Description
What if the medieval mystic, Julian of Norwich, who wrote Revelations of Divine Love, had been writing about Divine the drag queen?
The loose story framing the poems describes cloistered professor and film buff Dr. Julia Johnson–a reimagined Julian–and her nameless teaching assistant, a novice nun, as the former reflects on all that was shown to her in viewing the cult classic. As a queer woman in a conflated 14th/20th century, Johnson’s vision is television, her Christs are Dreamlanders, and her revelations are sparked by the spectacular rites of the cinema. Through the theoria of filmic engagement, the poems in VISIONS OF DIVINE'S LOVE uncover secrets about Julia, the viewer, the world, and, indeed, about the divine.
Poetry. Film. LGBTQ+ Studies.
“VISIONS OF DIVINE'S LOVE is composed of sixteen ekphrastic poems, an introduction, and an epilogue in response to John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972) with its star Divine., corresponding to Julian's sixteen visions of Jesus, the Crucifixion, and the cosmos. Here, written down 'visions' are spliced with 'visualizations', mixed media icons that blur the medieval and (post)modern, transforming the book into a pseudo-cinematic experience of text, image, and the movement between them.”
Author Bio
Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus is a writer, drag performer, and theopoet in Saint Paul, MN. They are the artistic director of the House of Larva Drag Co-operative, producing one acts and full-length performances since 2014, while performing as Çicada l'Amour. Max is the author of The(y)ology: Mythopoetics for Queer/Trans Liberation (Punctum Press, 2023) and the play Circe: Twilight of a Goddess, produced with Siren Island and which they directed at at Point San Pablo, CA in 2021. They are currently in the process of producing for stage "I Sing for Bathesheba: Drag Monologues from the Hebrew Bible" and have begun a second book on Julian of Norwich.
Author City: SAINT PAUL, MN USA
J. C. A. Freeman is the assistant professor and director of Theology and the Arts Program at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She is the author of The Good Shepherd: Image, Meaning, and Power (Baylor University Press, 2021) and The Ashburnham Pentateuch and its Contexts: The Trinity in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Boydell & Brewer, 2022). She is also a visual artist with a background in illustration and technical theatre.
Author City: SAINT PAUL, MN USA