BONUS EPISODE: Ryan Diaz on Poetry and Prayer

Ryan Diaz is a poet and writer from Queens, NY. He holds a BA in History from St. Johns University and is currently completing a MA in Biblical Studies. His work has been featured in publications like Ekstasis, Premier Christianity, Dappled Things, and Busted Halo.

In this bonus episode, Ryan and I talk about the relationship between poetry and prayer, cynicism and the sacramental imagination. Patrons of the podcast can enjoy additional conversation segments featuring four book recommendations for poets as well as a recitation of Ryan’s poem For Those Wandering Along The Way.

Purchase Ryan’s latest book of poems, Skipping Stones.

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Author, Bonus Episode, Faith and Art, poetry, spoken wordStephen RoachAugust 15, 2022Ryan Diaz, poet, pastor, New York City Artist, Poetry, Poems

BONUS EPISODE: Hannah Rose Thomas on Restoring Dignity Through Art

Portrait Artist, Hannah Rose Thomas has pioneered an incredible means of combining humanitarian work with paintings of refugee women she has encountered.

Through her art, Hannah gives voice to the voiceless, lionizes the isolated and prescribes dignity to the persecuted and forcibly displaced.

In this episode, Hannah and Stephen discuss her process of portrait painting and advocacy as well as the impact her paintings have upon Western viewers and the women who have undergone intense trauma.

Visit Hannah’s Website

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S9 E16: Restoring The Heart of The Artist (Season Finale)

In this season finale episode, Stephen Roach shares on how the past two years have impacted artists personally, socially and creatively. Drawing from his own journey of faith and art, Stephen tells how spiritual practice, community and imagination have played a significant role in re-integrating fragmented parts of himself into a deeper, lasting wholeness.

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S9 E15: Conversations with Space featuring Numinous Flux

Laura Valentine is the Artistic Director and Choreographer for Numinous Flux Dance Company in Nashville, TN. The work she curates is sensory and riddled with humanity, telling stories thru the human form and searching for a shared inner movement between herself, those embodying the work, and those making sense of it. She has crafted and produced multiple full length productions over the past decade, exploring birth, loss and everything plot-worthy in between. A Numinous piece can take years to unveil and unravel, and the time invested with the human’s involved is a big part of the Numinous process. The relationships move the work where they will.

In this episode, Stephen talks with Laura about what it means to be a contemplative dance company, the deeper motivations behind her creative work and what it means for a dancer to have conversations with space.

S9 E14: The Emotionally Healthy Artist with Pete Scazzero

Pete Scazzero’s book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality has had a tremendous influence on our modern understanding of how emotional health intersects with contemplative spirituality.

In this episode, our friend Luke Humbrecht talks with Pete about how the artist can live a more healthy emotional and spiritual life.

S9 E13: Electric Jesus with Chris White

Chris White is an award-winning filmmaker who has spent over a decade writing, directing, and producing a variety of feature length and short films. His most recent project is the music-centric, coming of age comedy Electric Jesus, which explores the world of a fictional 1980's Christian hair metal band called 316.

The film follows the band's journey from playing Bible camp talent shows to larger rock venues and gives an amusing look at youth culture during the time when heavy metal music was bathed in controversy.

The film stars Brian Baumgartner (better known as Kevin from The Office), also Judd Nelson (from The Breakfast Club), and newcomers Shannon Hutchinson (Assassinaut) and Andrew Eakle (Creepshow, The Glorias).

In addition to writing and directing Electric Jesus, Chris White also co-wrote original songs for the film, collaborating with composer/indie rock legend Daniel Smith of the Danielson Family.

In this episode, I talk with Chris about the making of the film, the art of satire and why thinking about humor as a spiritual practice is not funny.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy additional segments of this conversation at: http://www.patreon.com/makersandmystics

S9 BONUS: Creativity & Bipolar Disorder with Dani Parks

In this bonus episode, I speak with one of today’s favorite mental health advocates, Dani Parks. Dani is a public speaker, author, minister and mentor of young adult girls.

In our conversation, she shares her story about her struggles with depression, suicide attempts, and the mental suffering she endured for over ten years due to the incorrect treatment of her bipolar disorder.

S9 E12: How Art Shapes Empathy with Mary McCampbell

In this episode, I talk with Author and Professor ,Mary McCampbell about her book, Imagining Our Neighbors As Ourselves: How Art Shapes Empathy. In our conversation, we discuss how narrative art serves as an invitation to awaken and expand our capacity for empathy.

