About Mark

Mark Read is an artist, educator, and activist based in Portland, ME. Prior to 2020 he lived in Brooklyn, NY, for 22 years. Collaborative processes, interventionist strategies, and public engagement are at the heart of his creative practice. He has worked with and participated in numerous artist and activist collectives and projects, including Reclaim the Streets NYC, The Danger, and most recently The Illuminator Collective, which he founded in March of 2012. His teaching interests center around the role of cultural production in and on social change movements, a subject on which he has presented at conferences such as Open Engagement, The Hemispheric Institute’s Encuentros of 2014 and 2016, and The Allied Media Conference. He is interested in how artists and political activists have, and can, effectively communicate ideas that advance the cause of social, economic and environmental justice. He and his work have been profiled in The New York Times, The New Yorker Magazine, Vice, The Rachel Maddow Show, NPR, and many other media outlets. He has written about his work in publications such as Visual Inquiry, The Brooklyn Rail, Beautiful Trouble and The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, among others. His documentary film work has been broadcast nationally and appeared in numerous festivals, including The Tribeca Film Festival, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Rooftop Films, and in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. He currently teaches Media Studies through NYU’s Prison Education Program and at Southern Maine Community College.