about

ira beare is a jamaican-american dyke artist based in chicago and western massachusetts. their work includes fiber arts, ceramics, and design. they are interested in archives, jewish ritual, text-based art, and love. they are interested in sincerity.

they are the permanent artist-in-residence at bookends in florence, a lesbian bookstore and community space, where they curate the DYKEUMENTARY screening series and co-founded the Lesbian Reading Room, an archive of lesbian print materials. they frequently work with a close-knit group of beloved collaborators on a variety of community-centered yiddishist and diasporist jewish events, including the people's puppet parade, a twice-yearly folk parade and spectacle. they have taught a variety of art classes and workshops, including quilting, clothing design and pattern development, alterations, hand-built ceramics, hypertext development with twine, and more. they are currently teaching classes in double knit pattern design at the dropped stitch in andersonville, chicago.

beare completed both a BA and a post-baccalaureate fellowship in film & media studies at smith college. they are currently a PhD student in the screen cultures department of northwestern university. their research interests include lesbian and trans archives (particularly of non-theatrical media), marxist transfeminist and formalist theoretical approaches, and digital subcultures.

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. they blog infrequently on substack.

photo by charlie squire