Ben Chung is a freestyle dancer, choreographer and one of the co-founders of the Kinjaz American dance crew in Los Angeles, California. He is a former member of the famous Jabbawockeez male dance troupe and is the winner of the first season of America's Best Dance Crew. In this episode Stephen talks with Ben about his creative process, collaboration and the art of finding flow.
Read MoreTurtledoves is the new musical project of Ashley and Alex McGrath. Exploring the balance between lo-fi electronics and acoustic instruments, the husband/wife duo creates harmonically rich soundscapes consisting of labyrinthine melodies, ambient textures, and layered vocals. Turtledoves exist in the liminal spaces - messengers between seen and unseen - ambassadors to the now from the not quite yet. Residing in Cincinnati, OH, the band recently released their second EP, titled, “Pillars of The Earth. Their first, “The Rest is Yet to Come”, was released in 2018.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Ashley and Alex about their collaborative process as a husband and wife duo.
Watch the Music Video for Soft Speaker
Read MoreHoward Washington Thurman was a poet, mystic, philosopher and spiritual activist. He authored more than twenty books in his lifetime and played a leading role in The Civil Rights Movement where he served as a spiritual mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Read MoreThis episode is our third release from the Makers and Mystics LIVE series. This conversation comes to you from Denver, Colorado and highlights our panel discussion on Art As Incarnation. You’ll hear from a diverse panel of voices including Master Penman, Jake Weidmann, Graphic Novelist, R. Alan Brooks and Printmaker, Kim Morski.
This live event was hosted by QRZ Denver and The Gallery at FDC. Additional contributing artists include Chadash Contemporary Dance Movement, Composer Matthew Langford and Visual Artist, Jeremy Grant of The Remnants Film Project. Music in this episode is provided by Adam Anglin.
Read MoreThe 27 Club is a cultural phenomenon that recognized how a large number of famous artists, actors and musicians all died at the age of 27. Although there is no scientific evidence to back up the connections, the tendency to rise to fame and die young is baked into the tropes of Western culture. In this live keynote talk, given at The Breath & the Clay 2020, Stephen Roach invites listeners to go beyond a pursuit of fame into the pursuit of greatness.
Read MoreThis bonus Episode features a live performance and interview with spoken word artist La’Tasha Strother. La’Tasha threads her relationship with God throughout her life and work and creates poignant imagery about her life experiences. The poem performed in this episode is titled Love Is Not Blind and was performed live at our Art As Healing Podcast in Charlottesville Virginia.
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In solidarity with our black friends and community members, we wanted to highlight several of our episodes featuring incredible black artists whom have appeared on the Makers and Mystics podcast. Click the links below to listen to these conversations!
Liz Vice - S4 E11: Onward Like A Storm
Lanecia Rouse Tinsley - S5 E12: Impermanence
Tinasha LaRaye - S6 E13: The Poetic Encounter
Lonnie Holley S5 E4: The Lost Art if Found Objects
Propaganda - S6 E5: Moving Through This World
Mighty Mykell - S3 E11: A Legacy of Authenticity
Bernard Hankins - S7 E9: The Art of Healing
Marie Teilhard - S1 E15: Finding True North
This episode is our second release from the Makers and Mystics LIVE series. This conversation comes to you from Charlottesville, VA and highlights excerpts from our discussion on Art As Healing. You’ll hear from a diverse panel of voices including Farm House community founder, Lauren Stonestreet, Philosopher, Bernard Hankins, Pastor and songwriter, Brendan Jamieson, Neuroscientist and Jazz musician, Nadine Michel and Doctor of Osteopathy, Dr. David MacDonald.
In light of recent events, I felt this conversation on Art As Healing was timely and offers creative insights on navigating through difficult times and how art contributes to Healing for individuals and to society.
I’ve said often that the artist is an architect of hope and a voice of reconciliation for a divided world. I think you’ll find the perspectives in this conversation to be helpful in finding our way forward and understanding the vital role of art as an agent of healing.
*If you’re a patron of the podcast you have access to the full conversation which includes a spoken word performance by poet Latasha Strother and Nadine Michel’s story of traveling to Haiti, the country her parents immigrated from.
Vàclav Havel was a Czech playwright, political dissident, and consistent moral voice on human rights who went on to be elected President of the newly democratic Czech Republic. His life is a shining example of what artists can achieve when they have a robust sense of the time in which they have been placed in the world. Guest host Vesper Stamper talks about Havel’s life, work and spiritual perspective.
Read Havel’s collected plays here, and his book on freedom of conscience here.
Follow Vesper on Instagram @vesperillustration, or subscribe to her podcast on recovering artistic thinking, Vesperisms: The Art of Thinking for Yourself.
