Elizabeth
Streb

Elizabeth Streb has dived through glass, walked down London’s City Hall, dumped a ton of dirt on her head, and set herself on fire, among many other feats of extreme action. Streb founded the Streb Extreme Action Company in 1979 and established SLAM (STREB Lab for Action Mechanics) in Brooklyn in 2003. Streb holds a MA in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, a BS in Modern Dance from SUNY Brockport, and honorary doctorates from SUNY Brockport, Rhode Island College, and Otis College of Art and Design, and has received numerous honors including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Doris Duke Artist Award.

A board member of the Jerome Foundation, she has been a featured speaker at TED2018: The Age of Amazement, BRAINWAVE at The Rubin Museum, TEDxMET, the Institute for Technology and Education, POPTECH, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the Penny Stamps Speaker Series, Chorus America, and on NPR’s Science Friday. She was profiled by Alec Wilkinson in an extended essay for The New Yorker magazine, was featured in the Smithsonian Magazine, and in 2019 was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. She is the subject of two documentaries: Born to Fly, directed by Catherine Gund (Aubin Pictures), which premiered at the SXSW Festival and was featured at the Film Forum in NYC, and OXD, directed by Craig Lowy, which premiered at Doc NYC. In 2010, Feminist Press published her book, STREB: How to Become an Extreme Action Hero.

Portrait photo by Tom Caravaglia.