Afternoon Session #1
Take a walk (or a nap!), hang out, or participate in a profound exploration with wise friends, choosing between the following:
1: Julia Robinson Moore & Billy Price - UPPER ANDERSON
For the past decade, Julia has been researching and uncovering the truth of burial grounds for enslaved people in churches and communities across her home city of Charlotte, NC. Now, she’s building communities committed to racial justice and reconciliation—truth-telling and healing. She’ll be interviewed about this work by Billy Price, and they will preview a documentary they are making together.
Julia is an ordained Presbyterian minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC Charlotte. She teaches courses in African American religion religions of the African Diaspora and racial violence in America. She is the author of "Race, Religion, and the Pulpit: Reverend Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit”. In getting to know Julia, you discover that along with her kind spirit, there is a flame burning for truth-telling and a heart beating for forgiveness and healing.
William Price, III is a storyteller with an eye—and an ache—for transcendence. In his award-winning work as a writer, director, producer, and actor, William pulls viewers toward the brutal tension of life—beauty and suffering, terror and mercy. William’s collaborations possess these darkly hopeful undercurrents while revealing a notable artistic malleability: he’s created alongside Grammy-winning artists, healthcare companies, non-profits, start-ups, and social justice movements. The tensions emanating from William’s work spark from his own filmmaking journey: learning his craft as a trade instead of through higher ed, he began in the early 2000s as a PA and grip on sets, seeking and working and growing, and is now a working actor, sought-after screenwriter, and Addy Award-winning director. As a cancer survivor and father of two, William’s personal life has also been marked by the specter of suffering and healing. Follow William’s path towards meaning-making and hope at @williampriceiii and @_929film.
2: Dan Snyder - How (if) we pray: Exploring the hidden stories that shape spirituality - THOMPSON-BROWN
From Dan: “You must know you are in a story, and you must know the story you are in.” This comment from one of my clinical supervisors when I was in training some thirty years ago has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. I learned to listen for the metaphors of everyday speech, especially as they shape religious ideas and spiritual practices. Not only depth psychology, but also my studies in theology, and strategic nonviolence, have shaped my own approach to spirituality. I call it Nonviolence for the Soul: More than a moral commitment, nonviolence is a strategic map for change. Let’s see how nonviolent strategies can also map inner transformation. If you attended last year’s session, no worries. This year will not just be a repeat, but a deepening exploration into how we can take nonviolence into our inner lives. If you did not attend last year’s session, again, no worries. We will review the core models of strategic nonviolence, look at how they illumine both theology and psychology, and then we will work with some applications in how we do our inner work. There will be opportunities for discussion as well as exercises to work with in the session and at home.
Daniel O. Snyder, PhD is a Quaker, a spiritual director, and a pastoral psychotherapist with a background in Jungian and family systems therapies. He is the author of Praying in the Dark: Spirituality, Nonviolence, and the Emerging World (Cascade, 2022), a book that brings together the four disciplines of theology, depth psychology, strategic nonviolence, and spirituality. The resulting conversation points toward a reimagining of God, self, and world.
3: James Navé - Writing From the Imaginative Storm to the Creative Form: For memoirists, storytellers, poets, journalists, and curious sojourners. WALKUP
James Navé is a poet, storyteller, manuscript consultant, and producer. He founded The Imaginative Storm Writing Project, designed to help writers at all levels build their confidence, free their thinking, and produce quick, tangible results that surprise and delight their readers. He holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College. He is an advisory board member of LEAF Global Arts, TEDx Asheville, and WPVMFM-Asheville. His latest work, 100 Days: A Poetic Memoir After Cancer, was published by 3: A Taos Press in May 2023.
4: Open session - Suggest your own session and we'll help you find folks who would like to join you