Help Max Get Their MFA

My name is Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus. I am a poet, a playwright, a theologian, and a drag artist. I am artistic director and co-founder of the House of Larva Drag Cooperative  I studied Theatre, Classics, and Critical Identity Studies at Beloit College for my undergrad. I moved to Saint Paul in 2016 to live with one of my best friends Allison Jones. After a year working Americorps, I started a job at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and, shortly after, enrolled as a student. Throughout the years, I became involved with Pangea World Theater's through their Arts Organizing Institute and with ARC (Arts|Religion|Culture) through their Emerging Leaders Fellowship. I have gotten to learn from so many arts organizers, mentors, and peers. In turn, I have become a mentor for other art makers. I have organized one acts full length shows with guest artists, helped organize arts lunches and salons, hold theatre and healing workshops, teach transgender and queer theatre workshops, and offered a variety of programs online amidst covid-19. 

 

During the pandemic, I graduated from United with an MA in Theology and the Arts, where I received the Hortense MacLeod, Jerilyn Dinsmoor and Patsy Herbert Award For an Arts and Theology student whose thorough engagement, intrepid whimsy, and theological ‘out-of-the-boxness’ added spice to seminary life and provoked creative theological conversation and action at United and beyond." This award captures how I hope to be in community: a creative, encouraging, playful, and passionate voice for social change. I use art to talk about abuse and power, gender and religion, race and culture, history and the future. And I use play to open up new worlds of possibility.

 

But doing this work has also been a struggle. It is difficult to carve out a career that does not fit within main stream parameters. More so, Covid-19 has made it especially hard for us in the performing arts to work, to grow, to connect, to build out our lives. Despite some incredible opportunities and "wins", the last two years have continued to throw stumbling block after stumbling block my way. I have only been able to get where I am and gain the confidence to continue because of the community around me. 

 

It is now November 2021, and I am about to take a big leap. A week ago, I was accepted into the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College.  This program values whimsy, experimentation, boundary-breaking, and community. It will help me grow as a teacher, mentor for other artists, and as an artist myself. It is also a low residency program, so I will not have to move and cut off the important support sytem I have here in Minnesota. But it is a dauntingly expensive program at about $50,000 for the two and a half years, with very little funding in financial aid from the school. Indeed, across the nation, there are not many funding opportunities for the likes of this creative, experimental, community-centered program. My peers, teachers, friends, and family, helped point me in the direction of pursuing an MFA. Now, I am humbly asking for you to help me raise funds for my tuition.

 

Already, some dear community members have begun to sponsor my enrollment at Goddard. My local fairy-godparents are graciously offering $5,000 per year, covering a third of my expenses. My wonderful parents are also chipping in another significant chunk. As for me, I am applying to grants, applying for outside scholarships, and good old fashioned hustling with gig after gig. But I am not able to cover the the remainder of the cost and cannot afford to take out more student loans. I start the program in January 2022. If you believe in my potential as an artist and teacher and can afford to, please donate to my GoFundMe. Any amount helps

Than you with my whole heart,
Max.