Read MoreWhen it comes to spiritual formation, our individual temperament plays a large role in how we connect to God, one another and the world around us. There is not a one size fits all for how we approach the spiritual life. In fact, the same systems that bring us clarity and definition can also leave us frustrated or feeling confined to search for God in a manner contrary to our natural temperament.
Best-selling author and speaker, Gary Thomas insists that it’s better to discover the path God designed you to take–a path marked by growth and fulfillment, based on your unique temperament. In this conversation, Gary and I discuss his nine Sacred Pathways, where he strips away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and guides you toward a style of relating to God that frees you to be you.
For the artist or the creative, understanding our unique make up and how we most easily connect with God enables us to live and create from a deeper authenticity. Instead of fostering a compulsion to imitate or conform to an exterior, homogenized form of faith, discovering the beauty of God’s unique path for our lives opens the way for greater possibility in our creative work.
Read MoreLeonardo Da Vinci was an artist, scientist and inventor. His capacity to metaphorically dream while awake, through the use of his imagination, enabled him to perceive the natural world as a playground for investigation, exploration, discovery and invention. This mentality would lead him to creative innovations in various fields of study including painting, architecture, mathematics, engineering, anatomy, botany, cartography. and much more.
Today, Leonardo da Vinci is historically recognized as a genius, who played an influential role in the Renaissance period through the use of his creativity to impact culture.
This artist profile is guest-hosted by Morgan Ruth Chin-Yee, a creative, art educator, and member of the Breath and the Clay team. Visit her website, MRCY, and follow her on Instagram @morgan.ruth.
Read MoreKimbra Lee Johnson is a singer, songwriter, producer + musician from New Zealand, now based in New York City. Her award-winning, debut album Vows was released in 2011. In 2012, she appeared on Gotye’s multi-platinum single, Somebody I Used To Know.
Kimbra’s music pushes the boundaries of genre and style juxtaposing pop sensibilities with influences in Jazz, R & B, and electronic music. Lyrically, Kimbra expresses the deeper longings of the human heart. Her poetic verses draw from personal experience, imaginative religious imagery and reveal a depth of honesty, vulnerability and reflection.
In this episode, I talk with Kimbra about her creative process and the deeper experiences of the artist’s life.
If you are a patron of the podcast you can enjoy an additional interview segment with Kimbra at Patreon.com/makersandmystics
This episode is sponsored by Rogue Blue Media.
Read MoreCarey Wallace is the author of Stories of the Saints, The Blind Contessa’s New Machine, The Ghost in the Glass House, Choose, New Thing, and the forthcoming Discipline of Inspiration. Her work has appeared in Time, the Awl, The New Decameron, and Detroit’s Metro Times. She has spoken to students at Princeton, Yale, Julliard, Pratt, Emory’s Candler School of Theology, and the Festival of Faith and Writing, and taught at The Glen Workshop. She has released a dozen records with her brother as The Wallace Bros., and shown her fine artwork in Detroit and Brooklyn. She is the founder of the Working Artist’s Initiative, which helps emerging artists establish strong creative habits, and the Hillbilly Underground, which draws nationally-recognized filmmakers, writers, fine artists, and musicians to rural Michigan each summer. She lives and works in Brooklyn with her poorly-behaved Appenzeller, Bandit.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Carey LIVE in New York City (recorded October 2019) about the nature, the origins and discipline of inspiration.
Read MoreCynthia Newland is an artist, educator, speaker and wellness consultant. She is the founder of Alible3 – Nourishing the Body, Soul and Spirit, providing educational resources and equipping tools for holistic health. With her work in the area of wellness, she partners with the Health Made Simple community. Cynthia is the founding Director of Feet Speak Dance, a dance company whose mission aims to use dance to teach, inspire and bring a rich art filled experience to all whom they encounter.
In this episode, Cynthia talks with Stephen about the importance of physical nourishment, nutrition and general health in the life of the artist.
Read MoreSocial distancing can feel a bit destabilizing. All of our habits and routines and normal ways of functioning are suspended and we have to adopt new daily rhythms, ways of doing life and finding work. For the artist, this can lead to questions about the validity of our work and where art-making and creativity belong in a time of global crisis. But it is vital for our own mental and emotional health that we are formed by a clear narrative and see the true place of art as a needed response.
Making art during times of crisis positions the artist to become a protest against despair. The artist pushes against losing our identity and our humanity in the face of war, disease or whatever opposition stands against living an unimpeded, beautiful life.
In this episode, Stephen shares about the role of perception, the mischief of God, and the need for art in our current climate of isolation and uncertainty.
