Petro Stojan

Petro Evstaf'evic Stojan (Russian: Пётр Евстафьевич Стоян, also known by the pseudonyms Ribaulb, Radovich and Šulerc) (June 22, 1884 in Izmail, Bessarabia — May 3, 1961 in Nice) was a Russian esperantist, bibliographer and lexicographer and a member of the Esperanto Language Committee (Lingva Komitato) from 1914.

Life and work

Stojan studied physics and mathematics at the Richelieu Lyceum (today's Odessa University) in Odessa and in Sankt Petersburg and from 1906 to 1907 in Paris. From 1919 to 1922, he was a university professor in Serbia. From 1925, he worked at the Universal Esperanto Association in Geneva at its biggest work, the Bibliography of the International Language (Bibliografio de Internacia Lingvo) which was published in 1929.

He spent the end of his life in Southern France where he died of drowning.

Esperantist engagement

He joined the Esperanto movement in 1903. According to the Encyclopedia of Esperanto of 1933, "he was one of the most competent regarding the dictionary technique." Over sixteen years, he worked on twelve dictionaries; among them are the great Russian dictionary of the Imperial Academy. His other well-known dictionaries are the Ornithological Eight-language Dictionary (1911) and the Small Russian-Esperanto dictionary and the Illustrated Dictionary of the Russian Language (760 pages and 2000 pictures). In 1929, his Bibliography of the International Language (Bibliografio de Internacia Lingvo) was published.

Stephen Powers (artist)

Stephen J. Powers (born May 25, 1968) is a New York City artist who at one time wrote graffiti in Philadelphia and New York under the name ESPO ("Exterior Surface Painting Outreach").

Background

Powers is from Philadelphia's Overbrook neighborhood; he graduated from Robert E. Lamberton High School in 1987 and took classes at The Art Institute of Philadelphia and the University of the Arts. In 1994, he moved to New York with fellow writer and designer Ari Forman, in order to expand the reach of On the Go magazine.

Graffiti

He was most well known during the late 1990s for his conceptual pieces as well as his role as the editor and publisher of On the Go Magazine. ESPO's work often blurred the lines between illegal and legal. For example, pieces like "Greetings from ESPOLand" utilized the style of the Asbury Park Billboards and appeared to be a legitimate billboard. On January 4, 1997 ESPO began his most ambitious non-commissioned art. He painted on storefront grates in Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, TriBeCa and the South Bronx, covering the entire grate with white or silver paint and then using black to make each grate into a letter in his name. Powers painted in daylight, wearing street clothes; he told the New York Times in 1999 that when passersby asked what he was doing he would tell them, "I'm with Exterior Surface Painting Outreach, and I'm cleaning up this gate"; the official-sounding name, and clever acronym was enough to ward most people off. Powers targeted shops that appeared to be out of business and grates that were already heavily vandalized. He described his graffiti as a public service, and by 1999 said that he had painted around 70 grates.