Inside CultureWatch CultureWatch 41 Escaping the Patriarchy 41 Beautiful Barbarians 42 Mystic Resistance BOOKS ART MUSIC FILM Kathryn Post reviews Rhea Williams reviews Julie Polter reviews Women Talking Barbarican The Howard Thurman Story

everything which passes through the senses, how much more ought we to doubt things New & Noteworthy contrary to these senses ... such as the exis- tence of God or of the soul or similar things over which there is always dispute and con- tention.” These are not words one expects from a person whose work is featured prominently in Vatican City, but the name All art is the result of an Freedom Rider Frank imperfect human being Holloway, then and now. immoderately aiming for Freedom Ride The expanded edition of Breach of transcendence. Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders revisits a pivotal civil Leonardo da Vinci lends itself to all manner rights campaign. Filled with mug- of exceptions. shots and recent interviews of several Another artist, a drunken brawler whose riders who were arrested in Jackson, path to fame includes committing murder, Miss., Breach of Peace honors a his- also painted his way into churches and cha- toric act of protest. Vanderbilt pels around Rome. He is commonly known University Press by the name of his hometown: Caravaggio. This arrogant thirtysomething drew pub- One Body, Many Parts lic ire with his numerous depictions of Together at the Table: Diversity Without the naked male form, some Division in the United Methodist going so far as to accuse him Church, by Bishop Karen P. Oliveto, of turning a church’s roof into the UMC’s first openly LGBTQ a “brothel.” It’s fortunate this bishop, is timely as the denomination artist, Michelangelo, didn’t nears a potential split over sexuality. listen to them, because if he Oliveto outlines how her denomina- had, the Sistine Chapel as we tion can remain whole. Westminster By Faith-Marie Zamblé of faith, especially mil- know it would not exist. John Knox Press lennials of color, want to These men give rise to The Art of Transcendence engage with values tra- uncomfortable questions Courageous Faith ditionally cherished by about what makes someone a Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: Mimi Mutesa, a Ugandan-American visual artist, defies the church’s expectations. the church but see mod- Christian artist. Is a Christian 14 People Who Dared to Change Our ern-day Christianity as artist someone who creates World, by David P. Gushee and Colin IN THE SPAN OF OUR HOURLONG conversation, Mimi Mutesa, an emerging Ugandan- a direct hindrance to paintings or sculptures exclu- Holtz, examines the faith and courage American photographer-videographer and an undergraduate student at Calvin College, a that sort of explora- Mimi Mutesa, above, and one of sively about the passion of of Harriet Tubman, Oscar Romero, Christian Reformed school in Michigan, easily gives her thoughts on everything from the tion, since significant her photos from a series high- Christ? What if the artists are Malala Yousafzai, Martin Luther King lighting the sisterhood of East Jr., and others in hope that their lives complexities of blackness to the policing of women’s bodies. However, when I ask her how portions of the church African women. not working for soli Deo glo- her faith influences her work, there is a brief pause on the other end of the line. have been antagonists ria but for a paycheck? Should will inspire new leaders. Brazos Press “I don’t think it’s ever crossed my mind until this moment,” she says. When pressed, she in struggles for social equality. Christian art be a tool of conversion? What explains that she’s “trying to tackle enough issues” in her art as it is, and evangelical culture Reticence to conflate personal faith with if the paintings are meant to scare illiterate Holy Peace has “far too many other problems” for her to address. Mutesa assures me that she still iden- artistic vision is deeply connected to a com- peasants into papal obedience? One Breath at a Time: A Skeptic’s tifies as a person of faith but maintains that her relationship with God is “separate” from plex historical dialectic between the arts and These are complex questions, but when Guide to Christian Meditation, by J. her relationship to art and social justice. the church: Mutesa’s midconversational I examine the life and works of the Old Dana Trent, shows Christians how to Perhaps this separation is a necessary one. It’s hard to imagine the average evangelical pause is supported by precedent. Masters, I am in awe that said work exists expand their prayer to include med- church embracing Mutesa’s colorful portraits of nude black joy. Her sentiments echo an at all. All art is the result of an imperfect itation. Trent examines scripture unspoken opinion held by many young Christians, that if you want to be radical like Jesus An imperfect human being human being immoderately aiming for and the history of the church to help was, you must do so on the margins of Christianity. More traditional folks may see this rush For example, a visual artist who lived dur- transcendence. believers tap into holy peace. Upper to the margins as a slick avoidance of the Christian call to profess one’s faith, or a symptom ing the 15th century wrote in his treatise The composer George Handel—a Room Books of postmodern discomfort with absolute truth. But what is more likely is that millennials on painting: “If we doubt the certainty of Continued on Page 39

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EYES & EARS CultureWatch ONFILM BY DANNY DUNCAN COLLUM BOOKS ART MUSIC FILM BY GARETH HIGGINS

