The Mormon Feminist Poet Mitt Romney for President Road Show Farewell Tour This session is a performance-reading of Joanna Brooks’s Mitt Romney for President Road Show Farewell Tour, a seven-poem cycle commemorating the primaries and examining Mitt in all his humanity as a personification of our Mormon moment. These unforgettable poems explore Mormon politics, identity, …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2008
Living the Questions: Loving the Mysteries
Living the Questions: Loving the Mysteries ‘Be patient with all that is unresolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves.’ Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926 Are you a ‘without-a-shadow-of-a-doubt’ believer? A 100 percenter for all church teachings? If your answer is ‘Well, not really’ or even ‘Heck, no’, do not despair. Hold your head …
Mormon Nudists: Naked and Not Ashamed
Mormon Nudists: Naked and Not Ashamed With extreme policies on wearing temple garments and dressing modestly, the LDS Church seems an unlikely spawning ground for a subculture of nudists. Yet they exist, and in greater numbers than most people probably realize. D. Michael Martindale, a prominent activist for naturism, will present the rationale, spirituality, and …
Paper 1. ‘African American Elders of Boston: Q. Walker Lewis, Enoch L. Lewis, and President Joseph T. Ball’ & Paper 2. ‘William McCarey (Alias Wm. Chubbee); Or The Magic Mulatto in Mormon Country’
Paper 1. ‘African American Elders of Boston: Q. Walker Lewis, Enoch L. Lewis, and President Joseph T. Ball’ & Paper 2. ‘William McCarey (Alias Wm. Chubbee); Or The Magic Mulatto in Mormon Country’ While Mormon historians have focused mostly on Elijah Abel, there is evidence that as many as seven men of African descent held …
Comedy. ‘What Should Wives Really Know?’ and ‘I Just Want to Bare . . . ‘
Comedy. ‘What Should Wives Really Know?’ and ‘I Just Want to Bare . . . ‘ Following a quick lunch, join the delightful Becky Linford on a trip into two classic arenas for LDS comedy: self-improvement books and stuff that happens (or is said to have happened) in church meetings. Inspired by recent discussions among …
Randomly Deleted Files: Stories and Poems from the Mormon Unconscious
Randomly Deleted Files: Stories and Poems from the Mormon Unconscious Like strangers on a train, you are invited to board this fast-flying vestibule of intrigue, danger, and comic coincidence. Two fiction writers and two poets read from their works-speeding us on a white bullet through patient, poverty-stricken, and opulent India; on into the recesses of …
Digital Dutch Saints
Digital Dutch Saints This session will explore the digital, progressive, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, ecumenical dialogue facilitated by the English/Dutch Restorations/ Herstellingen weblogs at www.mvgcontact.org/Restorations.htm on the independent Dutch Mormonen voor Vrede en Gerechtigheid (Mormons for Peace and Justice) website. Its two bloggers include a Dutch LDS member living in the U.S. and an American Community of …
Ecclesia Mortis: Why Are Church Meetings So Boring?
Ecclesia Mortis: Why Are Church Meetings So Boring? Just as parents bring toys and Cheerios to entertain their children at church, I bring the adult equivalent: essays, books, note pads. But why are church meetings so boring? Why don’t they engage? Is it my fault, or is there something more systemic about the dull monotony? …
Heavenly Mothers: Magick, the Divine Feminine, and Homebirth in the Mormon Community of North America
Heavenly Mothers: Magick, the Divine Feminine, and Homebirth in the Mormon Community of North America Mormons are a distinct community which kept homebirth alive throughout the twentieth century while nearly all other U.S. women were coerced into birthing in hospitals. In this session, I will heuristically explore an interesting commonality within this culture-homebirth and celestial …
‘My Soul Delighteth in Plainness’
‘My Soul Delighteth in Plainness’ As a non-Mormon, but one who has been very involved in all things Mormon for more than twenty years, I’ve become aware of the difficulties of reconciling various aspects of the Mormon faith. When Nephi states that his ‘soul delighteth in plainness,’ one must wonder just how he defined ‘plainness.’ …