Antena (Jen Hofer and John Pluecker) and Jorge Galván Flores

Founded in 2010 by Jen Hofer and John Pluecker, both of whom are writers, artists, literary translators, bookmakers and activist interpreters, Antena is a collaborative dedicated to language justice and language experimentation. In Southern California, Antena works with its sister collective Antena Los Ángeles, co-founded by Jen Hofer and lawyer, organizer-educator, and social justice interpreter Ana Paula Noguez Mercado, doing language justice organizing with community groups locally.

Language justice is the basic idea that everyone has the right to speak in the language(s) in which we feel most comfortable, to understand and to be understood. Language justice is a conceptual framework for creating spaces where no language will dominate over any other, and a set of tools and strategies for nurturing those spaces. Language experimentation is an elastic, exploratory and poetically energized approach to language that resists the ways that unjust power structures are reinforced when we use the language of the status quo automatically and without question. Through writing, art- and book-making, translating, interpreting, performance, bilingual event programming, language justice work, and the micro-press Libros Antena Books, Antena explores how critical views on language can help us to reimagine and rearticulate the worlds we inhabit.

The AntenaMóvil is a retrofitted Mexican cargo tricycle stocked with books that are for sale and for reading on-site. The selection focuses on small-press and DIY publications from the U.S. and Latin America, and features bilingual and multilingual works, work in translation, and innovative texts by writers of color.

Fabrication assistance for the AntenaMóvil was provided by Hugo Martínez and Rob Ray. Electrification research assistance was provided by Dan Koeppel, and by Tony Rivera of Electric Pedicabs (electricpedicabs.com). Mechanical modifications and electrification were done by Josef Bray-Ali of Flying Pigeon LA (flyingpigeon-la.com).

The books on the AntenaMóvil are for sale and for reading on-site. The selection focuses on small-press publications from the U.S. and Latin America, and features bilingual and multilingual works, work in translation, and innovative texts by writers of color. These books would not be here without the tremendous labor of love of the many writers, editors, designers, and publishers who make the vast worlds of small- and tiny-press publications exist.

With just a few exceptions, the books from U.S.-based presses are in this space thanks to the dedication and generosity of the book-workers at Small Press Distribution, a non-profit that distributes only independent presses. Please visit www.spdbooks.org to be amazed at the array of books they distribute. Special thanks to Brent Cunningham.