Continued from Page 37 The New Digital Divide character study in intemperance and dra- matics—famously said of his Messiah, TWENTY YEARS AGO, when we “Whether I was in my body or out of my talked about the “digital divide” we body as I wrote it I know not. God knows.” meant things like low-income peo- This is what artists aim for, a synchronicity ple’s access to computers and the between that which they can control (mate- internet. But according to a recent riality) and that which lies beyond. study from Common Sense Media, that turn-of-the-century gap has Power, privilege, and positivity largely closed. Seventy percent of But what often lies beyond the control of art- families with an annual household ists of color such as Mutesa is bigotry—how income below $30,000 now have a others see them. Historical whitewashing computer at home, and 75 percent and institutional racism are topics that black From Roma have high-speed internet access. In contemporary artists Kerry James Marshall, addition, low-income families are Carrie Mae Weems, Mickalene Thomas, and near the national average for access Kara Walker explore thoroughly in their HOW TO LOVE to mobile devices such as smart Shutterstock work. The art world has not been a friend phones and tablets. as well as $8 billion-plus yearly on that keeps a parent at home must to people of color or women, and in many BEFORE WE GET to the best movies of a satirical mirror of America in which But another digital divide is hardware and software, with little live on one full-time income, which minds neither has the church. In beautiful, 2018, let’s talk about the most memora- Cynthia Erivo gives the year’s most strik- emerging that could have more dan- to show for it so far in the way of is impossible for most folks in this era surprising, and grotesque ways, Marshall, ble moments of this year in cinema. Neil ing performance. gerous long-term consequences. improved learning. of stagnant and declining wages. The Weems, Thomas, and Walker detail what it Armstrong casting his daughter’s brace- There’s also the Mr. Rogers docu- Researchers have discovered “I am convinced the devil only alternative—one increasingly means to live on the fringes of society. let into a canyon on the moon in First mentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, a lot about how brain develop- lives in our phones and is wreak- popular among the upper crust—is Because of their examples, most young Man, a story as much about one person’s which is, like its subject, both delight- ment and personality formation ing havoc on our children,” former a full-time nanny with tech-avoid- artists of color are situating their work at grief and desire to connect with another ful and radical; Annihilation, a mystical happen, and their lessons keep Facebook executive assistant Athena ance in their contract. the nexus of power and privilege, using the as about our species’ ambition and desire science fiction experience; Leave No coming back to the importance of Chavarria told The New York Times. In America, the legend goes, words “postcolonialism,” “representation,” to conquer the final frontier. Trace, which respects the personal cost real-world experiences and face-to- Speaking of the effects of dig- even if you’re poor, if you work and “trauma” in their artist statements. The dawning realization, in What of military service enough to critique its face human interactions, especially ital technology on his five kids, hard enough you can become any- These artists exist in direct opposition to They Had, of why Robert Forster steps aftermath; The Happy Prince, Rupert Chris Anderson, former edi- thing you want to be. But to live that the canon of Western art: “Christian” art by out of the bedroom he has shared with Everett’s lament about how artists often Imagination and problem-solving tor of Wired, said, “On the dream, you must have the imagi- European men that has become the stan- Blythe Danner for 60 years, sparing her squeeze creativity from sorrow; and the scale between candy and crack nation to see new possibilities for dard for “good” art, due to gatekeepers who more suffering and loving her until the kinetic and wise Blindspotting, which skills are stunted when kids are raised cocaine, it’s closer to crack yourself and the problem-solving enforce cultural hegemony. end. treats racism and toxic masculinity as cocaine.” skills to figure out how to achieve So when Mutesa pauses in response to A deceptively simple scene—a problems that require neighborhood and educated by screens. Even Bill Gates’ kids didn’t them. Those are precisely the traits my question about her art’s connection to conversation in a car going from one solutions. have cell phones until they that are stunted when kids are raised faith, it makes perfect sense. The question neighborhood to another—that’s a rev- And in Roma, the year’s greatest in the childhood years. To avoid were teenagers, and Steve Jobs’ and educated by screens. itself is fraught with meaning, especially elation of social inequality and how film—and perhaps one of the greatest passivity and mental laziness in kids never played on an iPad while You don’t develop them by watch- now, when our political climate looks like near yet far we live from each other. In films ever made—too many outstanding their children, many high-income growing up. One of the most pop- ing a YouTube video. You’re more one of Hieronymus Bosch’s apocalyptic minutes, Widows covers centuries of moments to count: the babysitter Cleo parents are starting to limit their ular schools among families linked likely to get them from playing made- paintings, in part due to 81 percent of white relationships of power. walking into water to protect the vul- children’s time on digital devices. to the tech industry is a Waldorf up games with your friends, trying evangelical Christians who happily claimed An unexpected funeral in The nerable; the crash of violence amid the Common Sense Media found that school that bans digital technology. to build an improvised go-cart out of a share of the blame for the nation’s current Gospel of Eureka that breaks the audi- mundaneness of buying a child’s crib; the the children of upper-income fami- Its students use paper workbooks scrap wood, or wandering around a woes. ence’s heart and calls forth our loves. beyond-astonishing birth sequence; the lies spent half as much time in front and wooden pencils and look things forest by yourself. The diminishment It’s tradition for artists to rebel against And the titular character Christopher playing of a Spanish-language version of of screens as did children of low- up in encyclopedias. The kids learn of human potential that comes with the way things are and use their work to Robin, who holds Pooh Bear’s hand an iconic English show tune, totally reori- income families. fractions by cutting up food items the loss of those childhood expe- make the world better. But I have seen far as they walk through a field, as though enting the meaning we thought we knew. Several private schools are even into halves, quarters, etc. riences is perhaps the greatest cost too many artists of color put themselves in Terrence Malick is directing the film. “I don’t know how to love him,” dialing back their reliance on digi- But, of course, private of our rush toward a virtual danger by making art that is meant to upset As for the 10 best movies, I’ll nom- sings Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ tal technology. Meanwhile, in many schools like that are expen- world. n white audiences or expose some horrid inate: Isle of Dogs for its invitation to Superstar. But in Roma Cleo teaches the public schools, students are being sive. Keeping kids away from racial history. This sort of work is necessary compassion; Lizzie, a life-affirming rest of us how. n issued Chromebooks or iPads and screens outside of school is, as Danny Duncan Collum but often also ugly or depressing; some of its film because of how seriously it takes shunted into online learning pro- anyone who’s raised children teaches writing at Kentucky creators talk about how their mental health killing; The Wife, a challenging tale of Gareth Higgins is an Irish writer and grams. According to Education in this century knows, incred- State University in Frankfort. suffers for the work. Mutesa is aware of this. personal talent constricted by preju- founder of moviesandmeaning.com and Week, American schools spend $3 ibly labor-intensive. And He is the author of the novel She has created a few works that might dice; and Bad Times at the El Royale, www.irelandretreats.com. billion per year on digital content, labor is never free. A family White Boy. be considered political, such as one that

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Reviewed by Kathryn Post “It’s the quest for power ... that is respon- sible for these attacks,” says Ona, Salome’s ESCAPING THE PATRIARCHY sister, “because in their quest for power, they Women Talking, by Miriam Toews. Bloomsbury Publishing. needed to have those they’d have power over, and those people are us.” n SEXUAL ABUSE is not about Despite this, the novel is sex: It’s about power. a raw, riveting portrait of a Kathryn Post is an editorial assistant of At least that’s what Ona, society where authority lacks Sojourners. the female protagonist of accountability. The women Miriam Toews’ novel Women discuss how the community’s Reviewed by Rhea Williams Talking, insists in the aftermath leaders dismissed the attacks of one of the most horrifying as products of the “wild BEAUTIFUL incidents of sexual abuse in female imagination” and how recent history. Toews’ book is the leaders referred to the BARBARIANS based on true events: Between rapists only as “unwelcome Barbarican, by Mona Haydar. The Most. 2005 and 2009, more than 100 visitors” even after the truth Mennonite women and girls in was uncovered. The lead- SYRIAN. AMERICAN. Muslim. Woman. a remote community in Bolivia ers also denied the women These distinctions of religion, geogra- were raped at night by what they believed counseling because they were unconscious phy, and gender are sometimes considered were demons punishing them for their sins. during the attacks. worlds of their own, but rapper Mona These attacks were perpetrated by men in “The entire colony of Molotschna is Haydar is used to navigating between them the community who used modified animal built on the foundation of patriarchy,” a as a daughter of Syrian immigrants to the anesthetics to drug and rape the women in woman named Salome says. “[T]he women U.S. who grew up in Flint, Mich. Her experi- their own homes. The victims’ ages ranged live out their days as mute, submissive and ences of embodying a multicultural identity Photos by Mimi Mutesa, including “Sunlight is My from 3 to 65. obedient servants. Animals. Fourteen-year- in a country teeming with bigotry are the Favorite Color,” above. Toews’ novel is a fictional account of a old boys are expected to give us orders, to basis of her new EP, Barbarican, a collec- conversation between eight of these women. determine our fates, to vote on our excom- tion of powerful songs that challenge rigid involved sexist quotes from Donald Trump to “obscure the clarity of themselves.” As Toews’ story develops, the rapists are munications, to speak at the burials of our notions about who gets to consider them- painted on the bodies of naked women. But Planted in time and place, the women in imprisoned, other men of the commu- own babies while we remain silent, to inter- selves American and who gets left out and when I bring up such works, Mutesa pivots Mutesa’s images are fully human and pres- nity have gone to bail them out, and the pret the Bible for us, to lead us in worship, called a barbarian. the conversation, saying simply, “There are a ent. They aren’t wearing crosses or reading women—illiterate and unaware of what to punish us! We are not members ... we are Haydar emerged onto the music scene lot of artists that address our systematically scripture, but they look as though, despite it commodities.” in March 2017 when she released a colorful prejudiced judicial system, police brutal- all, they have chosen life. Women Talking is a reminder of Even more disturbing is the music video for her song “Hijabi (Wrap My ity against black men, and disproportional Mutesa said her faith is separate from way the community uses reli- Hijab).” The video featured her, eight months rates of incarceration. I’m so infinitely grate- her art, but I don’t know if that’s true. At the what happens when religion is gion as a vehicle of oppression. pregnant, surrounded by hijab-clad women ful for artists that give their art to that form Christian college I attended, in an upper- From the outset of their conver- as she rapped about diversity and the freedom of activism. But I just want to add some pos- level visual arts class in which students were corrupted, patriarchy is the status sation, the women wrestle with to practice hijab, an often-criticized tradition itivity to the narrative.” required to draw nude models, my professor having to ask their rapists for in the West. Billboard named “Hijabi (Wrap said that drawing is an act of paying atten- quo, and those in power are not forgiveness to ensure their sal- My Hijab)” one of the best protest songs of Care, kindness, and life tion to someone else, an act of humanization held in check. vation: Will they be damned if 2017, creating anticipation for more music And she succeeds: Drawing from the bright where we must recognize the imago dei in they do not reconcile with the from Haydar. With Barbarican, Haydar has colors of her Ugandan upbringing, Mutesa’s those outside of ourselves. lies beyond the boundaries of their com- men who violated them and their mothers, delivered a searing follow-up. work provides some much-needed light If this is the standard for Christian munity—gather to decide between three sisters, and daughters? Opening with the line, “If they’re civ- and perspective. She uses soft lighting and art, Mimi Mutesa certainly meets it. Her courses of action: do nothing, stay and fight, “The twin pillars that guard the entrance ilized, I’d rather stay savage,” Barbarican vibrant hues, highlighting the contrast of images reflect a deep belief in welcoming or leave. As they debate, their dialogue is to the shrine of religion are storytelling and celebrates the colonized, specifically those brown skin instead of melting it into a dark the “other”: They are imbued with a sense infused with theological discussions and cruelty,” Epp observes while the women offer who have suffered from the racist equating background. The series “Triple F Bomb,” of care and kindness. surprisingly dark humor. These conver- supplications. For the women, faith denies of “brown” and “black” to “backward” and which features a quintet of plus-size mod- And if recognizing the imago dei in those sations give insight into the community’s freedom and requires obedience. “barbarian,” and “modern” to “white.” els, calls to mind Peter Paul Rubens’ love outside of ourselves is also the standard for culture, religiosity, and the ways that each Even so, eight women courageously In the song “Barbarian,” Haydar exam- of fleshy figures, while her portraiture in the church, the church would do well to dia- woman copes with her personal grief. decide to show up, speak up, and resist a ines the ways in which colonialism seeps “Sunlight Is My Favorite Color” is an aes- logue with artists like Mutesa. They would Oddly, the voice of August Epp, the meet- patriarchal system inextricably tied to their into the minds of people of color, teaching thetic cousin of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s have a lot to discuss. n ing’s minutes taker and the only man present, faith. Women Talking is a poignant and timely them to hate aspects of themselves. With paintings. dominates Toews’ narrative. This story about reminder of what happens when religion is dynamic beats and catchy refrains, she cre- Mutesa’s photographs do away with what Faith-Marie Zamblé is an artist and writer women resisting a patriarchy gives an unex- corrupted, patriarchy is the status quo, and atively subverts colonialism by using its own Carrie Mae Weems calls women’s tendency in the Chicago metropolitan area. pected amount of attention to a man. those in power are not held in check. words against it. Haydar even fights stigma

