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.

Religious norms & habits can't stand in the way of a community faithful to the call of Radical Love. Dave Greenlund, pastor of Peace Lutheran Church - Lauderdale shares the story of a (formerly) Missouri Synod Church whose members traveled a path to greater & greater inclusion & love, squarely facing sexism, racism, Earthcare, and gifting themselves & their neighbors with Christmas in August.

Past/current religious/spiritual influences:
Lutheran

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.

Extinction Rebellion has a take on addressing the climate crisis that is refreshing, since their plan is to step pass the log-jam of the political process in the US, and taking the power right back to the people. And instead of talking about things like carbon neutrality by 2050 or the like, their plan is to do it by 2025.

While serving as Activist in Residence at Susquehanna University, Peterson Toscano co-preached a sermon with chaplain 

Listen to Nici Peper and you'll know why she won the title of Minneapolis's most authentic artist at the Wholly Guacamole contest. Whether performing solo, as part of Firefly, with The Big Smooch, or in other configurations, Nici radiates. Titles like indie, Americana, folk, etc, do not capture the reality of this love-based, Lutheran-raised, intense and deep woman who delights in performing in rowdy dive bars.

Keefe Keeley, Executive Director of the Savanna Institute, explains their goal of exploring the potential of savanna-based systems to become ecologically sound, agriculturally productive, and economically viable alternatives to the corn-soybean rotation which currently dominates. Keefe has a masters in Agroforestry.

Greenfire Farm is a vortex of environmental thought, research, and action, located near Athens, Ohio, and Dick Hogan is at the center of that energy. With penetrating ideas about how we need to think about our place in creation, there are equally transformative lifestyle methods being studied.

An article on the CVPost.org site announced Visiting theologian brings eco-spiritual approach to Lenten series, and so I discovered David Weiss, a deep thinker, poet, and diligent worker for justice, beauty, and grace in our world, particularly in the way we treat LGBT folks and the Earth.

There's a young Peace Studies program at UW-Stout, where we talk to Senior Lecturer in Peace Studies and Geography, James Handley, a current student, Emma Kornack, and a Peace Studies graduate and Americorps volunteer, Shelby Schuppe. What does the program teach, and what changes does it bring about, in students and in the community?

Music Featured: