Author: Juda Bennett

Author Juda Bennett presents a one-act play, interpreting passages from his new book, "Qtopia: A Memoir of Love, Land, and Liberation," through a staged reading with two actors.

Following the performance, the author discusses the format of presentation, contextualizing it with respect to the transition in the world of book promotion, which has moved from traditional readings to author discussions and how a wholly new format, the book-as-enacted presents a new alternative.

About the Book (from the publisher):

In the 1970s, while communes bloomed like wildflowers across the land, most had no room for queer members. The so-called counterculture still clung to heterosexual norms, even as it preached freedom from traditional gender roles and the nuclear family. Juda Bennett’s engrossing memoir follows his escape from suburbia into the back-to-the-land movement—and chronicles the efforts it took for him to “drop back in” to mainstream society and the ways in which he and his compatriots continued to honor their communal vision.

After enduring the hollow promises of “progressive” communes, Bennett finally found what he didn’t know he was looking for at Lavender Hill, a rural queer commune of visionaries carving out a life beyond heteronormativity, beyond capitalism, beyond shame. They didn’t just survive; they built something messy, luminous, and defiantly alive. And when the commune began to unravel, they didn’t vanish. They evolved. "Qtopia" is a story of chosen family and radical transformation. It is a reminder that queer utopia isn’t behind us—it’s still out there on the horizon, singing its song of joy, defiance, and fabulousness.

About the Author: 

Juda Bennett, a professor emeritus of English at the College of New Jersey, is the author of four academic books and numerous essays, short stories, and poems. He is a coauthor of the group memoir "The Toni Morrison Book Club."

Photo Credit: Kurt Eggering

Presented by the library's Public Humanities Initiative. Public Humanities programs are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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