Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
2011 - Homecoming at The Gathering
Our theme this year is - "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE".
Anytime fancy words like "Metaphysical" are trotted out, I start limbering up for some mental gymnastics. To be sure I knew what I was talking about I went and looked up "Metaphysics" in the Dictionary:
Anytime fancy words like "Metaphysical" are trotted out, I start limbering up for some mental gymnastics. To be sure I knew what I was talking about I went and looked up "Metaphysics" in the Dictionary:
- Metaphysics - "the philosophical study of the nature of reality, concerned with such questions as the existence of God, the external world, etc".
Wow! There is nothing I love more than ruminating about the nature of reality. But to be honest, I have floundered a bit with the abstraction of this theme until I was inspired at dinner tonight.
During her introduction, Charlotte Ravioli mentioned how Keystone College President Dr. Edward G. Boehm, Jr has fostered a greater awareness of the school's history. Specifically that in 1868 the founders of Keystone Academy chose to start the school as a memorial to all the souls from this area that did not return from the Civil War.
MEMORY + GRACE = STRUCTURE
- MEMORY The memory of those who did not return home
- GRACE the kindness of those remembering the ones they lost
- STRUCTURE brought this school and this event into being.
Through the farsighted kindness of those remembering their loved ones a far reaching legacy emerged - Keystone College.
This may be an overly literal interpretation of our theme this year, but it works for me.
How do you interpret the theme of "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE"?
This may be an overly literal interpretation of our theme this year, but it works for me.
How do you interpret the theme of "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE"?
Please feel free to comment.
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Gathering 2011 Blog has a New Home!
Navigate over to TheGatheringAtKeystone and join in on the fun for 2011 Gathering!
We are launching a group writing exercise. The Gathering, July 14-17, 2011 is coming soon, but perhaps not soon enough for some of us. The theme “Physical and Metaphysical Home: Memory, Grace and Structure” offers much fodder for those with an active imagination.
With the intention of enjoying and connecting with each other prior to those anticipated days in July, let's write a short story together.
How it works:
1. Respond to the prompt below by posting a comment on the Gathering Facebook Fanpage.
2. Read the responses others have posted on Facebook and click on “like” for the ones you like
the best.
3. After a review period we will close for voting and amend the story with the most popular
selection, adding it to the text body (on the Gathering blog)
4. The next prompt for input is posted for commentary. (rinse and repeat and soon our shared
story has emerged!)
We are launching a group writing exercise. The Gathering, July 14-17, 2011 is coming soon, but perhaps not soon enough for some of us. The theme “Physical and Metaphysical Home: Memory, Grace and Structure” offers much fodder for those with an active imagination.
With the intention of enjoying and connecting with each other prior to those anticipated days in July, let's write a short story together.
How it works:
1. Respond to the prompt below by posting a comment on the Gathering Facebook Fanpage.
2. Read the responses others have posted on Facebook and click on “like” for the ones you like
the best.
3. After a review period we will close for voting and amend the story with the most popular
selection, adding it to the text body (on the Gathering blog)
4. The next prompt for input is posted for commentary. (rinse and repeat and soon our shared
story has emerged!)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Falling back to Earth at Spring Hills Farm
A wonderful tradition of the Gathering is to conclude the weekend’s worth of events with a brunch at Spring Hills Farm, a working organic farm that nurtures maple trees, chickens, sheep, Christmas trees and artists.
We all sat together to break bread for the last time. Old and new friends shared their favorite parts of the weekend and speculated about what art might come from the inspiration of the last few days.
The 2011 Gathering will be held from July 14 to 17
Suzanne Fisher Staples shared the exciting line up for speakers next year:
Peter Bohlin - Architect
Witold Rybczynski - Memoir, Architect, Urban Planner
Craig Nova - Novelist
Ted Kooser - 13th Poet Laureate
Susan Cooper - Writer, Filmmaker
When the food was eaten and we came to that reluctant time for goodbyes Thomas Hamilton literally and figuratively blew us away with a closing benediction on his saxophone. Simply sublime.
We all sat together to break bread for the last time. Old and new friends shared their favorite parts of the weekend and speculated about what art might come from the inspiration of the last few days.
