This talk is in large part an effort to unravel the contradictions that knit organized religion (specifically Catholicism), substance use (specifically alcohol), and existence outside of cisheteropatriarchal structures (specifically in transexuality) together in an ever turning feud. More practically, these three things are where I find myself divided into pieces, even within their similarities: Wine as the spiritual Drink of Christianity, Christianity as a religion of the Persecuted, transexuality as an almost-mystical departure from the comfort of Worldly acceptance, the Christian tradition of bodily pain and suffering being divinely given, and the Blood of Jesus appearing as wine-like and intoxicating. Despite this all, wine has all but lost its hallowed status and the most outspoken and violent tentacles of organized transphobia, secular or not, profess that they are offering service to God. I believe these points of conflict are temporary and not intrinsic, and that looking into the past and into the future gives us, if nothing else, hope in the Great Rhythms of history always beating towards mutual and profound Love.
Beatrice is from rural Northern California where she grew up on a small organic farm tended to by her father Joseph. After moving to Portland at 17, she continued to spend much of her time around agriculture, specifically the abandoned homesteads and orchard remnants that dot the outskirts of this city, foraging and preserving their bounty. Although simultaneously pursuing a career in science, the political upheaval of the late teens and early twenties showed her that tangible and material sustenance - food and drink - were closer and more actionable paths to the freedom and enlightenment that she was pursuing in academia. Since then, she has devoted herself to wine in all ways she can, working for several harvests for Vivianne Kennedy at RAM Cellars, and in the past year working to start her own project, just a vessel. Beatrice mostly makes wine from the high desert of central Washington, a dramatic place where the holiness of land without water has been broken by human irrigation and monoculture. Currently, she is also working with those same not-quite-abandoned fruit trees that permeate Portland and its surroundings, trying to make wine within community and as far on the outskirts of capitalism as possible. In her free time she writes poetry and waits for God.
This talk is in large part an effort to unravel the contradictions that knit organized religion (specifically Catholicism), substance use (specifically alcohol), and existence outside of cisheteropatriarchal structures (specifically in transexuality) together in an ever turning feud. More practically, these three things are where I find myself divided into pieces, even within their similarities: Wine as the spiritual Drink of Christianity, Christianity as a religion of the Persecuted, transexuality as an almost-mystical departure from the comfort of Worldly acceptance, the Christian tradition of bodily pain and suffering being divinely given, and the Blood of Jesus appearing as wine-like and intoxicating. Despite this all, wine has all but lost its hallowed status and the most outspoken and violent tentacles of organized transphobia, secular or not, profess that they are offering service to God. I believe these points of conflict are temporary and not intrinsic, and that looking into the past and into the future gives us, if nothing else, hope in the Great Rhythms of history always beating towards mutual and profound Love.
Beatrice is from rural Northern California where she grew up on a small organic farm tended to by her father Joseph. After moving to Portland at 17, she continued to spend much of her time around agriculture, specifically the abandoned homesteads and orchard remnants that dot the outskirts of this city, foraging and preserving their bounty. Although simultaneously pursuing a career in science, the political upheaval of the late teens and early twenties showed her that tangible and material sustenance - food and drink - were closer and more actionable paths to the freedom and enlightenment that she was pursuing in academia. Since then, she has devoted herself to wine in all ways she can, working for several harvests for Vivianne Kennedy at RAM Cellars, and in the past year working to start her own project, just a vessel. Beatrice mostly makes wine from the high desert of central Washington, a dramatic place where the holiness of land without water has been broken by human irrigation and monoculture. Currently, she is also working with those same not-quite-abandoned fruit trees that permeate Portland and its surroundings, trying to make wine within community and as far on the outskirts of capitalism as possible. In her free time she writes poetry and waits for God.
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![Reading the Bible Rebelliously (or, How Christianity F*cked It All Up [and How We Can Do Better...Maybe]), (Thursday, October 9th, 6:30-8:30pm), FREE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/629f9f29115cad3ffe068e60/9fd149db-6016-4f4e-af4e-81ba7566a922/967A5168.jpg)