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surrounding mental health, by wrestling Reviewed by Julie Polter with both her experience of postpartum depression in her song “Lifted” and her MYSTIC RESISTANCE reaction to the suicide of a friend in “Suicide Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story, written and directed by Doors,” which features singer-songwriter Martin Doblmeier. journeyfilms.com. Drea d’Nur. Haydar has a degree in Christian ethics ONE OF THE most influ- theology and dean of Rankin from Union Theological Seminary, where ential figures in the Chapel at Howard University she studied with black liberation theologian African-American civil rights in 1932. James Cone. She references her degree in movement did not march, Thurman first explored the song “Miss Me,” which features Syrian- organize, or speak at mass ral- pacifism as a spiritual American hip-hop artist and peace activist lies. Mystic Howard Thurman resource as a young man, in Omar Offendum and addresses others’ dis- found spiritual revelation in part through the Fellowship like of her religion. “Praying for your soul nature, championed the use of Reconciliation and the to be saved from white supremacy. But you of dance, theater, and non- Quaker mystic Rufus Jones. always come for me. Masters in theology. traditional music in worship, His commitment to nonvio- White Jesus isn’t saving me.” and incorporated silence in Howard lence as both philosophy and “Miss Me” illuminates a cruel irony: his sermons. But his books, Thurman tactic was cemented during a Even social justice-minded Christians who preaching, and teaching provided vital phil- delegation to India, Burma, and Sri Lanka think they’ve helped to “liberate” the Muslim osophical and spiritual underpinnings for that he co-led in 1935-36 with his wife, Sue woman from stereotypes have just put her the nonviolent resistance methods champi- Bailey Thurman. He was profoundly affected in a new box. She’s only allowed to be an oned by Martin Luther King Jr. and other by the encounter with other religious tradi- activist, only allowed to talk to us about her civil rights leaders. tions and saw parallels between the brutal concerns, when having a Muslim perspective Backs Against the Wall: The Howard British colonial rule and the white suprem- is valuable to our social justice initiatives. Thurman Story, airing on PBS in February, acist power structures underlying U.S. racial In Barbarican, Haydar expresses indigna- is a documentary by Martin Doblmeier, segregation. He met Mahatma Gandhi and tion at white supremacy’s ability to terrorize the award-winning creator of films on discussed the use of nonviolent resistance to the bodies of women of color and later profit faith including An American Conscience, confront oppressive governments. from them. To highlight this, Haydar uses Chaplains, and Bonhoeffer. In this rich, Thurman, however, did not later join the examples of the white celebrity Kylie one-hour portrait of Thurman, civil rights the civil rights movement on the streets, for Jenner’s lip kits, makeup products designed leaders Jesse Jackson Sr., Rep. John Lewis, which he was criticized. His influence was to make lips bigger. In a world where women and others—as well as scholars such as Alton through his books (more than 20 in his life- from “the East” are veiled caricatures that B. Pollard III, Walter Earl Fluker, Luther E. time), co-founding a multiracial church, and eat spiced food with henna-marked hands, Smith, and Lerita Coleman Brown—offer his direct influence on others through aca- the only way our features can be recognized insights on Thurman’s life, legacy, and the demic and pastoral encounters. and celebrated is if they are appropriated by dynamic tension between contemplation Thurman’s later tenure as dean of Boston white women. and social justice. University’s Marsh Chapel from 1953 to Listening to Haydar’s lyric, “They don’t The film’s title is from Thurman’s book 1965 overlapped with King’s doctoral studies want to see me as American,” in the song Jesus and the Disinherited, published in there, although Doblmeier notes that they “American,” I remember times when I 1949—said to have been carried by King were not considered close. But Thurman haven’t felt “Indian enough” or “American and often cited by other civil rights leaders. visited King in the hospital after a 1958 enough.” Haydar doesn’t forsake one of her Thurman wrote: “The masses of [people] stabbing, urging him to take time away for identities for the other, but instead holds live with their backs constantly against the silence and listening. After healing from them in tension, showing that there is space wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the his injuries, King went to India, which was in the world for nonwhite and non-Christian dispossessed. What does our religion say to for him, as it was for Thurman, a journey Americans. She radically centers and nor- them?” pivotal for his commitment to nonviolent malizes the lives of people who live in the Thurman’s lifelong engagement with this resistance. margins. By healing their wounds, she takes question produced wisdom as vital for our Thurman saw the pursuit of justice as their power back from their conquerors. day as it was for his. nonnegotiable. But as Backs Against the Wall “We don’t let them win,” she says in her Born in 1899, Thurman grew up sur- makes clear, he also invited all to rooted EP’s opening track. “We’re beautiful barbar- rounded by the strictures and brutality of spirituality as a source of courage and tran- ians.” n Jim Crow-era Florida. He found spiritual scendence. “All social issues are temporary solace and inspiration in nature from his and brief,” he said. “Go deep.” n Rhea Williams is donor services assistant at earliest days. Education was also a passion. Sojourners. Thurman became a professor of Christian Julie Polter is managing editor of Sojourners.