The 2011 Gathering will be held from July 14 to 17
Suzanne Fisher Staples shared the exciting line up for speakers next year:
Peter Bohlin - Architect
Witold Rybczynski - Memoir, Architect, Urban Planner
Craig Nova - Novelist
Ted Kooser - 13th Poet Laureate
Susan Cooper - Writer, Filmmaker
When the food was eaten and we came to that reluctant time for goodbyes Thomas Hamilton literally and figuratively blew us away with a closing benediction on his saxophone. Simply sublime.
Dava and Billy talked to eachother and we got to watch!
The morning conversation between Dava Sobel and Billy Collins gave us another dose of their wit and insight.
Top 10 intriguing things I heard this morning in no particular order
1. Billy Collins likes applause.
2. Going to see Tintern Abbey is a requirement if you have ever taught English literature. It is well worth the trip and by the way it is in Wales. (which would make a good Jeopardy question because most people think its in England.)
3. There are only two kinds of fiction stories – they went on a long journey or a stranger came into town.
There are only two kinds of science fiction stories - We went to them or they came to us.
4. Writers envy of other writers is a naturally occurring phenomena and often serves as a motivator for creativity.
5. 83% of modern poetry is not worth reading. The remaining 17% is great.
6. Facebook threatens our ability to construct artful and grammatically correct prose.
7. Poets are not likely to struggle with work life balance because a lot of being a poet requires sitting around and looking out the window.
8. Although poets seem to have the work life balance thing worked out pretty well, they still have it harder than other kinds of writers because they are confronted with the empty page more often. This leads them to having a slightly higher rate of suicide than other writers because they think things like "There is a limited reservoir of creativity doled out to each writer and one day you may wake up and never be able to write anything worthwhile again."
9. A trick to writing poetry or other things is to be quiet and open to the world unfolding around you.
10. Dava Sobel fell into being a science writer backwards.
Top 10 intriguing things I heard this morning in no particular order
1. Billy Collins likes applause.
2. Going to see Tintern Abbey is a requirement if you have ever taught English literature. It is well worth the trip and by the way it is in Wales. (which would make a good Jeopardy question because most people think its in England.)
3. There are only two kinds of fiction stories – they went on a long journey or a stranger came into town.
There are only two kinds of science fiction stories - We went to them or they came to us.
4. Writers envy of other writers is a naturally occurring phenomena and often serves as a motivator for creativity.
5. 83% of modern poetry is not worth reading. The remaining 17% is great.
6. Facebook threatens our ability to construct artful and grammatically correct prose.
7. Poets are not likely to struggle with work life balance because a lot of being a poet requires sitting around and looking out the window.
8. Although poets seem to have the work life balance thing worked out pretty well, they still have it harder than other kinds of writers because they are confronted with the empty page more often. This leads them to having a slightly higher rate of suicide than other writers because they think things like "There is a limited reservoir of creativity doled out to each writer and one day you may wake up and never be able to write anything worthwhile again."
9. A trick to writing poetry or other things is to be quiet and open to the world unfolding around you.
10. Dava Sobel fell into being a science writer backwards.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Heaven brought down to Keystone College
It was an amazing afternoon and evening bathing in the words of two absolutely brilliant people!
Dava Sobel brought the heavens down to the campus of Keystone College for us when she described the creation of her book The Planets. I was fascinated with how she came to the notion of providing a rich narrative to acquaint us with our solar system.
Ms. Sobel decided to write the book The Planets because her otherwise intelligent and well informed literary agent asked her a question about the difference between our galaxy and the universe that was so rudimentary to the understanding of the Astronomy she realized there was a grave needed for an informative book on Astronomy for intelligent people who were thoroughly ignorant of the cosmos above their heads.
She mentioned something that I always found true. Information published on Astronomy is generally off putting because it either dives in without introduction to basic concepts so that the Astronomy novice is immediately lost or it presents the basics in such a condescending way as to insult the intelligence of the reader above the age of 10. In The Planets she strives to address the intelligent person bereft of prior knowledge in an engaging way that brings them up to speed in a compelling way. I have not read this book yet, but I am eager to when I return home.
I was not prepared for the sublime Billy Collins. I had read some of his poems and thought they were witty. But to sit in a room and hear him read his own words out loud defies description. But I will try anyways, since I tend to defy things as a hobby.
Suffice to say I laughed harder last night then I recall laughing in some time. The poems he shared with us were as one person defined “his crowd pleasers”. I think that is an apt enough way to define it.
