Makers & Mystics

Rachel Marie Kang is a New York native, born and raised just outside New York City. She is an author, poet and founder of The Fallow House online creative community.  Her writing has been featured in Christianity Today, Proverbs 31 Ministries, and (in)courage. A mixed woman of African American, Native American (Ramapough Lenape Nation), Irish, and Dutch descent, she is a graduate of Alliance College with a Bachelor of Arts in English with Creative Writing and a minor in Bible. In this episode, Rachel and I discuss her book, Let There Be Art: The Pleasure and Purpose of Unleashing the Creativity Within You. In keeping our season ten theme of Restoration for the heart of the artist, Rachel and I discuss what it is like to create in the space between life and death, joy and grief and how creativity can serve as a bridge between the two poles. Support The Podcast! Thank you!Connect with Rachel Brightbell Creative: Meaningful Marketing For the Creative Artist. Send us a textSupport the show

Strahan is a writer, award-winning folk musician and spiritual director from Aotearoa, New Zealand. He founded Commoners Communion in 2017 to explore what it means to become a deeply prayerful people in our times. Since then, he has written three prayer books offering poetic prayers, contemplations and reflections to help readers deepen their communion with God.Today, Strahan runs spiritual retreats, Online Prayer Schools and is currently working on his first non-fiction book titled, 'Beholding: Deepening Our Experience in God' which invites the reader to give up consumer Christianity for a more beautiful life of seeing and being seen by God. (‘Beholding’ releases early 2023 with David C Cook publishing.)In this episode, Stephen talks with Strahan about contemplative practice, abiding in the space between polarities and finding opportunities for beauty throughout prolonged seasons of suffering. *Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional conversation with Strahan on the relationship between the contemplative and the charismatic. Sponsor: Brightbell Creative - Creating Meaningful Marketing for The Creative Artist. Send us a textSupport the show

Jess Ray is a singer-songwriter-and music producer from Raleigh, North Carolina. Her particular musical brand, has been  affectionately dubbed “friendly folk,” and is an enchanting blend of indie pop vibes and lyric-driven sensibility. Jess’ decade-long musical journey has weaved in and out of Christian spaces, mainstream circles, from house concerts to historic venues like the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN and from solo shows to sharing the stage with her heroes. Her music, much like herself, occupies two worlds effortlessly. Intensely spiritual yet deeply real, her songs soar with joy and hope without ignoring the reality of our human struggle.In this episode I talk with Jess about her new album born again and the creative process behind the songs.In keeping with season ten’s theme of restoration for the heart of the artist, Jess and I discuss also how her experience with deconstruction and the prospect of reconstruction impacted her songwriting and how she found “a place to land” even amidst the tensions of unresolve. Patrons of the podcast can enjoy and unedited version of this conversation at patreon.com/makersandmystics Wonder film co. Support The Podcast! Receive exclusive content and access to our online community events. Send us a textSupport the show

Lore Ferguson Wilbert is a writer, thinker, learner, and author of the book, A Curious Faith. She writes for She Reads Truth, Christianity Today, and more, as well as her own site, Sayable.net. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @lorewilbert. She lives in New York and has a husband named Nate, a puppy named Harper Nelle, and too many books to read in one lifetime.In this episode, I talk with Lore about the importance of asking the hard questions and the necessity of cultivating a curious heart in both the creative space and in the spiritual. Support The Podcast (We can’t do this without you!) Join our creative collective and gain access to tons of extra content and other inspiring curiosities. Listen to our Artist Profile on Rilke (We mention this episode in our discussion.)Send us a textSupport the show

Cathy Loerzel is the Co-Founder of The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and co-author of Redeeming Heartache: How Past Suffering Reveals Your True Calling with Dan Allender. She has spent the last 15 years developing a popular new coaching and therapeutic approach called Story Work that moves people through their past stories of heartache to heal and discover healthier ways of being in the world. In this season opening episode, Stephen talks with Cathy about what it means to listen to your story and how artists and creatives can move toward a much healthier mode of living and creating in the world. Music in this episode: GlasseaSponsor: Brightbell Creative: Meaningful Marketing for The Creative Artist. Join The Creative Collective: Send us a textSupport the show

This introduction to Season Ten of the Makers & Mystics Podcast offers a brief overview of themes we will discuss in our interviews, artist profiles and round-table discussions. The meta-narrative is “Restoring The Heart of The Artist.” Inside this are three distinct threads.Wounded Healers.In The Splice.Re-storying. Stay tuned and get ready to take the journey. It is time to leave the past behind and lean into the soon discovered!Send us a textSupport the show

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.Become a PatronBrightbell Creative: Meaningful Marketing For the Creative Artist. Send us a textSupport the show

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 WebsiteBecome a Patron and Listen to the additional segmentMeaningful Marketing for The Creative ArtistSend us a textSupport the show

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. Become A PatronBrightbell Creative: Meaningful Marketing For The Creative ArtistSend us a textSupport the show

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. Support the Podcast! Support the arts!Send us a textSupport the show