Hear Full Interview Another production in the books! Honored That’s the only way I can describe the experience of having my play The Chalice produced at the Stonewall Inn. As a Catholic writer, I feel that my voice ought only to be heard in an LGBTQ space with the express permission of the people to whom it belongs. The Stonewall chose to give my play a platform, and for that I am incredibly grateful. Seeing Xavier Theatre, a Catholic theatre company, work... Read more
Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. -1 John 2:9-11 Today I wish to emphasize that the problem of intolerance must be confronted in all its... Read more
The following was presented as part of “A Call to Action,” a salon series of short political pieces from The Skeleton Rep. It was directed by Ria DiLullo and written and performed by me. Because I occasionally do perform things. I want to make one thing clear: I would have gone to D.C. I would have stood up against the casual acceptance of sexual violence, the condescension, the inferiority woman are facing in the near future. But when the leaders of... Read more
As Vice President Mike Pence addressed crowds of supporters at the March for Life, protests raged across the country decrying President Trump’s ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. This executive order includes an indefinite ban on refugees from war-torn Syria. The Vice-President did not mention immigration in his comments to Pro-Life activists, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be on our minds. It is the height of hypocrisy to march for protection of the unborn and ignore the plight... Read more
It’s happened to all of us. Anyone who, by choice or by force, happens to be a regular churchgoer, has heard a bad sermon. I’m not talking about a priest who is a poor public speaker. And I’m not talking about sermons that are too long. I’m talking about the bad ones: the theologically questionable, the offensive, the hateful. The ones that make you question why you keep coming back to this archaic religion anyway. The ones that make you... Read more
Yesterday, I turned 27 on the 27th. The golden birthday. It also, coincidentally, was my very last birthday as Emily Schmitt. I’m getting married in July, and I am going to be Emily Baroz. I’m very excited about this. I want to be Emily Baroz. But I’ve liked being Emily Schmitt a lot. It’s the name I share with my parents, who I’m very close with. It’s the name on my high school and college diplomas, where all my greatest memories were... Read more
It had something to do with the specifics of the demands the protestors were making. One of them required the courts to overturn a previous not guilty verdict, which was the equivalent of double-jeopardy, which I could not support…. Or something. That’s the rationale I gave myself. For not going to the Black Lives Matter protest in 2014. The real reasons were much more personal. Since moving to New York some of the people I have become closest to are... Read more
A few months ago I asked my tech-savy fiancé to create a Facebook filter that would eliminate all mentions of “abortion” from my Facebook newsfeed. Just to clear a few things up, I am not squeamish about women’s issues, despite what this demeaning article would have you think: The One Thing Anti-Abortion Protesters Can’t Handle Hearing. I know I have a vagina, and I take it with me wherever I go. I’m very comfortable with conversations about sex and sexuality and... Read more
Growing up, our Christmas ornaments were kept in tall, round, tins with covered with what scenes of old-fashioned winter villages- the kind you imagine would illustrate an old copy of The Christmas Carol. I have many vivid memories of wrapping my fingertips around the tin lids and yanking them off to reveal what looked like a crumpled pile of old newspapers. But they were our ornaments- each one wrapped in newspaper or tissue, to be opened one by one at the start... Read more
Femina Ferox
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