Foreword

Carla Blank

Carla Blank is a writer, director, dramaturge and editor. She co-authored Storming the Old Boys’ Citadel: Two Pioneer Women Architects of Nineteenth Century North America, with Canadian architectural historian Tania Martin (Baraka Books, 2014). She is author and editor of the 20th century historical reference Rediscovering America: The Making of Multicultural America, 1900-2000 (Three Rivers Press, 2003) which carries the imprimatur of Before Columbus Foundation. Her two-volume anthology of performing arts techniques and styles, Live on Stage! (Dale Seymour Publications, a Pearson Education imprint, 1997, 2000), was co-authored with Jody Roberts. With Ishmael Reed, in addition to this anthology, she co-edited the anthology Powwow: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience, Short Fiction, From Then to Now (Da Capo Books, 2009). Her essays have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, the Buffalo News, Alta, Konch and CounterPunch. A creator of multidisciplinary performance works since childhood, artists she has collaborated with include Suzushi Hanayagi, Robert Wilson, Meredith Monk, Remy Charlip, Sally Gross, Elaine Summers, Genny Lim, Aldo Tambellini, Carman Moore, Ishmael Reed, Wajahat Ali, and Yuri Kageyama. She makes her home in Oakland, California.