The Elegy Project
Co-founded by Karen Elizabeth Bishop and David Sherman, The Elegy Project: The Project also includes a curriculum of courses on Modern Elegy, Ode and Elegy and Inventing Farewell: A Practicum on Elegy.
Pilgrimage
The Sky Meadow Wind Phone
I’ve just returned from the first annual Sacred Harvest event at Sky Meadow, an idyllic 115-acre spiritual retreat in the mountainous Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The Harvest was a wonderful three days of wholesome work, exploration and soul-talk, and provided me with the opportunity to fulfil my long-term ambition of creating and installing a wind … Read moreThe Sky Meadow Wind Phone
“No-one built these for 5,000 years… until now”
YouTube documentarian Tom Scott presents this item on the revival of long barrows; Neolithic constructions that might have been churches, graveyards or landmarks, but which are now used as commercial columbaria and as ritual spaces. More at The Soulton Long Barrow and via the Sacred Stones website.
The Rogers Park Black Lives Matter Shrine, revisited
I ducked out of the annual Glenwood Avenue Arts Fair in our old Chicago neighborhood of Rogers Park today to visit the Black Lives Matter shrine, which I had started to document back in July of 2020, when it was brand new. By April, 2021 the simple shrine area had been elaborated with the addition … Read moreThe Rogers Park Black Lives Matter Shrine, revisited
“… to all Beings departed due to Covid-19”
I came across this small vernacular shrine dedicated to those lost to the Covid pandemic on my riverside walk this evening. The shrine features simple dedication messages in English and Spanish as well as bouquets of flowers, scatterings of flower petals and some candle jars.
Day of the Dead Art at the National Museum of Mexican Art (2022)
As part of my annual Memoria activity during late October and early November, I enjoy attending the Día de Muertos exhibition, staged each year by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen. Here’s a gallery of some of the 2022 displays:
“More radical and practical than Stoicism – discover Shugendō”
Tim Bunting writes for Psyche on the grueling death and rebirth rituals of Shugendō, the ancient Japanese discipline of mountain asceticism. I first learned about Shugendō as a teenager, and was inspired to undertake some ad-hoc ritual wilderness excursions/vision quests of my own at Red Rocks beach, a rugged stretch of shore along the southwestern … Read more“More radical and practical than Stoicism – discover Shugendō”
My Wind Phone: Let the Wind Take Your Words
Mywindpone.com offers resources for creating and locating wind telephones inspired by Itaru Sasaki’s original concept: I read about Itaru Sasaki and his Phone Booth of the Wind. I imagined sitting in his white phone booth surrounded by Itaru’s beautiful garden, holding the phone to my ear, dialing Emily’s number, and listening as the rotary dial … Read moreMy Wind Phone: Let the Wind Take Your Words
Seven Stones Cemetery (Denver, Colorado)
Click here to learn all about Seven Stones, a Denver cemetery/botanical garden that will – hopefully – provide the aesthetic and conceptual model for future institutions. Here’s a presentation by Seven Stones co-founder Doug Flin –
Art at Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn, NYC)
The notably arts-friendly Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York City has hosted a number of artistic installations including works of sculpture, dance, poetry, photography and ritual.