42 sojourners FEBRUARY 2019 sojo.net VISION

Culture — Reviews — Poetry — Living the Word

LAUREN ANDERSON’S FAITH AND HISTORIC CAREER IS HELPING THE BALLET WORLD PIROUETTE INTO A MORE DIVERSE FUTURE.

July 2019 Photograph by Owen Conflenti sojo.net 39 VISION

Dance On Film New & Noteworthy

way Anderson talks about her life and how it AMONG fits into a larger context. She has a sense that she is positioned exactly where God wants THE her to be. She has a strong relationship with the Link School of the Arts in Michigan, a BRANCHES Christian dance school where she has taught, Retro sounds meet recent dangers in the directed, and choreographed for nearly a album Things That Grow. Backed by Mem- decade. phis rock musicians, songwriter Tracy Howe Anderson is also the founder of the sings of liberation from violence, racism, and Holy Spirit Dancers, a dance ministry at environmental destruction. Soul and gospel her church. Her voice fills with pride as she Spike Lee lift her prayerful words and guide listeners describes to me how one of her now-college- forward on the shared “justice road.” age dancers has taken on the leadership of Just Love Music the dance ministry in her absence. “I wouldn’t change a thing,” she says, re- flecting on the trajectory of her life: marriage, and wrangling and slander, divorce, firsts and milestones, moments close together with all malice, to God and moments far away from God, and be kind to one another, and, of course, her beautiful son. “I thought tenderhearted, forgiving one my purpose in life was to be a ballerina,” she WHAT WE CHOOSE another, as God in Christ has says. “That ain’t have nothing to do with it!” forgiven you.” At age 53, she sees her intent: giving back to This is what Da Mayor her community and loving others. is talking about when he As we talk, she sits in her office at the tells Mookie to “do the right Houston Ballet, where she manages 17 unique By Abby Olcese thing.” However, in almost outreach programs. In addition to overseeing every situation, Lee’s char- those programs, she teaches students in the acters choose to dismiss Houston Ballet’s Learning from the Masters compassion. Instead, they program. give into instincts that gen- But for her, this isn’t enough activity. She “Always do the right thing.” erate tension, injustice, and, also teaches at conservatories in Houston “That’s it?” ultimately, the destruction of and across the country. “That’s it.” a community. When Anderson was 9, she saw company “I got it. I’m gone.” What makes Do the Right members of the Dance Theatre of Harlem Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) and Mookie (Spike Lee) share this Thing so unique is that it A Heart of Wisdom perform at Jones Hall in downtown Houston. exchange in Lee’s filmDo the Right Thing, which turns 30 this contains no monolithic ex- A novel about class, mascu- Black ballerinas have long She watched the legend Virginia Johnson, an summer. Three decades on, Lee’s masterpiece on racism and amples of racism or hatred. linity, queerness, violence, perfected the art of altering African-American woman active in the dance community still stands out for its trailblazing voice. Lee, and Lee shows us characters race, and the refugee expe- pink tights and ballet shoes world during the civil rights movement, move the film that blasted him into broad public consciousness, (white and people of color rience—and a son’s candid to match their skin tones. onstage. “I think when I went to that perfor- continue to inspire powerful work by filmmakers of color, alike) who fail to see each letter to his mother who The night before a class with mance,” says Anderson, “it changed my life.” including Dear White People, Get Out, and The Hate U Give. other as complex human can’t read—On Earth We’re company members of the Decades later, the Grammy-winning It’s undeniable that Do the Right Thing’s bold style and beings and how that failure Briefly Gorgeous, by T.S. Eliot Dance Theatre of Harlem, singer-songwriter Solange witnessed An- perspective are what helped it become iconic. Its depiction generates bigotry. Prize-winning poet Ocean the first black classical ballet derson—then a principal dancer with the of the police killing of black men also remains powerful and, Lee never excuses, nor Vuong, examines the gifts company, pots of water with Houston Ballet—“glissade across the stage,” as it turned out, prescient. The film almost seems to have directly condemns, any indi- and wounds that the world multipleB tea bags boiled on the stove in my home, so I could to quote T Magazine. Solange says it was a predicted events that unfolded 25 years later following the vidual in his film. Rather, he gives in unequal measure. dye my legwear and footwear. It was a process my mother defining moment for her own artistic journey. deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and so many others. tries to help us understand Penguin Press swore by—and it worked. Today, the Holy Spirit Dancers at An- However, the emotional motor of Lee’s film, what makes each of his characters’ per- In November 2018, nearly 200 years after pink ballet derson’s church, the young dancers at the it really stand apart, lies in Da Mayor’s simple moral instruc- spectives. Do the Right Thing Holy Recompense shoes were designed for white dancers, the company Freed of conservatories where she teaches, and the tion—and Mookie’s dismissiveness of it. reminds us that we each con- For centuries, the Bible has London released pointe shoes in colors that match Asian and children in the Houston Ballet programs she Do the Right Thing covers a sweltering summer day in tain the capacity for both val- been used to assault the hu- black skin tones. It’s a step in the right direction, even though oversees are firsthand witnesses of a shift in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and the con- id and wrongheaded ideas. manity of people of color. Un- the ballet world continues to be characterized by whiteness. classical ballet history, in American histo- flicts that arise between its residents. Those involved include Being honest with ourselves settling the Word: Biblical Ex- Lauren Anderson, the first black principal ballerina of ry. They can laugh with, talk with, listen to, Davis’ alcoholic elder statesman, Mookie, Mookie’s friends about that means we can lean periments in Decolonization, the Houston Ballet and the first African American to reach and learn from that change. And what a gift Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill toward compassion, justice, a collection of 70 writings on the rank of principal dancer in the company, transcends *** that is. Nunn), and the pizzeria owner, Sal (Danny Aiello). Aggression and peace. Dismissing it can scripture by justice-minded the bounds of the often exclusive world of classical dance. “I THOUGHT MY simmers between characters of different races and age groups, carry fatal consequences. authors, reclaims power and Her brown pointe shoes are on display at the Smithsonian’s PURPOSE IN LIFE WAS eventually coming to a head in an explosion of violence that significance stolen from In- National Museum of African American History and Culture. TO BE A BALLERINA. Ronya-Lee Anderson (no relation to Lau- escalates into a riot. digenous communities and She is a ballerina, a mother, and a teacher. “I get paid to do ren) is a multimedia artist and educator Throughout Do the Right Thing’s episodic scenes, char- Abby Olcese (@abbyol- other marginalized groups. THAT AIN’T HAVE what I love,” she says gratefully. She is also a Christian. and a graduate of Duke Divinity School. acters are given choices of how to behave, choices that recall cese) is a freelance film Orbis Books I know this not just because our conversation is studded NOTHING TO DO the kind of radical compassion Paul preaches in Ephesians critic and writer based in with words such as “church” and “God,” but because of the WITH IT.” 4:31-32: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger Kansas.

