Joni Renee Whitworth (he/they) is a poet, experimental filmmaker, and curator from Oregon.
They have performed at The Moth, the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art alongside Marina Abramovic. Whitworth served as the inaugural Artist in Residence at Portland Parks and Recreation, Poet in Residence for Oregon State University's Trillium Project, and 2020 Queer Hero for the Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. They are currently a New Media Fellow at Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow. They were a 2021 Fellow at Lambda Literary and a 2019 and 2020 Fellow at Tin House.
They work at the intersection art, performance, and activism, with a focus on queer and neurodivergent perspectives and themes. They've given lectures, participated in panel discussions, founded a non-profit queer art museum and artist collective, been a teaching artist for a youth program, and hosted a podcast about the future of art and culture. Additionally, they have written and performed several plays and participated in a variety of performances and art installations that deal with issues of mental health and neurodivergence, queer culture and the intersection of spirituality, technology and body consciousness.
Their writing explores themes of nature, future, family, and the neurodivergent body, and has appeared in Lambda Literary, Tin House, Oregon Humanities, Proximity Magazine, Seventeen Magazine, Eclectica, Pivot, SWWIM, Smeuse, Superstition Review, xoJane, Inverted Syntax, Unearthed Literary Journal, Sinister Wisdom, Dime Show Review, the Oregonian, and The Write Launch. They are currently working on slipstream climate fiction.
They have performed at The Moth, the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art alongside Marina Abramovic. Whitworth served as the inaugural Artist in Residence at Portland Parks and Recreation, Poet in Residence for Oregon State University's Trillium Project, and 2020 Queer Hero for the Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. They are currently a New Media Fellow at Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow. They were a 2021 Fellow at Lambda Literary and a 2019 and 2020 Fellow at Tin House.
They work at the intersection art, performance, and activism, with a focus on queer and neurodivergent perspectives and themes. They've given lectures, participated in panel discussions, founded a non-profit queer art museum and artist collective, been a teaching artist for a youth program, and hosted a podcast about the future of art and culture. Additionally, they have written and performed several plays and participated in a variety of performances and art installations that deal with issues of mental health and neurodivergence, queer culture and the intersection of spirituality, technology and body consciousness.
Their writing explores themes of nature, future, family, and the neurodivergent body, and has appeared in Lambda Literary, Tin House, Oregon Humanities, Proximity Magazine, Seventeen Magazine, Eclectica, Pivot, SWWIM, Smeuse, Superstition Review, xoJane, Inverted Syntax, Unearthed Literary Journal, Sinister Wisdom, Dime Show Review, the Oregonian, and The Write Launch. They are currently working on slipstream climate fiction.
SELECTED PROJECTS
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Influences
David Mitchell, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, Carol Maso, Tove Jansson, Richard Bach, Elena Ferrante, Aleksandar Hemon, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Mark Fisher, Emily Grosholz, Jo Ann Beard