One Step at a Time
Build Your Wealth
MetaMentorship Resident Artist
Anel l. Flores
She/elle
About Anel l. Flores
Anel I. Flores is an artivist whose craft manifests as graphic storytelling, poetry, prose, sterling silver sculpture, oil paintings, and organizing; as a continuation and evolution of the conversations started by the Xicana/x movement in art and literature, now infused by latinx, transfeminism, intersectionality, queer politics and resistance. Her work combines, oscillates between, and blurs these different disciplines in an ultimate goal to provide ancestral healing, present day health, and a re-centering of Womyn of Color, Latina/x, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Womyn, Femmes and Gender Non-Binary folx into community and culture. As a cultural producer, Flores is driven by a sense of urgency to record and create queer visual and literary work as a continuous reflection and questioning of self-representation, aiming at discovering and recovering the history, dynamics, and complexities of relationships with others, self, memory, future the present.
Flores’ areas of study and production of literary fiction and visual art center around Chicana/Latina literature, lesbianidad, sexuality, gender, race/border/diaspora, spirituality, body, blood memory and their connection to identity.
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She is an MFA in Creative Writing, the 2022 Distinguished Writer in Residence at OLLU, a fellow with the Participatory Research Project with the Southwest Folklife Alliance, recipient of the Catalyst for Change Award, Best Local Poet Award, named Women’s Advocate of the Year from University of Texas San Antonio, the Nebrija Creadores Award from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, Spain, Best Of San Antonio Local Author, the Chingona in Literature Award, the Ancinas Award at Squaw Valley, the NALAC Fund for the Arts Award, the Accion Women Inspiring Women Award, the Yellow Rose of Texas Educator Award, and the Mentorship Leadership Award. She is co-editor of forthcoming Jota Anthology with Korima Press and author of Lambda literary award nominated book Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas.
Among various anthologies and magazines, Flores’ work can be found in Camino Real, the Fifth Wednesday Journal, RiverSedge Literary Journal, Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art with UT Press, The Jota Anthology, Queer Spiritualities, Rooted: A Queer Women of Color Anthology, El Mundo Zurdo Anthology, The Brillantina Project, Sinister Wisdom, This City Is A Poem, Raspa Magazine, OutInSA Magazine, iungo Arts Magazine, the Lodestar Quarterly, The Pitkin Literary Review and La Voz de Esperanza.
Her play Empanada toured for 8+ years throughout the University and Theater circuit and continues to be produced today. Most recently her artwork was exhibited at the McNay Museum, The Tex Pop Museum and Centro de Artes. During her 25 year career as an artist, Flores’ work has been showcased at galleries, universities, and in academic journals. In 2019, Flores was interviewed by the Jotxs y Recuerdos podcast, the MALCS Journal podcast among others. She was Co-Reviewer and Co-Committee Member of El Mundo Zurdo Conference, organized by the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, Previous Board Member of Macondo Writers Workshop, The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, San Antonio Youth Literacy and Pride Center San Antonio. Flores is a co-founder of Queer Voices Speak Out, Co-Founder of LezRideSA, and a member of the San Antonio Mayor’s LGBTQIA Task Force.
She is currently in the process of completing her forthcoming book, Cortinas de Lluvia, a series of Children’s books and her graphic memoir titled, Pintada de Rojo. Her teaching career includes 11 years in public high school, college, and university along with 4 years in Arts Administration, and various community literary workshops.