40 Photograph by Owen Conflenti July 2019 Photograph by Wesley Mann / August Image sojo.net 41 VISION VISION

*** Books THE KHALAFS PROVIDE LGBTQ CHRISTIANS SUPPORT AND THE POINT VALIDATION THAT CHURCHES HAVE DENIED FOR YEARS. OF ART The famed medieval “Unicorn Tapestries” By are hidden in a museum at the top of a steep Faith-Marie hill, so I dragged myself up said hill to see Zamblé them. I’ve poked my head into snooty galler- ies, attended plucky DIY exhibitions tucked into bland office buildings, and wandered into an event where dozens of bald CGI women stumbled across a screen while chopped electronica wailed in the background. I’ve seen murals made out of piñata paper, tree sculptures cut out of McDonald’s bags, John written the book Modern Singer Sargent paintings, Gustav Klimt paint- Kinship: A Queer Guide to ings, neo-Renaissance paintings of candy- Christian Marriage. colored cherubs, and paintings of Donald I say “bravely” because, Trump with the words “malignant narcissist” in this beautifully public way, lurking next to his silhouette. I’ve seen a they reveal a lot about their lifetime’s worth of Founding Father portraits. private and imperfect lives. Cultural overwhelm triggered an exis- From painful memories of tential reckoning within me. I find myself reparative therapy and os- asking what the point of all these works of tracization by relatives to the art was, especially in a political time where story of how they found each so much of life feels urgent and frightening. other after failed relation- A common response might be that art ships and struggled to make can exist as a tool for justice amid socie- it to the altar, the Khalafs tal turbulence. This, while true, seems to share much of their indi- miss the point of art more broadly. Art can vidual and shared histories. address inequality, but if that’s all it does, Their mistakes and lessons, it loses the qualities that make it poignant: often conveyed with humor, attributed to queer Chris- its infinite capacity to delight, surprise, provide LGBTQ Christians tian marriages; in Modern inspire, and imagine worlds completely support and validation that Kinship, these sentiments outside of our own. churches have denied for are as abundant as hand The conclusion I’ve come to, with the help years. fans in a Southern Baptist of Audre Lorde’s wonderful essay “Poetry Is The Khalafs could have church. LGBTQ Christians Not a Luxury,” is that the end result, i.e. the limited the contents of Mod- can open the book and see art object, is not the only thing that matters. ern Kinship to just their ex- reflected back theimago dei The impetus to create, to translate one’s ex- periences, but they under- that’s within them and the perience to others, is in itself a political and WHAT GOD Modern Kinship: stand how perspectives of cis people they care for. spiritual act: I would say holy, even. That A Queer Guide to Christian men dominate the culture, “Queer bodies are worth impulse, of loving consideration amid vast HAS JOINED Marriage, by David and obscuring the narratives saving,” the Khalafs write, “... “Artists express things that people don’t nothingness, mirrors the hovering of the Constantino Khalaf and concerns of others. By be they cis or trans; male, fe- have words for; that’s why it’s so im- Holy Spirit in Genesis before the formation TOGETHER including interviews with male, neither, or both; curvy, Curated portant to have them in justice spaces.” of the world. Westminster John Knox Press Christians who are trans, skinny, or muscular; black, With that neat answer, the pan- I don’t mean to suggest that all artists lesbian, and other queer brown, white, or any other elist sits back in her chair, satisfied, are prophets or priests; obviously, artists, identities—and proclaim- shade of skin. Sexual ethics bedazzled nails glimmering in the stage like most people, are susceptible to the wiles ing that the church must, matter because we are all lights. I roll my eyes, then immediately feel guilty. You know of capitalism, racism, etc. But the creative in addition to embracing worthy of respect, honor, you’re in for a rough night when you find yourself side-eyeing a spirit is not limited by the -isms of the world: The church that baptized me and was my spiritual home does queer marriage, “approach and celebration.” Tony Award-winning actress—at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Genuine curiosity cannot be commodified not provide marriage counseling to LGBTQ couples. I doubt singleness as an equally val- As I read those words event, no less—but I can’t help myself. Her answer smacks of the or colonized. An eternity exists in the space it even allows openly LGBTQ people to join its congregation. id life choice”—the Khalafs for the first time, the ice vague, self-congratulatory art-speak I hear on a regular basis, in before the dance begins, before the poet puts This treatment isn’t unusual: For years, many LGBTQ people recognize the humanity and around my faith—the frost which people tell me their work is a “metaphor for capitalism,” pen to paper, before the song is sung, and in have been denied true belonging and dignity in church bodies importance of other lives and of forlornness I had felt ever without any kind of explanation. that eternity lies freedom and possibility. worldwide. Their romantic partnerships have been damned expand Modern Kinship’s im- since my queerness met my To be clear, I often find art-isms amusing and think this This, perhaps, is why we need art. Not by clergy and discredited by loved ones. While heterosexual pact and truth. religion—quickly began to particular actress is incredibly talented. And yet, the question necessarily for its politics, but for its freedom couples have been given pastors’ blessings and guidance, “A good marriage,” they melt. Amen, David and Con- of art and its subsequent teleology remains: Why do we have to say what others dare not: that what exists many LGBTQ couples have been abandoned to the harshness write, “is outwardly focused; stantino. Amen. art? What good does it do? is not all there is. of life’s challenges. it carries a mission and seeks Though the answers to these questions may seem hopelessly David and Constantino Khalaf know this struggle well and to make the world a more obvious to some, they seem hopelessly complex to me—because, don’t want queer Christians interested in finding a partner loving, peaceful place.” Da’Shawn Mosley is culture since moving to New York City a few months ago, I have seen, Faith-Marie Zamblé is an artist and writer to have to figure out the complexities of faith, marriage, and Rarely have I seen so and review editor of So- well, everything. in New York City. commitment on their own. That’s why they have bravely much goodness and potential journers.

42 Alphabet/Good Humor, 1975, Claes Oldenburg / Bridgeman Images July 2019 sojo.net 43 VISION VISION

tale for congregations thrust into the national spotlight. Not only did the church suffer a violent trauma, the community lost its core THE WORLD spiritual leadership in one night, and suffered the consequences of that void. A string of poor YET TO BE Reaching Forever: management of donations, power-hungry Poems, by Philip C. Kolin pastors, and very little, if any, visitation to the bereaved and survivors also left many Cascade Books with a sense that their beloved church was no longer their spiritual home. Tourists filled the pews while survivors chose to worship elsewhere. Felicia Sanders’ bullet-pierced Bible was professionally cleaned and returned to her: “A pinkish hue tinted the gossamer paper Humanity has been reaching ever since Eve put her hand inside.” Sanders held it as she spoke to the out and plucked the forbidden fruit. Since then, our acts man who killed her son, Tywanza. “My Bible, of extension have been plagued far too often with violence abused—abused, torn, shot up. When I look and, in the end, death and despair. Philip Kolin’s new book at the Bible, I see the blood that Jesus shed of poetry, Reaching Forever: Poems, takes on those stretches for me. And for you. ... May God have mercy and examines them with grace. His book is a fresh take on on your soul.” what it means to be loved and loving. Other family members that day called In the poem “God Comes to the Eternal Gate Holiness the killer a “monster” and told him to “burn Church,” Kolin makes short work of people whose reaching is in hell.” While national news celebrated the unsuccessful, via one of my favorite lines: “Bystanders down bond hearing in which forgiveness was spo- country roads reach out to him.” In other words, the spiritual ken to the killer only days after the crime, life is not one for spectators but for those who do God’s will. notes from the sentencing trial reveal that the Then Kolin describes Judgment Day: how God makes a family members “weren’t the homogeneous grand entrance, more splendidly attired than a rock star or group of forgiving people the world wanted royalty. The God who is life encounters God’s people; the them to be.” divine presence begins the great liturgy, the celebration of Grace Will Lead Us Home: In the four years since the Charleston celebrations. “Later that evening he will have brought each THE The Charleston Church massacre, there have been more mass shoot- a rose, and they sigh / Emmanuel.” This is what only the Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring ings and killings in houses of worship and greatest of beloveds can and will do: Gift each believer with DAMAGE Journey to Forgiveness, places where violence is least expected, so the symbol of passion, thus saying in love’s silent language, by Jennifer Berry Hawes many that it’s hard to take in. Grace Will Lead “You are mine.” What a contrast to those whose reach makes DONE Us Home lends flesh-and-blood details to a them only bystanders! St. Martin’s Press community still healing. Kolin writes of another beloved in his poem “Uncle Kenan May God, indeed, have mercy. Praying at Church.” Likely every parish church has a least one Kenan sitting in the back pew, unnoticed save in the eyes of God. The old man’s prayer of intercession is simple: Josina Guess is a freelance writer and “he continues to lift each up / for limitless mercy,” for the worship leader at Jubilee Partners in world speaks “with strange voices.” Finally, the years have Comer, Ga. whittled down Kenan’s prayer into just waiting for the Lord to come for him. “But uncertainty is also a catechism,” says the poem “Au- "And there sat a dark leather-bound Bible Above: tumnals,” which speaks to me with poignant urgency. Like soaked in blood. A bullet had pierced Charleston many people, I take notice when I read news that a person its pages.” survivors died, whether they are young or 71, the age I am approaching. The Bible belonged to Felicia Sand- Polly Sheppard What can I reach for at my age? I wonder. ers, one of the five people to walk out of (L) and Felicia Kolin answers my question: “But keep your reflections Mother Emanuel AME Church alive after Sanders calm—see a pond / become an opalesque canvas.” This is a stranger who had been welcomed to a the poet’s invitation to see deeply and thus live more deeply Bible study shot and killed Rev. Clementa during what years are left to us. Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, While “carpe diem”—seize the day and reach for every AEthel Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sand- opportunity—is wise advice for the young, Kolin’s gentle ers, Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Sin- speech of the “world yet to be” is a reminder that the world gleton, and Myra Thompson. he describes is beyond our reach. It should be, for it is the The quote is from Jennifer Berry Hawes’ new book, Grace greatest of gifts: the final healing of the wound our first Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and *** parents experienced after their misguided choice. the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness. With measured THE POET INVITES prose and journalistic excellence, this book rounds out the US TO SEE DEEPLY forgiveness and grace that have become synonymous with AND THUS LIVE Lou Ella Hickman, a poet, is a member of the Sisters of the Charleston massacre by exposing the outrage, isolation, the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Corpus MORE DEEPLY DURING and bumpy road of grief that followed the deaths. Christi, Texas. This book is also an unexpected study in pastoral care THE YEARS LEFT for trauma survivors and their loved ones, and a cautionary TO US.