Collectively the people crowded together in that hot auditorium were twirled between deep belly laughs and the kinds of ooohs and aahs generally reserved for firework displays. After an hour and half he stopped reading to us but I know we all would have braved the heat of the auditorium, a fire alarm ringing, an invasion of hostile squirrels and the urgent need to use the bathroom just to hear a few more poems escape from Billy Collins lips.I understand now why the man has groupies.
Here is an incomplete list of what he shared with us:
Forgetfulness
I go back to the house for a book
Nightclub
Japan
The Lanyard
And while these are nice to read for yourself, to hear him say them outloud is something entirely different. Here is a download of the genius poet voice that had us so rapt last night.
Dava Sobel brought the heavens down to the campus of Keystone College for us when she described the creation of her book The Planets. I was fascinated with how she came to the notion of providing a rich narrative to acquaint us with our solar system.
Ms. Sobel decided to write the book The Planets because her otherwise intelligent and well informed literary agent asked her a question about the difference between our galaxy and the universe that was so rudimentary to the understanding of the Astronomy she realized there was a grave needed for an informative book on Astronomy for intelligent people who were thoroughly ignorant of the cosmos above their heads.
She mentioned something that I always found true. Information published on Astronomy is generally off putting because it either dives in without introduction to basic concepts so that the Astronomy novice is immediately lost or it presents the basics in such a condescending way as to insult the intelligence of the reader above the age of 10. In The Planets she strives to address the intelligent person bereft of prior knowledge in an engaging way that brings them up to speed in a compelling way. I have not read this book yet, but I am eager to when I return home.
I was not prepared for the sublime Billy Collins. I had read some of his poems and thought they were witty. But to sit in a room and hear him read his own words out loud defies description. But I will try anyways, since I tend to defy things as a hobby.
Suffice to say I laughed harder last night then I recall laughing in some time. The poems he shared with us were as one person defined “his crowd pleasers”. I think that is an apt enough way to define it.
Collectively the people crowded together in that hot auditorium were twirled between deep belly laughs and the kinds of ooohs and aahs generally reserved for firework displays. After an hour and half he stopped reading to us but I know we all would have braved the heat of the auditorium, a fire alarm ringing, an invasion of hostile squirrels and the urgent need to use the bathroom just to hear a few more poems escape from Billy Collins lips.I understand now why the man has groupies.
Here is an incomplete list of what he shared with us:
Forgetfulness
I go back to the house for a book
Nightclub
Japan
The Lanyard
And while these are nice to read for yourself, to hear him say them outloud is something entirely different. Here is a download of the genius poet voice that had us so rapt last night.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Chaos - You can't get there from here.
Georgia June Goldberg turned the weekend’s theme on its head after dinner. “Chaos and Creativity – where the strange crossroads lie.” Bah!
As humans true chaos is beyond us and Georgia knows a thing or two about the search for chaos.
She presented examples of art works seeking to break away from conventional order.
Despite the best efforts of avant garde movements like the Futurists and Da-daists. Their most radical paintings, sculpture and architecture still have form and pattern. As she deftly illustrated by showing examples of the works of Picasso and many others.
She shared with us some of her own paintings and art installations and through them her experiences with places and elements one would expect to find chaos lurking. But her journey of exploration that includes portraits of mental institution residents, collages of explosions and art installations that harness nature’s elements has brought her no closer to the elusive realm of chaos and formlessness.
Strive as artists might they can not escape the confides of pattern, order is created even if it seems random at the first glance.
If you have the opportunity, check out Georgia’s wonderful art installation entitled Emergence at the American University Museum in Washington DC. (it will be viewable until August 8, 2010).
As humans true chaos is beyond us and Georgia knows a thing or two about the search for chaos.
She presented examples of art works seeking to break away from conventional order.
Despite the best efforts of avant garde movements like the Futurists and Da-daists. Their most radical paintings, sculpture and architecture still have form and pattern. As she deftly illustrated by showing examples of the works of Picasso and many others.
She shared with us some of her own paintings and art installations and through them her experiences with places and elements one would expect to find chaos lurking. But her journey of exploration that includes portraits of mental institution residents, collages of explosions and art installations that harness nature’s elements has brought her no closer to the elusive realm of chaos and formlessness.
Strive as artists might they can not escape the confides of pattern, order is created even if it seems random at the first glance.