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Support The Podcast! Your generosity enables this work to continue.

Featured music by: Jessamyn Day

Interlude music by: Luke Vandergriff

Art As Healing, Author, Faith and Art, LiteratureStephen RoachJune 28, 2022Mary McCampbell, author, Author

S9 E11: Gold And Shadow with Sho Baraka

Sho Baraka is a globally recognized recording artist, performer, culture curator, activist, and writer. His work combines his artistic platform with his academic history to contribute a unique perspective, elevating the contemporary conversation on faith, art, and culture.

In this episode I talk with Sho about his book, He Saw That It Was Good: Reimagining Your Creative Life to Repair a Broken World

We discuss how art and imagination address the issues we face in today’s society in ways other forms of communication cannot.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment with Sho Baraka as well as other guests of the podcast

S9 E10: Roundtable 2: Part One with Scott Erickson and Heather Stringer

In this Round Table Discussion, I talk with visual artist and performance speaker, Scott Erickson along with trauma therapist, ritual-maker and NYC-based artist, Heather Stringer. In this round table, we talk candidly about disorientation and the process of re-orienting after two years of social and personal upheaval.

S9 E09: Speaking Into The Chaos with Joshua Luke Smith

Joshua Luke Smith is a British rapper, poet, and producer with a dramatic, socially conscious style rooted in explorations of the Christian faith. He was born in London raised in Pakistan, and holds a degree in philosophy, which informs his music with a unique perspective on the world both from his education and experience.

In this episode, I talk with Joshua about his upbringing, his creative process as well as well as philosophy and overcoming addiction.

You can see the show notes of this episode for links to Joshua’s new book Something You Once Knew and for additional patron only interview segments in our creative collective.

Naming The Animals Podcast Trailer

Naming The Animals is a new podcast by Makers and Mystics! This eight episode series follows a chapter by chapter discussion of Stephen Roach’s book Naming The Animals: An Invitation To Creativity.

Each week, Stephen will be joined by Square Halo’s Creative Director, Ned Bustard and a variety of biblical scholars, professional artists and creative thought leaders on topics such as inspiration, contemplation and beauty.

This podcast is an accompaniment to the Makers and Mystics Creative Collective Book Club, running June 8th - July 27th, 2022.

To join the Book Club, sign up for the Maker tier of patronage at Patreon.com/makersandmystics

Stephen RoachJune 2, 2022

S9 E08: Reset and Rebirth with William Day

William Day is an American painter known for his large-scale compositions of colorful shapes and energetic marks. Day can often be found in his Boulder, Colorado studio working on multiple pieces at the same time. His process leads him to create paintings in series, each focusing on different nuances of the human experience. His works are comprised of textures and complex layers demonstrating his interaction with a canvas. These series of paintings all nod to certain periods of Day’s life that bring years of intensity, joy, spirituality, conflict, and resolution to the canvas.

In this episode, Stephen talks with Will about his latest series titled Breakout which explores themes of reset and rebirth. This discussion includes topics such as: The impact of isolation, How to handle negative critique and living beyond fear.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy additional interview segments with Will at patreon.com/makersandmystics

S9 E07: Habits of Perception with James K.A. Smith

James K.A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University and serves as editor in chief of Image, a quarterly journal devoted to “art, mystery, and faith.” Trained as a philosopher with a focus on contemporary French thought, Smith has expanded on that scholarly platform to become an engaged public intellectual and cultural critic. As an award-winning author and widely-traveled speaker, he has emerged as a thought leader with a unique gift of translation, building bridges between the academy, society, and the church.

In this episode I talk with James about the role of imagination in “re-storying” the narratives we believe about ourselves and society. James shares openly about his own bouts with depression and how poetry played a key role in his recovery.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment on the attentiveness as a core tenet of creativity and the counter cultural practice of contemplation.

S9 E06: Composing Through The Multiverse with Son Lux

Son Lux is an experimental, electronic trio whose music strives to question deeply held assumptions about how music is made. The band started in 2008 as a solo project of founder Ryan Lott, then expanded to include creative collaborators Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia.

Most recently, the band scored the new Daniels film, Everything Everywhere All At Once, featuring collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne, Randy Newman and Moses Sumney among others.

I had the chance to talk with Ryan about his creative process, collaboration and what it was like composing music for a bizarre film based on the multiverse, one which the New York Times has called “an exuberant swirl of genre anarchy.”

