Jesse Bliss on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

“To know a world where we're fully respected and recognized for who we are.”

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a bisexual Mexican nun, writer, inventor and more who became controversial for her 17th Century feminism. Playwright Jesse Bliss tells Sor Juana’s story and explains why it gives her hope for women today.

Storyteller

Jesse Bliss

Jesse Bliss is a playwright, poet, director, producer, actress and veteran arts educator. Her plays have been produced in the United Nations, Edinburgh Festival, Occidental College, SPARC, UCLA, among others. She has taught/teaches with Center Theatre Group, Geffen Playhouse, Skirball Cultural Center and Inner-City Arts to name a few. Her graphic book and Companion Manuel created for incarcerated girls,  I LOVE MYSELF GOLDEN, is available in stores statewide. She is Producer of KPFK’s THINK OUTSIDE THE CAGE and Founder and Executive Director of The Roots and Wings Project, a project-based theatre company with a mission to provide stage and space for voices of the unnamed, unspoken and misunderstood.

Featured Woman

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th century nun, self-taught scholar and acclaimed writer of the Latin American colonial period and the Hispanic Baroque. She was also a staunch advocate for women’s rights.

Painting by Miguel Cabrera, year unknown.

Portrait of Sor Juana by Miguel Cabrera (1750). Book: “A Woman of Genius: The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz” by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Margaret Sayers Peden (Translator), Gabriel N. Seymour (Photographer) [Lime Rock Press].