Artist in Residence - Week 3
APRIL STACE
April Stace is on the faculty of The General Theological Seminary, where she teaches courses in community care and the arts. She earned her Ph.D. at The Catholic University of America in 2014, and has served as a pastor in both large and small parishes. She is ordained as a priest in The Episcopal Church.
April has a background in music and was a professional harpist for most of her adult life, releasing 4 albums with her harp/bass/drums band, Harp 46, three of which spent time in the top ten on the World/New Age radio charts. Her background in the arts informs just about everything she does, including her most recent book, a memoir about her years as a queer, recently-divorced and nearly-broke hospital chaplain entitled White Knuckle Love: A Memoir of Holding. Her previous books, Secular Music, Sacred Space (Lexington Press, 2017) and Crossing Boundaries, Redefining Faith (Wipf and Stock, 2016) received positive reviews and have been used in seminary classrooms.
April lives in New York with her super-queer spouse, Lou (they/them), and her super-insightful son, Luke. She founded a coaching and consulting practice with Lou in 2020, focused on the needs of women and LGBTQ-identified clergy and artists. She’s also an aspiring banjo player and finds a lot of joy in long weekend bike rides.