer, questioning, inte ...
Notes
References
External links
Frances Negrón-Muntaner Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negron-Muntaner, Frances
1966 births
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Columbia University faculty
Puerto Rican lesbian writers
LGBT film directors
Living people
People from San Juan, Puerto Rico
Pew Fellows in the Arts
Puerto Rican activists
Puerto Rican documentary filmmakers
Puerto Rican film directors
Puerto Rican women writers
Rutgers University alumni
Temple University alumni
University of Puerto Rico alumni
American women documentary filmmakers
American women academics