Maya Stovall

Maya Stovall is a conceptual artist and anthropologist, originally from Detroit, MI. A self-proclaimed, “radical ballerina,” Stovall is best known for her use of dance and public space in her art practice. Interested in what she considers monumental questions of human existence, her Liquor Store Theatre (2014- ) project is a series of video-recorded performances and conversation about city life in the streets and sidewalks surrounding the eight liquor stores in her Detroit neighborhood. Stovall’s Public Library Project (2018- ) is a meditation on crystal methamphetamine markets and on city life, framed with her conceptual art practice, in downtown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada).

Dr. Maya Stovall is presently an Assistant Professor at Cal Poly Pomona in the department of Liberal Studies. She has published recent peer-reviewed academic articles on her anthropological field research and her contemporary art practices in Transforming Anthropology and Journal of the Anthropology of North America, as well as in publications including Detroit Research Journal and The American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) Anthropology News. Maya’s works are included in the permanent collections at The Cranbrook Art Museum and The Whitney Museum of American Art, and her book centered on her dissertation work, Liquor Store Theatre, is forthcoming from Duke Press. [Acquisitions Justification, 2019, Rehema Barber]