Matter ‘09

Here’s a smattering of photos from Matter ‘09. What a great weekend of conversation and contemplation. Watch this site and the Shechem Press site for details about the upcoming Matter ‘09 Anthology, due out in Spring 2010. Many thanks to everyone who participated. Let’s do it again!

Click on the thumbnails to see the full images.

All photos © 2009 by Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton

I’ve always been a bit confused when people refer to my religious poems versus the poems I’ve written about my family, or poems like “Thoughts on Human Beauty in the Y Locker Room.”  From the very beginning, I’ve considered all of my poems to be religious poems.  In their conception and in the labor that’s gone into them, my poems are all religious, though I can see how someone could possibly overlook the religious aspects of a poem like “This Far South”, which is a poem I plan on reading in Austin at Matter ‘09.

While it’s true that the poem is about living in the south, and specifically about some of the bad storms and hurricanes that we get along the southern coast, the poem arose from my readings of the Old Testament and the association between God and the wind as well as the various Hebrew words for wind.  I suppose you could say that “This Far South” is a poem about wind and a poem about storms, but to overlook the fact that the storm is God, or at least the manifestation of God’s power would be to misread what I intended in writing the poem.

Likewise, I’ve also written many poems that revolve around questions of time, memory, and loss, but I see even these questions as religious questions, arriving as they do at the larger question of redemption.  Finally, the most difficult part of being a religious poet is addressing the tension between faith and doubt, which is a tension I struggle with each day and has inevitably entered poems like “In a Ruined Churchyard” as well as the “Tesla Poems.”

-Kevin Meaux - Matter ‘09 Contributing Poet

• Kevin will read and discuss a selection of his recent poems at Matter ‘09.

• A special edition broadside of his poem “Meditation in a Ruined Churchyard” is available through Shechem Press.

So, you’re interested, but a conference? Really? I know what you’re thinking. I’ve done my time at “church” conferences and academic show-and-tells. Most of those events leave me glancing at the clock, to understate things a bit. It seems at so many festivals, conferences, and seminars the goal is to talk the audience into submission and to tie the event up in a nice marketable knot. In short, there’s an agenda, a product to be sold, kool-aid to drink, a condo to rent in Florida, but that’s not what you’ll find at Matter ‘09. I haven’t been to Florida in years.

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After reviewing an impressive stack of entries, we’re excited to announce our participating artists and scholars. We’re overjoyed at the diversity and expertise of our contributors.

• Trey Allen serves as Director of Spiritual Formation at Sugar Land First United Methodist Church. Though neither artist or academic, he attempts to be both through preaching, his ultimate passion. He currently resides in Houston, TX, with his wife, Erin, and his Walter Brueggemann books.
  • Trey will present “Romans 12:1-2 A Call and Guide for Artists within a Community”

• Julie Clawson is a writer, mother, and former church planting pastor who currently lives with her family in Austin, TX.  She is involved in the Emergent church conversation where she has found the opportunity to explore how theology impacts everyday living.  She is the author of Everyday Justice (IVP 2009) and blogs at http://julieclawson.com.
  • Julie will present “This Is My Body - Nourishment, Sustainability, and Sacrifice as Response to Eucharist.”

• Dr. Jeff Dueck serves as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA, where he teaches courses in Ethics, Epistemology, and Aesthetics, among others. His interest in Christian studies has been inspired not only by his work in academia but his service in ministry positions involving worship, teaching, and the arts.
  • Jeff will present “The Imagination of Faith ‘As If’”

• Dr. Dena Davis Freed is a theatre scholar, artist, and educator currently working in youth theatre, religious education, performance studies, and performing arts education. Her interests include theatre pedagogy and practice, the construction of childhood, theatre for social change, and relationships between religious education/practice and the arts.
  • Dena will present “What if Jesus Had Used the Forum Theatre of Augusto Boal?” (more…)
    

We’re excited to have Peter Rollins as our keynote speaker at Matter ‘09.

Last week The Christian Century published a fantastic interview with Rollins. For those of you who find yourself wondering who he is and why he’s our pick as the Matter ‘09 keynote speaker, give this a read:

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=7087