Shekhinah Speaks: Poems-In-Conversation and a Conversation

Quick Overview

Joy Ladin's new poetry collection "Shekhinah Speaks" explores the feminine imminent aspect of the divine by fusing language from the Book of Isaiah and Cosmopolitan magazine, creating a voice that intimately knows and loves the human "you" while challenging perceptions of self, time, and mortality.

Key Points: Joy Ladin's "Shekhinah Speaks" features 21 poems, one for each Hebrew letter, that give voice to the feminine imminent aspect of the divine by combining source texts from the Book of Isaiah and Cosmopolitan magazine. Ladin structured the book in three sections, progressing from the Shekhinah speaking to an unaware human "you," to convincing the "you" of her intimate knowledge and desire for action, and finally to encouraging commitment to a continuous relationship. Ladin's creative process involved "mushing" chunks of text from Isaiah and Cosmo, aiming for "discourse fusion" where distinct language realms combine into a single utterance, reflecting the Shekhinah's transcendent and imminent qualities. The Shekhinah's voice in the poems aims to evoke a "fear of being seen" and "totally known and still totally loved," challenging the human "you" to accept profound intimacy with the divine. Chase Berggrun's book "Red" is an erasure of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which Berggrun created during their gender transition and active alcoholism, finding the process clarifying. The Shekhinah offers a perspective on death as a human attachment to a limited viewpoint, stating, "you're all alive at every moment to me you're the one who's attached to death you're experiencing it as death because you're attached to this kind of perspective whereas you could identify with me because i am you so why are you choosing to live life under the of mortality when you could just realize that you're a part of this constant aliveness."

Context: Claire Schwartz, culture editor of Jewish Currents, hosts a conversation with poets Joy Ladin and Chase Berggrun. Ladin discusses her new collection, "Shekhinah Speaks," which explores the feminine divine through a unique blend of biblical and pop culture texts. Berggrun shares insights into her book, "Red," an erasure of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The discussion delves into their creative processes, the concept of "trans poetics," and the challenges and revelations of working with appropriated language to give voice to complex identities and divine perspectives.