Jack Amos Holloway (he/they) is a writer, music producer, film director, activist, minister, and dog-sitter based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of Hands of Doom: The Apocalyptic Imagination of Black Sabbath, and is also Founder and Creative Director of Morbid Instinct, a film and music collective. Jack sings, produces, and plays lead guitar in The Heavens, he plays bass in Chthonic Rites, and he has over a hundred original songs to his name. He wrote and directed a short film called The Prisoner, and he promotes and organizes for prison abolition under the name Act for Abolition.
Jack is an elder at Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where he hosts Despair Sanctuary, a nighttime drone music vigil that provides space for anyone experiencing despair to hold negative emotions in community with others. You can read about Despair Sanctuary in Harper's Bazaar. Jack has also served on the Anti-Racism Committee of the the Metro-New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and preached at a friend's congregation in Esslingen, Germany, named Johanneskirche.
Jack received a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 2018, and a Bachelor of Arts from Regent University in 2013. His master's thesis looked at two leading anti-fascist thinkers of the 20th century (Theodor Adorno and Karl Barth), putting critical theory in conversation with liberation theology. At UTS, he studied with such legendary scholars as theologian James Cone, philosopher Cornel West, and Old Testament expert Phyllis Trible.
Jack's research interests range from philosophy, religion, literature, and science, to art, music, comics, and film. He has written and edited for academic journals, presented papers at over a dozen conferences, and also served as Secretary-Treasurer for the International Society for Heresy Studies. He has contributed online articles to the Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, Popular Culture and Theology, Narrative Muse, Directed by Women, and And Philosophy.
Born in Portland, OR, Jack spent most of his childhood in the area southeast of Seattle, WA, but has also lived in southern California, southwest Florida, and Richmond, VA. He took the middle name "Amos" to signify his commitment to prophetic witness and speaking truth to power.
Having been inspired to activism by the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of Eric Garner's murder, Jack regularly protests, marches, and organizes. He volunteered as a researcher for the activist group Black Womxn's March, as a music teacher for the youth development services center The Door, and as a fundraiser for both the Prison Library Support Network and a local political campaign for NYC Councilwoman Sandy Nurse.
Jack married his partner, Debbie, in 2013. She is a writer, editor, music teacher, minister, gardener, and zero-waste expert. Together they make quite a team, and are invested in many of the same pursuits.
Beyond his academic, artistic, and social work, Jack walks dogs in Greenwich Village, and has many dog pals. He is also a gardener and baker in his spare time.
Follow Jack on Instagram @jack.amos.holloway