Shannon TL Kearns

Stories About Shannon

Playwright in Residence at Inge House

The William Inge Center for the Arts is thrilled to welcome Shannon TL Kearns to Independence, Kansas as the summer 2021 playwright-in-residence at William Inge’s boyhood home.
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The Orchard Project Announces 2021 Labs, Projects, and Participants

Shannon TL Kearns will be working on his pilot The Family Unit. When the systems that were supposed to protect them fail, a transgender couple take matters into their own hands by creating a family home for trans and nonbinary teens and patrolling their city at night. But as their family grows, they must adapt to new threats - both physical and ideological.
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7Devils New Play Foundry

"This is the most diverse cohort of playwrights we've ever worked with," says Producing Artistic Director Jeni Mahoney. "They are from around the country, even around the world, and they are going to take us on some amazing journeys together."
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CHRISTIANS COUNTER THE RISE OF ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATION

Sojourners, April 2021
Trans Christians and their allies see affirming gender expression as a “holy endeavor.”
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In Church and in Theater, It’s O.K. to Just “Let Things Be Messy”

Interview in Union Magazine, June 2020
I grew up doing what I affectionately call a lot of church-basement drama—a lot of really terrible theater that was focused on justice issues or on trying to win people over.
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You Are Going To Be More Than Okay

Interview, June 2020
An interview with Catholic Mental Health
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Seeing Himself on Stage

A conversation with Brett Burger, June 2020
Lavender Magazine profile
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Video Interview

Bi-Cities, December 2019
An interview about Uprising Theatre Company
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Announcing the 2019/2020 Finnovation Fellows

Learn more about all of the Fellows and view their final presentations
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Trans artists have seized the spotlight this month

April 2018
It may not be a tipping point, but trans artists have seized the spotlight in an extraordinary month.
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Writer coming to La Crosse for reading

LaCrosse Tribune, Dec 2018
Alternative Truth Project production, performing "The Resistance of My Skin"
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Transgender man will be ordained in Minneapolis

January 2013
Coverage of Shannon's ordination
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Prague Pride Festival

August, 2016
Coverage of the Pride event
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Coverage of Prague Pride talk

Prague, 2016
Gender reassignment? It was like the resurrection of Jesus for me In Czech
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Radio Interview

Prague, August 2016
Listen in (in English)
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A short documentary about his life and ministry:

Podcasts and Interviews

Sacramental Whine: The Holiness of Scars

May 2020
a 27 minute interview.
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Iconoclast

May 2018
An hour long interview
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Becoming the Anarchist Reverend

January 2013
Women's Ordination interview
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Queers the Word

Summer 2020
Coming out loved and supported podcast
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What's Good Man Podcast

January 2020
Masculinity: Fix it? Or forget it?
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Veterans of the Culture Wars

March 2021
Shannon talks to Zach and Dave about his story as a transgender Christian.
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Places Shannon has published

In The Time of Trump, It's Time to Choose by

Slate Project, 2017
I no longer have time to waste on mealy mouthed half acceptance. I no longer have time to hold your hand while you process your grief about your kid’s transition. I no longer have time to do this because people are literally dying (and your kid who is transitioning but who is very much alive isn’t one of them).
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A Strange Calling – The 1st Old Catholic Transgender Priest

The Salt Collective
The story of how I became the first transgender man ordained to the Old Catholic priesthood is a complicated one. I grew up a fundamentalist evangelical in a rural part of Pennsylvania. Church was my life.
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I Don't Need To Be Hyper Masculine

Geez Magazine, Summer 2018
In the Gender Flex Issue
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My Physical Form Is A Chapel

Geez Magazine, Fall 2011
I grew up in a tradition with damaging teachings on the body. I was taught that the spirit is holy and the flesh is evil, so when I began to hate my body it seemed like the right thing to do.
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Collars and Queers

Huffington Post, 2016
As a transgender man I quickly realized that when I smiled at a child in a store what was once seen as innocuous now carried a hint of threat.
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We Desperately Need a New Conversation on Homosexuality and the Bible

Huffington Post, Dec 2017
Over the past 10 years I have found myself doing two things over and over: Coming out and having conversations about the so-called “clobber passages” relating to homosexuality and the Bible.
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Locate The Margins

Geez Magazine, 2021
In the Worship and Anarchy Issue
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Reviews of Shannon's Work

A Mature and Brilliant Journey into Transgender and Lesbian Struggles

“Twisted Deaths” at Phoenix Theater April 2018

by John Townsend

Shannon TL Kearns has written what may be the most masterful play to date about the transgender experience. Not to mention its rich insights into a lesbian relationship. And I mean right up there with the 2003 groundbreaker I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright.
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Queer Content and Creativity Shimmered Throughout the 2018 Twin Cities Theater Scene

Lavender Magazine, Dec 20, 2018
One of this year’s most noticeable developments was that some of the best queer-themed playwriting of the decade was done right here in the Twin Cities by small, humble theater troupes—the Flannel Mafia Group and Uprising Productions.
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Uprising Theatre Company’s Twisted Deaths Tackles Death Head-on

By Eli Effinger-Weintraub, April 2018
Twisted Deaths is a difficult play, because it’s about difficult topics, but rest assured that you will be in good hands the whole way through.
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