Dan Vera

Dan Vera is the managing editor of White Crane Journal and a founding director of White Crane Institute. White Crane Institute promotes the study of the role of unconventional or queer sexualities and gender orientations in the evolution, psychology, sociology, and practice of spirituality, ritual, and religion.

Dan was born in South Texas and has lived in Colorado, Washington State and Chicago. His areas of academic study and degree are in history, anthropology, theology, and justice & peace studies. He is the academic product of Southwestern University and Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.

When Dan was in his early twenties Pablo Neruda whispered in his ear and his world went technicolor. Consequently he's had a hard time seeing in black and white ever since. A writer of poetry for over ten years, his poetry has been featured in Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God's Grace in an Inclusive Church, DC Poets Against The War: An Anthology, Red Wheelbarrow, and Raddish and the chapbook, Crepusculario. His poetry has also been featured on Pacifica Radio's nationally broadcast Democracy Now program. He is a founding member of Brookland Area Writers & Artists and a member of the Triangle Artists Group and Poets Against the War.

Dan has worked in advocacy for working poor and homeless people in Denver, Colorado, and as field director and trainer for the LGBT-welcoming Reconciling Ministries Network in the United Methodist Church. In 2000 Dan authored the groundbreaking statement "United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church" which lead to the the first denominational people of color organization for LGBT inclusion, which he served as director.

He has served as poetry editor for RFD magazine. His interests include cooking, gardening and occasionally walking the dog. He lives in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC with his fere Peter Montgomery and their operatic dog Roofus. Dan is active with the DC Radical Faeries and All Souls Unitarian church in Washington, DC.

White Crane Institute’s goal is to foster the gathering and dissemination of information about the critical role sexuality and gender have played and continue to play in the development of cultural, spiritual and religious traditions and to provide a nurturing environment for the continuation and expansion of those explorations for the greater good of all society.

This Tejano Cubano Radical Faerie poet has been a contributor to White Crane since 1998 and oversaw its redesign in the Summer of 2003.

(This biographical statement provided by Dan Vera.)

Biography Date: June, 2004

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