44 Photograph by Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images July 2019 sojo.net 45 — ADVERTISEMENT —

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Culture — Reviews — Poetry — Living the Word

ROBERT LAX STILL LEADS US INTO THE HOLINESS OF SILENCE.

In 1948, a hermit was made known to the he wrote (and he wrote a lot), Lax, who died world by another hermit. Like many Chris- Poetry in 2000 at age 84, wanted, according to his tian holy men, the Jewish-born Catholic archivist Paul Spaeth, “to put himself in contemplative and poet Robert Lax had a place where grace can flow.” For Lax in his early spirituality enshrined in a book: the 1940s, New York City was not such a The Seven Storey Mountain, the bestselling place. Though he worked with the poor at autobiography authored by his friend, the Baroness Catherine de Hueck’s Friendship Trappist monkI Thomas Merton. House in Harlem, and had enjoyed jazz “He had a mind naturally disposed from the very cradle to a kind with Merton, he balked at the gaspingly of affinity for Job and St. John of the Cross,” Merton wrote about Lax. fast pace and materialism of the city. He “And I now know that he was born so much of a contemplative that he was also unhappily employed at The New will probably never be able to find out how much.” Yorker. Better known to many for what was written about him than for what In 1962, he packed up and moved to

December 2019 Photo from Beshara Magazine sojo.net 39 VISION

On Film New & Noteworthy

the figure out what Lax should do, what will spir bring him closer to God. He wasn’t trying to make big manifestos or statements.” BLESSED ARE it For Lax, poetry grew out of the same soil as prayer, as meditation. “I believe THE MERCIFUL that in many ways art is an act of love,” he of In Clemency, Emmy winner and Oscar said. His abstract poems, with their verti- peace: nominee Alfre Woodard plays Bernadine cal lines often consisting of a single word, Williams, a prison warden preparing to sometimes a single syllable, empty into the oversee her 12th execution. Viewers en- seek vast white space of silence. A minimalist, ter Williams’ mind as she grapples with he rebelled against our culture of excess it executing another prisoner. A film with and high speed. Lax forced his readers to emotional weight and pertinent themes, slow down and absorb every word and Clemency raises important questions. qui syllable before going to the next. Neon et In his prose poem “21 Pages,” Lax re- live near seats of power, in large cities, or near the bor- l y, flected on a rigorous kind of waiting, the waiting done by the spirit in its dark night. der, the direction of world “When I’m there, you’re there; when I’m ‘IS THIS THE DEATH events feels out of our con- or not, you’re not. If I’m not here, I’m wait- trol, and distant. We won- ing. Try it again: when you’re here, I am OF THE LIGHT?’ der if maybe these prob- gal lems don’t have to affect lop here too, and when you’re not, then I’m not. Where am I when you are not here? us if we don’t want them to. I’m nowhere. What am I doing nowhere? By Abby Olcese Besides, what could we do af Waiting. I’m sitting in (what we’ll call) no- to change anything? where, looking into the dark, and waiting.” A Hidden Life answers ter that question: Even small it The mystery of connecting was some- thing to which Lax was dedicated on every personal actions carry level. Steve Georgiou, a teacher, writer, Terrence Malick has long been associated with spirituality. immense weight, as long at and Lax devotee from California, wrote The director’s philosophy background, poetic style, and as we’re willing to stick Triumphalism love of nature results in art that urges viewers to engage to our principles when The Doctrine of Discovery your extensively about Lax’s method of being: “Always smiling, sometimes faintly deeply with the world: Ask difficult questions, doubt, challenged. The lives of fueled European coloniza- own humming, he would slowly pour me a glass and believe. everyday Christians such tion of Indigenous land and of bottled water into one of the two mugs But A Hidden Life, Malick’s latest, may be the most as Jägerstätter force a continues to support insti- reckoning with faith and most that were usually on the table, and then faith-oriented film yet from the director ofThe Tree of Life tutional racism in America and The Thin Red Line. Through the story of World War the cost of discipleship. today. In Unsettling Truths: natural fill his own cup with equal care. Perhaps nothing would be said at first, but even- II-era martyr Franz Jägerstätter, Malick explores what it Perhaps we should ask The Ongoing Dehumaniz- Greece, then an inexpensive country under the warm tually a sound, a poem, an artwork, or an means to wrestle with Christian conscience during rising ourselves these same deep ing Legacy of the Doctrine Mediterranean sun, where he could disappear among the pace impression would spark an exchange, and xenophobia and violence. Jägerstätter (played by August questions. of Discovery, Mark Charles fishermen and sponge-divers of Kalymnos. For almost 40 there would be a rich flow of meditative, Diehl) was an Austrian farmer executed for refusing to and Soong-Chan Rah de- years the expatriate wrote, prayed, wandered, and drew to —from The constructive thought. Periodic silences swear loyalty to Hitler. For Malick’s purposes, he becomes Abby Olcese (@abbyol- construct this false narra- him spiritual seekers, fellow poets, and Merton enthusiasts Peacemaker’s would follow, to which we both listened an audience surrogate as he encounters his community’s cese) is a freelance film tive of “discovery” and how who, his friend Judy Emery remembers, “would just barge Handbook, almost as if the quiet were a third party reactions to the Third Reich, and later a Christ figure. critic and writer based in it is still espoused today. by Robert Lax into his house,” wanting to engage him in conversation. speaking to us.” Malick spends significant time establishing the beauty Kansas. IVP A World War II conscientious objector, whose final book The man who enjoyed reminiscing of Jägerstätter’s life before the war. We’re given glimpses was titled The Peacemaker’s Handbook, Lax immersed the about his jazz days in New York with Pee of his village and farm, witness romantic moments with Revelation issues of the world in the language of the spirit. Wee Russell and Hot Lips Paige was also his wife, Franziska (Valerie Pachner), and fall in love with Good Things Out of Naza- “Lax already considered himself a pacifist by 1939 or a man who saw the spiritual dilemma of them and their home. reth: The Uncollected Let- 1940,” said Michael N. McGregor, author of the Lax biogra- our age as the inability to slow down, look But, as Hitler’s ideology spreads, Jägerstätter’s neigh- ters of Flannery O’Connor phy Pure Act (2015). “This came mainly from his reading inward, listen, discover the truth of wonder, bors change. The mayor (Jürgen Prochnow) spews nation- and Friends gives addi- about Jesus in the Bible. For him, being a conscientious *** and rejoice in the silent voice of God. alist rhetoric that brings to mind the language of Donald tional insight into the life objector was a spiritual act. The idea that a war may be “THE BEAUTY OF Trump and his supporters. A miller in town desperately and work of this master of just didn’t mean anything to him. He didn’t think it right LAX WAS THAT HE asks, looking into the camera, “Is this the end of the world? the American short story. for an individual, he himself, to kill another individual. Robert Hirschfield is a poet and journalist The death of the light?” Meanwhile, Jägerstätter must Art, ethics, Catholicism, SPENT HIS LIFE “Lax was a very immediate kind of guy. He saw the in New York City whose work has ap- consider: If called to serve in the army for Hitler, what and Southern culture are people at Friendship House doing something that mat- TRYING TO peared in the National Catholic Reporter, will he do? What part can a farmer in rural Austria play *** discussed with depth and the Jewish Review of Books, and other tered, helping the poor, being with the poor. At The New FIGURE OUT WHAT in resisting evil? EVEN SMALL humor. publications. His new poetry collection is WOULD BRING PERSONAL ACTIONS Convergent Yorker, he felt that what he was doing didn’t matter. To The Road to Canaan (presapress.com). There is resonance with how it feels to be a Christian help the poor was something straight from scripture, from HIM CLOSER TO today. We’re experiencing mass migration, climate crises, CARRY IMMENSE God. The beauty of Lax was that he spent his life trying to GOD.” and systemic injustice. But for many of us who don’t WEIGHT.

