Presbyterian

David Arn is a story-teller, or, better yet, a verbal story-painter who came to songwriting late in life, but in time to produce 3 CDs of his music by the age of 70. He self-describes as making music of the Folk Rock, Americana, and Soft Rock varieties, but a very special attribute of his productions are the videos that he has engaged to go with his songs, allowing free rein to artists & video producers to create the videos in reaction to and synergy with David's songs.

So much to love about Ash Devine - her songs, her singing, her humanitarian clowning, her Magic Penny instrument gifting, her Earth connection, her social activism, & much more. Combining indie-folk and Appalachian music influences with her Theater & Community Arts for Social Change studies, Ash is a captivating performer, breathing spirit & joy through her vocals and a dance of the soul through her instruments.

Jan Frase & the Community Coalition for Nonviolence helped us celebrate the U.N. International Day of Peace by a gathering of artists & activists hosted virtually by the Pablo Center at the Confluence.

Joe Newberry has a wonderful voice, and writes tunes & lyrics to enrich that wonderful voice to the point of sublime. Writing music that tends toward old-timey, bluegrass, spirituals, torch songs, & more beyond that, Joe's songs draw deeply on the Missouri of his youth and the North Carolina of his adulthood. Renowned for his clawhammer banjo playing, Joe has won multiple awards from the IBMA, and was a frequent performer on A Prairie Home Companion.

In an atmosphere where so often there is religious intolerence & distrust, it's beautiful to see diverse spiritual communities sharing deeply together. At Eau Claire's Interfaith Prayer Service for Peace & Unity, conceived by Bob Lesniewski, a Benedictine oblate, prayers were shared from Presbyterian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Ba'hai, Catholic, & Quaker representatives. It was a rich sharing of diverse faiths, warming a cold winter night. The next Eau Claire Interfaith Prayer Service will be May 23, 2018. When will yours be?

Katherine van Wormer's book, The Maid Narratives: Black Domestics and White Families in the Jim Crow South draws on interviews from black maids and white women who had maids, to understand the reality of segregation, its norms, and its consequences.

Dawn Ravella does amazing and varied work for the healing of the world - restorative justice and prison ministries, food pantries and homeless shelters, education on social justice issues, and on and on. She is currently Director of Mission and Outreach at The Reformed Church of Bronxville, and has served Presbyterian and Catholic churches in similar roles, in addition to her work as a holistic therapist.

Business can sometimes seem mostly exploitation and evil (though counter-examples abound, both current and historical). But how does one do good through business, instead of just doing well? Robert Pierson is an engineer who has seen small business from the inside, thoroughly. After years of diverse job positions, and rising to become a systems engineer, the spiritual side of that work led Rob to get a Master of Ministry degree from Earlham School of Religion.

At that age of 76, Margaret Moore took part in the Teaching Drum Outdoor School family year-long, living naturally in the Northern Wisconsin woods for 11-months as an intergenerational clan of 42 people. Without the niceties of civilization, like books, soap, clocks, etc, Margaret and the rest experienced a connection to nature and each other badly missing for most people today.

Kim Harris and her husband, Reggie, have been conveying passion, history, and spirit through great music for decades. In addition to the folk venues and schools where they've performed and taught, Kim has added learning & teaching as part of the degree she's poised to receive from Union Theological Seminary in NYC.