INTERVIEW COLLECTION

Micah Bucey (he/they) is a minister at Judson Memorial Church, the author of newly released "The Book of Tiny Prayer," and a queer activist and educator. In this interview, Micah tells Fordham's Dr. Carl Fischer about his passion for the the arts, his immigration advocacy, and his dedication to constantly queering the way we think about Church, God, and ourselves. Micah talks about their upbringing as the child of a minister in the United Methodist Church, their journey to Fordham University to study theater and theology, and their eventual enrollment in Union Theological Seminary, where they found their passion for queering the way we do Church. Micah also talks about his decision to join the United Church of Christ, to pastor at an open and affirming congregation at Judson Memorial Church, and to pursue education for those churches which have not yet reached "open and affirming" status within the UCC. Micah also discusses their recently published book, "The Book of Tiny Prayer: Daily Meditations from the Plague Year," and how writing tiny prayers on Twitter helped them reconnect with themselves and others during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ben Katz is an activist, a postdoctoral associate in clinical psychology, and the co-founder of Shoval, an Israeli organization dedicated to providing LGBTQ+ education to religious schools, communities, organizations, and institutions. In this interview, Ben tells Fordham's Dr. Orit Avishai about his own experience growing up in an Orthodox Jewish community and how his faith and religious upbringing affected his experience coming out as a gay man in his twenties. Ben weaves stories about his own experience growing up queer together with stories about other queer people in Orthodox Jewish communities to show the breadth of experiences Jewish members of the LGBTQ+ community have when coming out as queer. Ben also discusses the educational activism on which Shoval is focused, how the organization is able to reach even the most conservative members of the Orthodox Jewish community, and gives advice to young queer people who are seeking to reconcile their identity with their faith.

Manuel Carrion-lira and Antonio Catrileo are Mapuche writers, activists, teachers, and graduate students who work towards representing an indigenous future that is non-reproductive and de-centers settler-colonial, heterocentric points of view. As a queer, two-spirit collective, Manuel and Antonio produce art and poetry that reflects their identities and experiences as queer Mapuche people, living in Chile and, later, in the United States as they pursue PhDs at the University of California San Diego. In this interview with Fordham's Dr. Carl Fischer, Manuel and Antonio discuss their connection to the indigenous land of the Mapuche people, how they conceive of communities of indigenous queer people across cultures as a "constellation" of kindred spirits, and connecting to elder activists to find community in unexpected ways. They also discuss indigenous ways of doing radical politics and their different ways of thinking about their queer identities.