{"id":805,"date":"2025-10-17T11:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/?p=805"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:35:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:35:50","slug":"drag-opera-nights-social-justice-organizing-and-sunday-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/17\/drag-opera-nights-social-justice-organizing-and-sunday-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Drag opera nights, social justice organizing and \u2026 Sunday service?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

55 Washington Square S represents much more than another building students pass on their way to class. Adorned with pride flags and Black Lives Matter banners, <\/span>Judson Memorial Church<\/span><\/a> has been a gathering place for artists and activists for over a century. Today, it continues to be a hub for social justice advocates and radical art, offering everything from drag operas to interpretive dance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Located across from NYU\u2019s Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, Judson owned its entire block when it first opened in 1893 \u2014 but as the university bought up more of its surrounding property, it faded into the background, pastor El\u00e6 Moss Benedetto told WSN. He said that on the other side of its stained glass windows, Judson aims to be home to three things: unfettered creativity, radical social justice and expansive spirituality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The church is especially well known as a space that fosters unapologetic experimentation in the arts. Hundreds of uniquely artistic events take place each year under Judson\u2019s roof on a nearly nightly basis, often for free or at low cost, including a <\/span>drag opera<\/span><\/a> that opens on Oct. 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know how to be a church unless we have artists and organizers and activists coming in,\u201d Reverend Micah Bucey, the church\u2019s senior minister, said in an interview with WSN.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Bucey, who uses the church\u2019s identity as a haven for queer artists, the protected space is particularly important now that the LGBTQ+ community is facing heightened <\/span>political scrutiny and violence<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe think of artists as potentially serving as modern-day prophets,\u201d Bucey said. \u201cWe think that what Jesus was doing, what the prophets of the Hebrew Bible were doing \u2014 they were justice-minded spiritual performance artists, and that essentially they were using performance art to organize a spiritual, creative, justice-minded revolution.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Judson partners with groups like <\/span>Faith in Harm Reduction<\/span><\/a> to offer harm reduction-focused resources for community members struggling with addiction. The church also regularly hosts local activist groups such as the <\/span>Black Trans Liberation<\/span><\/a> collective, which offers free food and community spaces to trans and gender nonconforming people of color. But prioritizing marginalized communities has <\/span>long been a cornerstone<\/span><\/a> of Judson.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the church was first built, founder Edward Judson worked to serve its surrounding community of Italian immigrants living in nearby tenement housing. The Judson Health Center, founded in 1921, was one of the country\u2019s first community health clinics and later offered abortion referrals and care to people facing unwanted pregnancies, years before the procedure was legalized in the United States. Judson was also a founding member of the <\/span>Clergy Consultation Service<\/span><\/a>, a network of faith leaders supporting people seeking reproductive care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over 130 years later, these values remain at the forefront of the church\u2019s mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bucey himself was recently arrested while <\/span>protesting<\/span><\/a> outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center at 26 Federal Plaza \u2014 an act of resistance he said aligned with his role in the church.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend was like, \u2018They\u2019re saying that you\u2019re just a paid protester,\u2019\u201d Bucey said. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018I am a paid protester. It\u2019s called being a minister.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Benedetto, Judson\u2019s strives to act as what he calls the organ of Washington Square Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt wants to serve the park \u2014\u00a0it wants to serve people who come here,\u201d Benedetto said. \u201cI do feel like Washington Square Park is like the peaceable kingdom, in a way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In that way, Judson serves as a welcoming venue for the nearby park\u2019s artists, activists and creatives while keeping its longstanding commitments as a religious space. Inside its doors, worshippers gather around tables laid with baskets of bread, plates of fruit and cheese and pitchers of grape juice on the first Sunday of every month. They sing a mix of traditional hymns and modern songs, and listen to both the reverend preaching from the pulpit and members of the congregation sharing stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its core, the church and its diverse array of art initiatives, activist work and weekly services embody a radical hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJudson has always understood itself as what they call \u2018a church for the world,\u2019\u201d Bucey said. \u201cWe are a church for the people who are not in it.\u201d \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Sam Donagi at culture@nyunews.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

This story Drag opera nights, social justice organizing and \u2026 Sunday service?<\/a> appeared first on Washington Square News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

55 Washington Square S represents much more than another building students pass on their way to class. Adorned with pride flags and Black Lives Matter banners, Judson Memorial Church has been a gathering place for artists and activists for over a century. Today, it continues to be a hub for social justice advocates and radical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goldentriangledelhiagrajaipur.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}