Originally from Chicago, Kristen Strezo is a writer, performance artist, activist and musician currently living in Atlanta, Ga. Kristen Strezo is the co-founder of several bands with her writing partner and husband, Robert Filippo. She currently fronts the band, STREZO and writes the music blog VOCIFEROUS WAIL!, which offers music and performance advice to musicians.
Kristen Strezo began writing and singing as the lead singer of the post-punk band, Hedonists,Maybe in Chicago. Right away, Kristen Strezo was known for her controversial performances, urging her audiences to think about the world around them while watching live music. Linking her activism to her stage performances, she gained a reputation for being unpredictable onstage, doing anything from dressing in only a garbage bag or a politician to shaving her armpits onstage.
Kristen Strezo received her BA from DePaul University. She was nominated and honored with the DePaul University Student Excellence Award for her final paper, All of The Little Lambs, examining the various ways that women learn through experience, via socially or within the constructs of class boundaries.
Currently, she fronts the band, STREZO, and writes music for independent theatre and film scores and creates sound design alongside Robert Filippo. Their score work has been included in various well-known worldwide theater and production companies. Past experience includes contributing work to entries to the Sundance Film Festival and for the Great Britain Board of Tourism.
A Reconstructionist Jew, today she writes for Punk Torah, examining avodah and making it extremely personal to the reader. Revisiting Mordecai M. Kaplan’s credo that “the past has a vote but not a veto”, she wishes to promote the concept that there is room under the tent for every Jew, all that’s necessary is an open mind.
Professionally, she has written for Girlistic Magazine, Flagpole and Performer Magazine amongst various other media sources. Her personal blog is: http://strezolive.blogspot.com/
and can be reached at: kristen0227@gmail.com
