“I hope there's bread in heaven.”
Collaborator for Gummy Vitamins:M, Teri Quin is seated veiled with Parker washing their feet.
“Bread, a doorway of desire....The hunger is dangerous, with all of her wants. The mouth is dangerous, with all of her tastes.
This is my flesh. Do this in remembrance of me.”
For 45 minutes, Parker made 13 pounds of dough in the gallery while reciting their poetry around desire, spirituality, queerness, and the pains and pleasures of wanting. They exhausted their body, wrestling the dough, adding to it, kneading it, feeling the weight of their own bodily flesh. The show felt even more necessary in the days following the Roe V Wade overturn. At the end of Parker’s segment for the show, they invited 5 individuals from the audience to come and have their feet washed by Parker. At the end of each foot washing cycle, Parker shared a blessing they wrote.
I hope there’s bread in heaven
a 45 minute poetry ritual and meditation on desire being a necessary foundation, fuel, fire for queer spirituality while utilizing the same iconography found within the western christian canon.
”I hope there’s bread in heaven” was part of Gummy Vitamins: M(ysteries) performance at the Queer Narratives Festival, KC in June 2022 at Night Jar Gallery and produced by Rye Lanae Boothe.
Gummy Vitamins: M featured Parker in collaboration with music and performances by Teri Quinn and performance and visual work by Zoe Opal Green. Visual documentation by Jillian Gutherie.
“i bath you in desires.
may all your longings carry you into deep knowings.
may all your dreams be gardens of growth.
may your dreams remain fertile gifts for others.”