As someone who bridges several domains of knowledge and artistic expression to provide new avenues for understanding and insight, a transdisciplinary writer occupies a special place in the literary world. By fusing together aspects of poetry, prose, visual art, and technology, transdisciplinary writers transcend the bounds of conventional genres and disciplines in their work to produce fully immersive and provocative reading experiences.
One of the best examples of a multimodal writer is Lizabel Mónica, whose creative narrative methods upend social norms and redefine the parameters of Latinx and Cuban literature. Mónica’s work exemplifies the transformative potential of transdisciplinary writing by embracing collaboration, experimentation, and investigation. This encourages both writers and readers to connect with literature in novel and unexpected ways.
Being an advocate in the area, Mónica’s contributions promote a greater awareness of the connections between art, culture, and society in addition to extending the boundaries of creative expression. The value of a transdisciplinary writer such as Mónica is found in her capacity to highlight the connections between various fields of knowledge, enhancing our collective imagination and encouraging us to view society from fresh angles in a world characterized by complexity and diversity.
Mónica’s transdisciplinary approach is based on her dedication to examining the points where several disciplines of expression and knowledge converge. Mónica is inspired by a wide range of fields, including philosophy, physics, art, and digital media. Her work is a blend of creative forces that are hard to pin down. Her poetry, in particular, provides a platform for experimentation, fusing cerebral depth, visual aesthetics, and amusing language.
Mónica is a transdisciplinary artist whose noteworthy project, Hay palabras vulva, was published by Casa Vacía in 2023. This ground-breaking piece invites viewers to delve into a complex investigation of identity, sexuality, and self-expression using visual poetry and texts in either English, Spanish, or both. The book’s main idea is to encourage vulva self-portraits, which Mónica turns into visual poems to create a cooperative and immersive artistic intervention that challenges societal norms and celebrates individuality.
Beyond the written page, Mónica’s collaborative poetry practices encompass performances, installations, and digital art initiatives. Mónica crosses the lines between poetry, visual art, and performance in her work, creating dynamic and participatory experiences for audiences. Examples of her work include El poema, Esto no es un huevo es la muerte de la gallina, Entre líneas, and the net-art project CubaFakeNews.
By experimenting with narrative forms and genres, Mónica keeps pushing the limits of traditional storytelling in her prose. Her capacity to bridge the gap between a play script and a short story is demonstrated by projects like Exercising the Productive Einbildungskraf and her novel Tim sin Tina, which looks to provide a multi-genre investigation of voices and time periods.
Beyond her artistic endeavors, Mónica applies an eclectic viewpoint to her work as a cultural organizer and educator. She encourages her pupils to embrace creativity, critical thinking, and teamwork by sharing her enthusiasm for interdisciplinary exploration with them as a former professor at The Lawrenceville School and currently an educator at The Pennington School. Her commitment to promoting cross-cultural dialogue and expanding the parameters of artistic expression is further demonstrated by her participation in cultural initiatives like DESLIZ and the Fruta Bomba project in Havana.
With new projects in the works, Mónica’s transdisciplinary journey is expected to continue developing in the future. She is currently collaborating with a visual artist and a programmer on an Augmented Reality poem, which will further broaden the possibilities of interdisciplinary expression in the digital age. Mónica continues to forge new paths in the fields of technology, art, and literature. She is paving the way for upcoming generations of Latinx and Cuban writers to also pursue the boundless potential of artistic expression.