40 Photograph of Robert Lax on Patmos, in 1986, by Nancy Goldring December 2019 Above: From A Hidden Life sojo.net 41 VISION VISION

*** Books UNIVERSITIES PROCLAIM THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS—AND YET ROOM WITH ALMOST ALL USE THE ADJUNCT SYSTEM. A VIEW ingful work, and sitting like a bird in a glass By tower, detached from the people below, Faith-Marie even less so. Reaching for Turrell’s book, Zamblé which was likely deemed politically neutral enough for an office setting, was an act of desperation and belief that I could still be surprised, awed even. And I was. Turrell first came onto my radar four years ago, when quotations of his work thorough, covering bud- appeared in a music video by the rap- gets, expansion, accred- per-singer-songwriter Drake. I’d never itation, hiring, and the seen anything like it: rooms awash with ambivalence of tenured geometric splashes of light. What Turrell is faculty. Adjuncts offer next big expense was re- most famous for, however, are “skyspaces.” horror stories of scraping vealed: a sleek dormitory Usually a room, either attached to a larger by while waiting on empty with top-notch amenities building or solitary, a skyspace features a promises of an established and a rooftop patio. precisely cut square in its roof that allows position. These stories de- Childress doesn’t ad- you to view the sky above. mand moral outrage. dress religious schools Several Quaker meeting houses fea- Sadly, though, the book specifically, but I squirm ture Turrell’s work because he grew up is a diagnosis, not a pre- at how on point the book scription. Childress offers in that tradition. In fact, he has a piece is for the Christian schools no steps to wean univer- I’ve known. The hypocrisy titled “Meeting,” a callback to his Quaker sities off these vices, but of universities—assured of upbringing. This installation at MoMA PS1, instead says he wants a their own righteousness an exhibition space in Long Island City systemic overhaul, with and yet participating in this affiliated with The Museum of Modern Art, schools articulating and injustice—seems painfully was closed for six months this year, due to a standing by their educa- obvious. Yet almost all use construction company’s infringement into The Adjunct Underclass: How tional mission. It’s a pleas- the adjunct system. the space with scaffolding that ruined the PAYING THE America’s Colleges Betrayed ant, unrealistic dream. Most universities’ great Their Faculty, Their Students, clarity and purity of the sky. These artistic Recently, I heard the fear is that they’ll have to PRICE OF and Their Mission, president of a Christian quibbles seem like the province of eccen- by Herb Childress close their doors. The trics, but as Long Island City continues to HIGHER ED university speak to fac- stakes are larger for those ulty and staff; it echoed A young woman armored in her blaz- Detail gentrify, Turrell’s adamance is a gift. University of Chicago Press who attach themselves to of James Curated er, caffeinated and tethered to the what I’ve heard at many the name of Jesus. When Turrell’s “Aten In an often cluttered and imprecise phone line of a Manhattan hedge Christian colleges. First, Christian colleges pride Reign” artistic landscape, Turrell’s work is deeply congratulating the uni- fund, hardly seems the optimal (2013) themselves on a higher invigorating. His dedication to manipulat- versity for its nobility in audience for an artist whose work mission than the typical ing elements that have no material trace, In The Adjunct Underclass, Herb Childress addresses a educating and spiritually American university, they hinges on stillness and contemplation. And yet—if you saw like light, and limiting what the viewer sees pressing issue of justice in higher education: the mistreat- forming students. Then must accept the responsi- an enormous book of James Turrell’s installations perched while leaving the experiential component ment of more than half the nation’s college instructors. speaking of woes over fi- bility of that promise. Sadly, on your desk, how could you not open it? up to chance, creates the opportunity for Childress explores the making of adjuncts—contract nancial burdens, cast in most Christian colleges do That was my reasoning as I re-encountered Turrell’s beauty and chaos. Most of all, in a city workers (like rideshare drivers) who teach on a class-by- light of the extra load they what they should fear—be- oeuvre, third cappuccino in hand. I didn’t know it then, but predicated on staid conceptions of power, class basis, earning a fixed rate that is less than half what a bear as Christians. Then tray the God on their pam- “full-time” professor would make for the same work. Most Turrell’s artistic framework would provide a new way to think Turrell’s skyspaces allow the opportunity the reminder that everyone phlets for a convenient in- receive no benefits and no assurance of future classes. should be proud of sacri- about New York City. More specifically, his clarity of vision for something like democracy, a chance to justice, and worse, claim After a boom in college attendance 20 years ago and fices they make to be the by their actions that Jesus vis-à-vis light and space stands in contrast to a city replete be amazed by the world we live in. Maybe a with people the critic John Berger describes as “resigned to the foolish assumption that population growth and a city on a hill. The president would do the same. jittery 23-year-old is the perfect audience robust economy were constants, the higher education being betrayed daily by their own hopes.” noted their distinct adver- for such work after all. system is scrambling to make up for greedy mistakes. tising: We attract students, The city that allegedly never sleeps is wonderful in many Whitney Rio-Ross has a The price for those mistakes is being paid by teachers, he said, by offering a quality ways, but by the end of my tenure there I was increasingly master’s in religion and Faith-Marie Zamblé is an artist, writer, who should be concerned about educating students, not Christian education, not literature from Yale Di- overwhelmed by the hustle, noise, and collective anxiety and M.F.A. candidate in dramaturgy and struggling for survival on subsistence wages. And so the contemporary campus vinity School. She teaches around, well, everything. Temping at a capital investment dramatic criticism at the Yale School of real cost is to education itself. gimmicks. Minutes later, as an adjunct in Nashville, firm, while a welcome paycheck, was not my idea of mean- Drama. The Adjunct Underclass is masterfully written and a sketch of the university’s Tenn.