If you have the opportunity, check out Georgia’s wonderful art installation entitled Emergence at the American University Museum in Washington DC. (it will be viewable until August 8, 2010).
Wonderfully Provoking
When Nigerian born Chris Abani was introduced this morning, it was pointed out that not only was he an award winning poet, but he had also won an award as a “Distinguished Humanist”. It took very little time for me to understand why such an honor was bestowed upon him.
He took the stage to share his essay “Stories of Struggle, Stories of Hope: Art, Politics and Human Rights” and opened with two poems - The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart by Jack Gilbert and one of his own poems 2001.
Mr. Abani spoke honestly about his unvarnished self, his hopes and fears and his envious hate of people who wrote better poetry then him (Jack Gilbert). I found him to be warm, funny and unflinching in his willingness to sharing his truth with us.
Here are some things he said that provoked me in a most wonderful way:
(forgive my paraphrase and please correct me if I mess this up)
1. Writers must negotiate ethics as part of writing. They are obligated to capture and write what they bear witness to. Writers and other artists are in a unique position to stand before the abyss common to all humanity and look deeply into it with courage. It is the artist’s job to use art to catalog our human nature without sentimentality.
2. All humans wish to live free of fear, pain and affliction. Some people hold too firmly to hatred because to abandon hate requires that you face the pain of what caused that hate to begin with.
3. The purposeful narrative is an effective device to draw out evil. By sharing the darkness of humanity with the world in a safe way the writer can transform it into something that brings healing.
4. To find your way to the sublime one must journey through the darkness and experience elements of the grotesque. The grotesque is necessary to transforms one’s world view.
5. To be human is to understand that there can never be world peace but to live like world peace is possible anyway.
One of the stories he told beautifully demonstrated the transformative powers of art.
As a young man he worked on his father’s rice farm. While the women worked to plant the rice during springtime they sang a sorrowful dirge that included all of the names of people that had died as a result of a recent civil war. When they harvested the rice later in the season, they sang a much happier ditty calling out all the names of the children recently born. Through the art of their work songs the village women acknowledged the community’s grief and celebrated the renewal of hope for the community’s future.
Through his presentation and the sheer radiance of his being, Chris Abani encouraged us all to become the courageous artists that this world needs. I suspect that his concluding words at the podium brought many in the crowd to tears (besides me). "May you cry but never die of a broken heart." Thank you Chris!
He took the stage to share his essay “Stories of Struggle, Stories of Hope: Art, Politics and Human Rights” and opened with two poems - The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart by Jack Gilbert and one of his own poems 2001.
Mr. Abani spoke honestly about his unvarnished self, his hopes and fears and his envious hate of people who wrote better poetry then him (Jack Gilbert). I found him to be warm, funny and unflinching in his willingness to sharing his truth with us.
Here are some things he said that provoked me in a most wonderful way:
(forgive my paraphrase and please correct me if I mess this up)
1. Writers must negotiate ethics as part of writing. They are obligated to capture and write what they bear witness to. Writers and other artists are in a unique position to stand before the abyss common to all humanity and look deeply into it with courage. It is the artist’s job to use art to catalog our human nature without sentimentality.
2. All humans wish to live free of fear, pain and affliction. Some people hold too firmly to hatred because to abandon hate requires that you face the pain of what caused that hate to begin with.
3. The purposeful narrative is an effective device to draw out evil. By sharing the darkness of humanity with the world in a safe way the writer can transform it into something that brings healing.
4. To find your way to the sublime one must journey through the darkness and experience elements of the grotesque. The grotesque is necessary to transforms one’s world view.
5. To be human is to understand that there can never be world peace but to live like world peace is possible anyway.
One of the stories he told beautifully demonstrated the transformative powers of art.
As a young man he worked on his father’s rice farm. While the women worked to plant the rice during springtime they sang a sorrowful dirge that included all of the names of people that had died as a result of a recent civil war. When they harvested the rice later in the season, they sang a much happier ditty calling out all the names of the children recently born. Through the art of their work songs the village women acknowledged the community’s grief and celebrated the renewal of hope for the community’s future.
Through his presentation and the sheer radiance of his being, Chris Abani encouraged us all to become the courageous artists that this world needs. I suspect that his concluding words at the podium brought many in the crowd to tears (besides me). "May you cry but never die of a broken heart." Thank you Chris!
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