Karen Jaime, assistant professor of Performing and Media Arts and Latino/a Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, won a silver medal, The Victor Villaseñor Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book Award, for her book, The Queer Nuyorican: Racialized Sexualities and Aesthetics in Loisaida (NYU Press, 2021) during the 24th International Latino Book Awards ceremony. This award recognizes greatness in literature honoring authors, translators, and illustrators for their publications.
As evidenced by The Queer Nuyorican, Jaime’s writing on Latinidad, queer of color critique, visual cultures, and minoritarian aesthetics is an interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary proposition underscoring her ongoing research and how—as both a scholar and an artist—she consistently aims to bring critical theory into conversation with performance practice.
“I am excited at the reception and recognition that The Queer Nuyorican is receiving. I never would have imagined that my relationship with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and its history—beginning with my first time performing there after graduating from Cornell—would result in my writing a book and receiving this incredible award.”
Jaime is a published poet with writings published in Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, e-Misférica, Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, ASAP/J, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly and in Performance Matters. Additionally, Jaime’s poetry is included in The Best of Panic! En Vivo From the East Village, Flicker and Spark: A Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry, in a special issue of Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary and Art Journal, “Out Latina Lesbians,” and in the anthology Latinas: Struggles and Protest in 21st Century USA.
Jaime received her BA from Cornell University in 1997 double majoring in History/Spanish Literature, and a Ph.D. in 2013 from New York University in Performance Studies. Jaime joined Cornell University in 2015.
For related stories regarding Jaimes work visit:
• Book explores historical queerness of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe
• New series connects students, community with artists and scholars
• Impact grants expand humanities research
• Book launch and celebration of Professor Karen Jaime's, The Queer Nuyorican
• Alumna Karen Jaime returns to teach at Cornell
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