If you’ve been following the podcast this season, you’ll know I’ve been talking with my guests about mental, emotional and spiritual health as it relates to the creative artist. I asked Ryn for his comments on this subject as well which I’ve made available for our patrons at patreon.com/makersandmystics

Thank You To Our Patrons

Join The Creative Collective for additional content, regular book clubs, online community and events.

Stephen RoachMay 13, 2022patronage

Artist Profile Series E35: Simone Weil

Simone Weil was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist. She was born February 3rd, 1909 in Paris, France and died On August 24th, 1943. In her short, thirty four years of life, Simone Weil worked in factories, trained with anarchists for the Spanish Civil war, taught philosophy, ministered to the poor, served as a military nurse and wrote prolifically about her social philosophy and thoughts on God.

After her death, posthumous publications of her writings catapulted her to a status of one of the great religious philosophers of the 20th century. Spiritual seekers, countercultural thinkers, Christians and atheists alike were each moved by her revolutionary ideas and the way she embodied her convictions through radical activism.

Her spiritual life was marked by three significant mystical encounters which turned this unlikely convert into a devoted, albeit, reluctant follower of Jesus.

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S9 E05: Round Table Part Three: Mental Health and The Artist

In this third and final segment of The Artist Round Table on Mental Health, Stephen, John Mark and Vesper talk about neo-monasticism, the worship of youth culture, art as a means of therapy, and making sense of the darker parts of our existence with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

Questions discussed in this episode include:

What is true success?

What is true connection?

Should we share every work of art we make?

What if the Poet who has been healed?

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S9 E04: Round Table Part Two: Mental Health and the Artist

In this segment of our 3 part conversation on mental health and the artist, my discussion with singer/songwriter John Mark McMillan and author/illustrator Vesper Stamper takes us to topics of art and identity, genius and madness and the dangers of isolation.

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S9 E03: Round Table Part One: Mental Health and The Artist

What does Kanye West, Thomas Edison and Psychologist Adam Grant have to do with Social Media, Depression, Suicide and the Pursuit of Calling?

These are all discussed in this round table discussion on Mental Health and the Artist with John Mark McMillan, Vesper Stamper and Stephen Roach.

This discussion begins with the question, "Can you separate the art from the artist.... and should you?"

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S9 E02: The Soul of The Helper with Holly Oxhandler

Dr. Holly Oxhandler is an author, social worker, researcher and a fellow podcaster. She hosts the show CXMH: A Podcast on Faith and Mental Health.

With a background in spiritually integrated mental health, Holly teaches a seven step process called the Namaste Theory which is aimed at helping us learn how to slow down and reconnect with the stillness within ourselves.

In this episode we discuss chronic burnout, compassion fatigue and Holly’s latest book, The Soul Of The Helper: Seven Stages To Seeing The Sacred Within Yourself So You Can See It In Others.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment on Research As Creative Process.

S9 E01: The Already and Not Yet with Dan Allender

Dr. Dan Allender is the best selling author of numerous books including The Wounded Heart, The Healing Path, To Be Told, and God Loves Sex. Most recently, he co-authored Redeeming Heartache: How Past Suffering Reveals Our True Calling with Cathy Loerzel.

Having spent thirty years pioneering a unique therapy centered around inner transformation, Dan has seen healing occur in countless individuals by connecting the story of the gospel to people’s universal heart wounds. As a cofounder of both the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and the Allender Center, Dan has trained therapists, pastors, artists, and leaders to more effectively serve in the context of the 21st century.

In this episode, Stephen Roach returns to the podcast for this timely episode about creativity, the troubled nature of the artist and Dan’s latest book, Redeeming Heartache: How Past Suffering Reveals Our True Calling.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment with Dan on Sabbath, delight and why confronting our own past suffering is important to the creative process.

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Update From Stephen Roach

Stephen RoachApril 5, 2022update from Stephen Roach

Porchlight Series 02: Singer/Songwriter Gabrielle Grace

Gabrielle Grace is a singer-songwriter committed to telling stories. She believes that authenticity is one of the most important qualities when it comes to music.

Gabrielle was born & raised in a small town in southeast Texas before moving to Nashville TN. Her indie/pop-folk/acoustic sound developed as she made her way into the scene, playing show after show and growing as a touring musician.

In this episode, Gabrielle joins Porchlight facilitator, Justus Stout and concert host, Cary Brege for a conversation on house shows, community building through shared beauty and the transcendent power of intimate musical settings.

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