Word Up welcomes visual artist and author Jana Leo de Blas discuss genered domestic violence, along with her book, MOM IS DEAD, BUT YOU ARE GOING TO CURE HER, which tells the stories of 132 women murdered by their male partners, turning these events into literature and art, in honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25th.

Leo de Blas is currently on display at the Cohen Library Archives Gallery with her exhibition“Mom Is Dead, But You Are Going to Cure Her,” comprising a two-decade archive of drawings and short narratives honoring 130+ women killed by partners in Madrid at the Cohen Library Archives Gallery for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. On view until November 20th.

Jana Leo de Blas is a West Harlem-based artist. Originally from Madrid, Spain, Jana holds a PhD in Philosophy, a master’s in art theory and Aesthetics from the UAM, and a master’s in architecture from SOA, Princeton, USA. She was a professor of advanced projects and concepts in architecture at the Cooper Union in New York. In 2008, she created the MOSIS Foundation, Models and Systems; Art and City. She is the author of Rape New York, Feminist Press 2011 and “El Viaje sin distancia,” CENDEAC, Murcia 2006. She wrote the prologue to the Spanish edition of Not That Bad: Notes on Rape Culture, by Roxane Gay, in 2018. She has contributed to “Tranquilas,” Stories for Walking Alone at Night, Lumen 2019. As an illustrator, in 1995 she co-founded Doodlezoo in San Francisco, where she has published 12 children’s books with Chronicle Books. Her artistic work has been shown in museums around the world, including the MNCARS National Art Museum Reina Sofia in Madrid in 1999, the ICP in New York in 2003, Invisible Exports Gallery from 2008 to 2016, Centro Centro in Madrid in 2017, the Spanish Academy in Rome, where she was a fellow in 2019-2020, and the La Neomudejar Museum in Madrid in 2025. Her work has been presented in the form of a workshop on documenting emotions at Espacio de Culturas, NYU and the Hispanic Society in New York and Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Please register in advance.

Word Up presents a reading in English and Spanish with author Anthony Donoghue of his contemporary love story, For You I Will Fly / Por Ti Volaré, alongside his wife, Vivian Paola Donoghue, who inspired the novel. The novel follows two people from different countries who unexpectedly find love. Set between Chile and New York, the story explores what it takes for love to endure despite the challenges of language, time, distance, and illness.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anthony Donoghue, originally from Ireland, has lived in New York for 26 years. He is a professor at Columbia University and published author. He also teaches at the City University of New York (CUNY). He has published three editions of his book on critical and statistical thinking written for the general audience.

His second book and first novel is titled “For You I Will Fly / Por Ti Volaré”, published in both English and Spanish. It is a contemporary love story based on real-life experiences he and his wife Vivian went through to build a life together. Vivian is originally from Viña del Mar, Chile. They live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.