about

ira beare is a jamaican-american writer and artist based in chicago. their studio practice includes fiber arts, ceramics, and design. their writing practice includes critical and academic work. they are interested in archives, jewish ritual, text-based art, and love. they are committed to sincerity.

beare is the art director of EASEL, a journal of trans photography and criticism. they were the co-operator of bookends in florence, a lesbian bookstore and community space, where they curated the DYKEUMENTARY screening series and co-founded the Lesbian Reading Room, an archive of lesbian print materials. they have taught a variety of art classes and workshops, including quilting, clothing design, mending & alterations, hand-built ceramics, hypertext, double knitting, and more.

beare completed both a BA and a post-baccalaureate fellowship in film & media studies at smith college. they will recieve a master's from the screen cultures department of northwestern university this summer. their research interests include sexual violence, lesbian and trans archives, materialist feminism, and trans medicine. they are currently working as the personal archivist to experimental filmmaker Adele Friedman.

you can explore some of this research in not only will i stare, a hypertext essay that explores a diverse range of approaches to representation of rape, including rape/revenge as a narrative cycle, digital subcultures of survivors, rape fetishism, true crime, and more.

photo by helena lamb