Jen Miller

Jennifer Miller (also known as Saint Reverend Jen and Reverend Jen; born July 24, 1972, in Silver Spring, Maryland) is an American performer, actress, author, painter, director, and poet residing in Brooklyn, New York City.

After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1994, Miller began performing at Faceboy's Open Mic Night at Collective:Unconscious, then located on Avenue B in Manhattan's East Village.

When Faceboy's show moved to Surf Reality, he suggested Miller host an open mic at Collective:Unconscious, which was reopening on Ludlow Street.

Together, Faceboy and Jen created the weekly Wednesday night "Anti-Slam", which Miller hosted.

Unlike poetry slams where poets are judged on a scale of one to ten, every performer at the Anti-Slam got a ten, referring to every performer as an Art Star.

Miller began the Anti-Slam movement at Collective: Unconscious in 1995 as a reaction to the Poetry Slam movement on the Lower East Side.

At a traditional poetry slam, performers are given a score of 1–10 by a panel of five judges, whereas at an Anti-Slam event performers are given a perfect score regardless of the content or quality of their performance.

In 2002, Miller was named the Village Voice's "Best D.I.Y. Go-Girl" in the category of "Over 21".

Jen hosted the show at the Ludlow Street location until Collective lost its lease in 2005, after which she continued to host it at the Collective Tribeca location followed by several other locations including Cake Shop, Mo Pitkins and Bowery Poetry Club.

Throughout the nineties, Miller collaborated with other performers.

She was a cast member of Toolz of the New School, a cable access comedy show where she often appeared as Doo-Doo, the fifth teletubby.

She also performed in Surf Reality's "Grindhouse" shows and at Luna Lounge's "Eating It" comedy show.

At this time, she also began making handmade books, including ''Sex Symbol for the Insane', which she sold at Printed Matter.

Miller has written multiple books such as Reverend Jen's Really Cool Neighborhood and has written for other projects such as The Adventures of Electra Elf and Fluffer, a low budget Public-access television show produced by Nick Zedd.

She has also acted as the founder for several projects, such as the magazine Art Star Scene and with her former boyfriend Courtney Fathom Sell, co-founded ASS Studios.

Miller is the curator of the Troll Museum, which collects history, toys, and memorabilia associated with the Troll doll.

On October 17, 2007, Miller announced that the then-current performance would be the final anti-slam.

The following year, Miller revived the movement as a monthly event.

The museum closed in 2016, after she was evicted from her rent-controlled apartment.

In 2018, she did an art show called Rev Jen's Mid-Career Survey, which opened at MF Gallery on January 13 and closed on February 13.

On one occasion, she showed two of her films, Creature Double Feature and Satan, Hold my Hand.