*cino had a display table at this year’s excellent Festival of Faith & Music 2009 (FFM) at Calvin College, organized by the Student Activities Office (SAO). Kirstin and I share a position in the SAO–in addition to our *cino work–and have the distinct pleasure of working with Ken Heffner, the director of Student Activities, who has been doing amazing Kingdom work in the area of popular culture for a long time. The work Ken’s been doing at Calvin was on our radar long before we worked there; in fact, the SAO and FFM were some of the examples *cino has always pointed to as signposts of Kingdom life. So it’s quite wonderful, now, to be a part of something like the Festival in a more intimate way than simply exhibiting.
We’d encourage you to visit the Festival web site for audio resources, photos and information about participants. I’d specifically recommend the incredible conversation between Lupe Fiasco and Cornel West, the Cornel West lecture, and two excellent articles by Marty Garner about headliners The Hold Steady and Lupe Fiasco. Actually, all of the workshops are pretty fantastic, so you should just subscribe to the FFM podcast and download everything. :)
Festival of Faith & Music 2009
Jubilee 2009
From February 13-15, *culture is not optional will once again have a table in the exhibit area at CCO’s annual Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. If you will be in attendance, please stop by and introduce yourself. We’d love to have a chance to chat!
We will also be presenting a workshop called “Eat Well,” in which we’ll be exploring broken food systems and how we might participate in a more holistic approach to eating faithfully.
Do Justice: #39
We just noticed that Do Justice: A Social Justice Road Map was #39 on the Top 40 sellers at Calvin College’s Bookstore. How cool is that?
Discernment vs. Discretion
Kirstin wrote a great piece called “Discernment vs. Discretion” for the most recent issue of The Banner, the Christian Reformed Church’s denomination magazine. As the title might suggest, the article discusses how discretion often gets confused as discernment, which often derails necessary conversations about discernment. Check it out and let us know what you think …
Update (12.3.08): Relevant Magazine picked up a slightly different version of Kirstin’s piece and published it as “Discerning Difference” on their web site.
New catapult site
If you’re a regular reader of catapult magazine, you probably noticed that the catapult site changed drastically with our last issue. We’re proud to introduce a complete redesign of the site that we hope will help foster more regular discussion on the site. We’re still in the process of adding a few more features and we’ll let you know when those are available. Also, you’ll soon be able to support catapult and *cino by subscribing to the magazine for additional features. Stay tuned!
Practicing Resurrection 2008
Practicing Resurrection 2008, our biennial conference we co-sponsor with Russet House Farm, was another fantastic gathering of folks seeking to live faithfully. In mid-August, approximately 100 people from the U.S. and Canada got together to learn from one another, play music together and to live in a temporary camping community for a week. Kirstin has a great Practicing Resurrection report in the “Let’s Together 6” issue of catapult, an issue that marks our sixth year of publishing the magazine.
NEW *cino book! Eat Well: A Food Road Map
The second book in *cino’s Road Map Series is now available. Eat Well: A Food Road Map features essays, artwork and resource lists that introduce ideas about what faithfulness might look like in the area of food–growing, producing, purchasing and eating.
You can purchase a copy for only $7.50 (plus shipping) directly from the book’s companion web site.
Workshop: Rock and roll (and race)
Rob and Kirstin led a workshop this morning titled “Rock and roll and race” at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The workshop looked at the history of rock and roll, focusing specifically on movements and moments in which race played a significant role in shaping music culture–with particular attention given to significant African-American artists.
While certainly still a work in progress, you can check out our workshop resource page to get an idea of what we talked about or to continue the conversation.
Interview with Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma
Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, catapult editor and *culture is not optional co-founder, participated recently in a series of interviews conducted by Comment, the journal of the Work Research Foundation in Ontario. You can read her interview here and then, while you’re there, check out the rest of Comment.
Announcing Practicing Resurrection 2008!
*culture is not optional and Russet House Farm are happy to officially announce Practicing Resurrection 2008!
The dates for this year’s event are August 11-17. Informal camping with field trips, bonfires, swimming and more will take place August 11-14, with the Practicing Resurrection conference August 15-17. We’ll gather again at Russet House Farm in Cameron, Ontario. Our conference theme this year will be Home Economics, with various workshops and activities surrounding that theme, from home building to bread baking, for agrarians and urbanists alike.
Registration is now online. Space is limited, so try to register early if you can. You’re encouraged to come to as much as you can, but we welcome short visits as well. We look forward to seeing you on the farm this summer!