42 Photo courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation December 2019 sojo.net 43 VISION VISION

where she once played and cared for pig- my goats and a horse in the barn, Jim and The Universal Christ: Linda built a cozy, globally inspired retreat A WELCOME How a Forgotten Reality Can center called the Hearth. They wanted to Change Everything We See, REMINDER Hope For, and Believe, bring Krista’s spirit home to comfort the by Richard Rohr weary minds of returning service learners. Linda Hunt’s new book, Soul Space: Convergent Creating Places and Lives that Make a Difference, is a reflection on that experi- ence, one she hopes will help people who Support want to foster a commitment to lifelong community service in the young people Sojourners on they mentor. Adorned with poetry, reci- Wisdom rarely surprises. More rarely does it shock or Giving Tuesday, pes, and photos of the young adults who scandalize. Yet, with The Universal Christ, Richard Rohr, talked, slept, laughed, cooked, and made the Franciscan priest and founder of the Center for Action Dec. 3, 2019 music at the Hearth, the book’s pages are and Contemplation, aims to do both. as beautiful as its stories. He starts with the Incarnation. Was it a startling, Soul Space is a valuable read for anyone once-in-eternity event that explains Jesus Christ’s holi- wondering how to keep the spark of global ness? Rohr suggests instead that the Incarnation is the service burning. The book highlights the fundamental pattern for all creation. We live within, and work of young people participating in ev- are ourselves a party to, this ongoing incarnation—people, erything from microfinance projects in the pets, and poppy seeds alike. Nothing lacks the divine im- new African economy to the mentoring of press. In this worldview, “a mature Christian sees Christ homeless youth in the United States’ most Go to Soul Space: in everything and everyone.” forgotten pockets of poverty and structural To underscore this view, Rohr provocatively disentangles sojo.net/givingtuesday THE Creating Places and racism. It also recounts how the Hearth the modifier “Christ” from “Jesus.” He reserves “Jesus” for Lives that Make a Difference, has served as a place for wedding and baby HEARTH by Linda Lawrence Hunt Jesus of Nazareth. “Christ” is for the Divine Presence that celebrations, extended international family has existed in all things since creation, both before and Tasora Books reunions, and lifelong friendships across after Jesus of Nazareth demonstrated total, unrelenting diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, acceptance of the divine. AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) manifestations of the Christian faith. Soul 1. Title of Publication: Sojourners. 2. Publication No: 0364- Rohr suggests that, following the great schism of Eastern 2097. 3. Date of filing: September 19, 2019. 4. Frequency of Space is a beautiful blueprint for contem- and Western Christianity in 1054, Western Christendom ad- issue: Monthly. 5. Number of issues published annually: plation among Christians who believe that Eleven (11). 6. Annual subscription price: $39.95. 7. Lo- vocated a restrictive view of incarnation, limiting the broad, cation of known office of publication: 408 C Street NE, true faith requires an enduring dedication beautiful Divine Presence to “the single body of Jesus.” By Washington, DC 20002. 8. Same. 9. Publisher—Cynthia to justice around the world. J. Martens, 408 C Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. focusing almost exclusively on Jesus of Nazareth, at the Editor—James D. Rice, same address. 10. Owner: Sojourn- ers, 408 C Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. 11. Known expense of other emanations of the Christ Mystery, Rohr bondholders, mortgagees, and other securities: None. Julienne Gage is a Miami-based journalist suggests we continue to unduly limit the divine. “To help 12. The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this It happens to just about all of us who, in our Above: who investigates economic development us recognize and recover the divine image in everything” organization and the exempt status for federal income The 2018 tax purposes have not changed during the preceding 12 early adulthood, commit ourselves to a life in the U.S. and Caribbean. She was long- months. 13. Publication title: Sojourners. 14. Issue date colleague is, according to Rohr, “the essential work of all religion.” of globally conscious idealism. We run off to time friends with Krista Hunt Ausland. for circulation data below: November 2019. 15. Extent and cohort of Rohr’s theology is not groundbreaking but its impli- nature of circulation: paid subscriptions, U.S. and inter- join a cause, maybe commit to a volunteer the Krista cations are significant. A theology of incarnation urges us national, newsstand, and single copy sales. The average number of copies of each issue during the preceding 12 project for a year or two, come home, and Foundation toward a view where all is seen as one and embraced in love. months: A. Total number of copies printed (net press find ourselves overwhelmed by how to create for Global Belief in the fundamental presence of the divine in all might run)—30,383. B.1. Paid and/or requested circulation: Citizenship Outside-county mail subscriptions including advertiser’s lasting change in a broken world. put an end to triumphal nationalism whereby some claim proof and exchange copies—27,931. B.2. Paid in-county Christian writers Jim and Linda Hunt subscriptions—0. B.3. Sales through dealers and carriers, God as their own. This also has ecological implications. If street vendors, counter sales, and other non-USPS paid struggled with this question in 1998, not we truly believed this earth was imbued with the divine distribution—136. B.4. Other classes mailed through the I USPS—29. C. Total paid distribution—28,096. D.1. Free so much as young people but as middle-age adults, after presence, could we continue to exercise unrestrained distribution by mail: Outside-county—0. D.2. In-coun- their daughter Krista perished in an accident in Bolivia. dominion over her, exploitation for short-term gains? ty—0. D.3. Other classes mailed through the USPS—781. D.4. Free distribution outside the mail—789. E. Total Krista and her husband Aaron were three years into People unacquainted with the great mystics of the free distribution—1570. F. Total distribution: 29,666. G. their marriage and six months into a three-year service Copies not distributed—717. H. Total—30,383. I. Percent church, or raised on a conservative, literalist Christianity, paid—95%. The actual number of copies of single issue project teaching literacy and microenterprise with the may feel that pointing to the divine presence in all of mate- published nearest to filing date: A. 33,748. B.1. 28,134. B.2. Mennonite Central Committee, when the bus they were 0. B.3. 107. B.4. 21. C. 28,262. D.1. 0. D.2. 0. D.3. 975. D.4. rial reality diminishes Jesus’ stature. Of course, others will 3,500. E. 4,475. F. 32,737. G. 1,011. H. 33,748. I. 86%. 16. in plunged off a ravine. *** hear Rohr’s words not as a bolt from out of the theological Electronic Copy Circulation: paid electronic circulation. In 1999, the Hunts decided to create the kind of The average of each issue during the preceding 12 months: ROHR BELIEVES THE blue but as a welcome reminder of a truth they’ve long A. Total number of electronic copies—1,637. B. Total soul-searching community they would have desired for ESSENTIAL WORK OF felt, if not often heard preached. paid print copies plus paid electronic copies—29,733. C. Krista and Aaron’s post-volunteer experience, by founding Total print distribution plus electronic copies—31,303. D. ALL RELIGION IS TO Percent paid—95%. The actual number of copies of single the Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship, a program issue published nearest to filing date: A: 1,617. B. 29,879. Jon Little to support young volunteers during their service and the “RECOGNIZE THE is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn. You C. 34,354. D. 87%. 17. Publication of Statement of Own- can find more of his writing at mindfuldaddy.com. ership: December 2019. 18. I certify that the statements first few years of life transitions that follow. In 2001, in the DIVINE IMAGE IN made by me above are correct and complete. Cynthia J. Martens, Publisher. still-gaping hole of Krista’s absence, in the same backyard EVERYTHING.”

44 Krista Foundation photograph December 2019 sojo.net 45