Say Yes! To M!CH!GAN!

Over the weekend we were in Grand Rapids Michigan for Calvin College's Festival of Faith & Music. Wow! We heard great music and lectures. The festival kicked off with a lecture from Lauren Winner on the intersection of Christianity and the Arts. She encouraged us to consider how creativity is woven into the Christian story. God does care about the details of beauty and God's people are invited to participate in the cultivating art. Winner quoted Dorthy Sayers saying, "to be a defender of Christianity is to be a defender of the arts."

David Dark's lecture was perhaps the most provocative. He gave some great thoughts from the musician Beck's line - "the jigsaw jazz and the get-fresh flow" as he talked about musical lyrics as a way to gage reality. In talking about musical lines, Dark talked about how Christianity affirms the truthful and talked about how poetry that tells the truth of reality emancipates, dignifies, and liberates. In David Dark's workshop entitled Objectionable Subject Matter, he express the importance of the question of, "Is it truthful?," in our approach to art. He also talked about how the truthfulness of art is often unsettling and makes one uncomfortable, but that it may not be an occasion to avoid it.

Sufjan also gave a lecture that is worth a listen. One thing he talked about was that artists should be inclined to make art and not occupied with its usefulness or political implications but yet art can become useful. Perhaps the most amazing part of the festival though was Sufjan's concert on Friday Night. A crew filmed the concert which I understand will be a DVD.

The festival also involved interviews with artists Neko Case and then Emmylou Harris. It was quite amazing to hear Emmylou talk about her music, her life, and the people she has worked with over the years. On Saturday night we got to hear Neko Case and then Emmylou in concert. It was superb!

The lectures from this festival should be available for listening at the Festival of Faith & Music website in the next week or two.

Other highlights of the weekend were hangin out with some of Melissa's relatives in Michigan and spending some time at the lake.

On our way back to St. Louis after the festival, we stopped off in Chicago and check out my old neighborhood, one of our favorite restaurants, and went to Grace Chicago. It was great to be back in Chicago. It is an amazing place and a place I feel quite at home.