Words to listen to

The following excerpt is from a longer talk recorded at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. The topic of the evening was “Wisdom Working for Climate Change.” People of the world are unconsciously mourning the devastating impact we are having on our planet. Stephen Jenkinson answers the question “Is it too late to avoid catastrophe?” To learn more about Stephen Jenkinson and his teachings, visit orphanwisdom.com - Recorded and produced by Ian Mackenzie (ianmack.com)

2014 - Grief: Wisdom working for Climate Change by Stephen Jenkinson

Recorded on November 4th, 2014. Stephen Jenkinson has for a quarter century been guiding individuals, couples, families and communities through all the human sufferings, sorrows and confusions in life. He is also the subject of Griefwalker (2008), a National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film , a lyrical, poetic portrait of Stephen’s work with dying people.
http://orphanwisdom.com/ - Photo courtesty of ianmack.com

2015 - 'What Now?' Ken Rose interviews Stephen Jenkinson

Join us on "Going Shamanic" on Nov 24 at 7:30 pm PST when Jennifer Engracio interviews Stephen Jenkinson on the topic of grieving.  We have all had losses in life.  Learn what grieving well has to do with deep living on the show today.

Stephen Jenkinson is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, ceremonialist and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is a redemptive project that comes from where we come from. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, and working for a time we may not see.  (http://orphanwisdom.com)

2014 - Going Shamanic 'Walking with Grief', Jennifer Engracio interviews Stephen Jenkinson

In this episode, I speak with culture activist, teacher, author and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson. We discuss his most recent performative project Nights of Grief & Mystery, made in collaboration with “song and dance man” Gregory Hoskins—as documented in the recent short film Lost Nation Road, directed by Ian MacKenzie.

After watching Ian MacKenzie’s short documentary film Lost Nation Road, I finally began to understand more fully the real spirit and essence of Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins’ exquisite and subversive project Nights of Grief & Mystery. By that, I mean the immersive and ritualized nature of this performative act. To describe this act merely as a storytelling/spoken word and musical performance is to reduce the unifying purpose to its individual components. Nights of Grief & Mystery subverts our notions of what performance is and could be in this time of deep trouble, and as Stephen elaborates in this interview, this act taps into something far older than that of theatrical performance—ritual. Ritual engages with the collective, requiring the participation of all involved, which stands in contrast with proper theatrical performance as we often conceive and experience it, which as Stephen expresses, is a disfigurement of ritual, creating an arbitrary division between the “audience” and the “performers.” In subverting our notions of performance, Stephen and Gregory conjure an experience that alludes to the question: In these times of deepening trouble, how do we conduct ourselves? “These are nights in which love letters to life are written and read aloud. There’s some boldness in them. They have that tone. These nights have the mark of our time upon them, and they’re timely, urgent, alert, steeped in mortal mystery. They’re quixotic. They have swagger. What would you call such a thing? We call them Nights of Grief & Mystery.”

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/stephen-jenkinson-2

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Words to listen to

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