Elijah Burger

Elijah is a poet, theatre-maker, and educator based on Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Nonotuck land in so-called Northampton, Massachusetts. Favorite recent projects include playing Shabbtai Tzvi (the “false” Jewish Messiah of the 1600s) in the immersive production of Shabbtai Tzvi at the Yiddish Book Center; playing the lead cashier in the local television production of Customers from Hell; and helping to co-imagine the People’s Puppet Parades. They are currently developing Esther's Story, a reimagining of their ancestor's Holocaust narratives, interweaving poetry from their Great-Grandmother, diary excerpts and fiber art from their Great-Aunties, and puppetry from their mother.  They graduated recently from Sarah Lawrence College where they received the Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry. They like to write silly songs about the natural world to sing with their friends, like The Worm Song. They are passionate about the ways that theater can interrupt generational trauma and help strengthen the fight for collective liberation.