Read MoreHeather Stringer is a therapist, artist, and ritual maker. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Seattle, WA and a Fellow with the Allender Center. She completed her M.A. in Counseling Psychology at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and the Externship Program at The Allender Center. Heather has a practice of creating narrative informed trauma therapy as well as creating rituals for people marking a significant event in their life.
Heather believes that when we are intentional about engaging the particularities of our bodies, memories, and stories, an opening for healing and change are possible.
In this episode, Stephen Roach talks with Heather about her niche of combining ritual making with performance art in ways that foster healing and inspire a more creative approach to everyday life.
Read MoreJoin our global community online Friday night March 20th for a time of communion and creative conversations. Click here to sign up.
Read MoreVincent van Gogh was a leading postimpressionist painter of the late nineteenth century, known for his thick, swirling brushstrokes and radical use of color. Before he was an artist, though, he was a pastor to a village of destitute coal miners in Belgium, an experience that shaped him deeply. Vincent was full of compassion and wonder, anguish and hope. “Sorrowful yet always rejoicing” was one of his personal mottoes. His art—whether of sunflowers for his friend Paul Gauguin, a peasant family sitting down for dinner, or a starry sky outside his asylum window—highlights the numinous in the day-to-day.
This artist profile is guest-hosted by Victoria Emily Jones, a writer on Christianity and the arts. Visit her blog, Art & Theology, and follow her on Twitter @artandtheology or Instagram @art_and_theology.
Read MoreIn this episode, Stephen talks with Producer of Marketing and Distribution for Aspiration Entertainment, Erik Lokkesmoe. The two discuss Erik's vision for individuals, families and churches who want to support artists and the arts. Erik's charge to "democratize patronage" and create local communities of patrons is an important idea for our time. “I encourage everyone to listen to this discussion then pass it along to the leaders, patrons and arts advocates in your life.” - Stephen Roach
Music Provided by: The Golden Age
Support Nashville’s Restoration!
Read MoreIn this Season opening episode, Stephen talks with singer-songwriter John Mark McMillan about the creative process behind his new album Peopled With Dreams
Read MoreJohn Eldredge is a New York Times bestselling author, a counselor, and a teacher. His latest book, Get Your Life Back, examines the breakneck pace at which we force our souls to exist—a pace that far exceeds God’s original design. In his book, John argues that a constant absorption of others’ worries through social media, paired with our own burdens and stresses, has left people overwhelmed and weary. In this season-finale episode, Stephen talks with John about the simple, yet profound spiritual disciplines that can heal our souls and nourish the creative spirit inside of us.
Read MoreCinelle Barnes is a memoirist, essayist, and educator from Manila, Philippines, and is the author of MONSOON MANSION: A MEMOIR (Little A, 2018) and MALAYA: ESSAYS ON FREEDOM (Little A, 2019), and the editor of a forthcoming anthology of essays about the American South (Hub City Press, 2020).
In this episode, Stephen talks with Cinelle about memoir as an agent of healing and how her process of writing helped navigate the difficulties of childhood trauma.
**Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment with Cinelle outlining practical steps of memoir writing for any of you writers out there who are interested in learning what it takes to get your story from the pen to the page.
Read MoreSalvador Dali remains one of the most complex and controversial figures within art history. His artistic mediums range from film-making, design, clothing and jewelry making, writing, even what he called an “erotic cookbook” which featured enticing recipes such as Thousand Year Old Eggs and Toffee with Pine Cones. Over the course of his lifelong career as an artist, he collaborated with other well-known figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Alice Cooper and Walt Disney.
The common thread linking all of his artistic creations is the surreal and dream-like imagery that bends our perception of reality and presents the world through a lens of absurd, avant-garde and sometimes disturbing distortions. His paintings depict melting clocks, larger than life horses with exaggerated, giraffe-like legs, contorted faces hovering over vast, deserted landscapes, and daisies bursting out of cracked eggs.
Read MoreIn 2019, I took the Makers and Mystics podcast on the road and partnered with creative communities around the country. Together, we facilitated conversations on subjects that were close to the heart of each community and featured hand-picked, local performers and influencers from each city.
The production of this series is raw and remains largely unedited much like the conversations themselves. The length of these episodes will extend beyond our usual thirty-minute format and will highlight the work of community leaders as well as panel discussions.
I’m excited to share this series with our larger community via our Patreon page and open the door for everyone to join the discussions.
Our first conversation takes place in Charlottesville, Virginia on the two-year anniversary of the Charlottesville riots. The subject is appropriately titled, art as healing. My guests include community founder, Lauren Stonestreet, Spoken-Word Artist, La'Tasha Strother, Philosopher, Bernard Hankins, Pastor, Brendan Jamison, Neuroscientist and Jazz musician, Nadine Michel and Doctor of Osteopathy, Dr. David McDonald.
This video was produced by: Micah Lindstrom
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