KindlingsFest 2012: Rekindling Intergenerational Connections

From KindlingsFest

Academics, artists and thoughtful folk will gather on Orcas Island this July to share music, lectures, films and dialogue about how to counteract the generational fragmentation of American culture at KindlingsFest 2012.

“At KindlingsFest we want to explore how to create a richer intergenerational future,” says Dick Staub, the founder of The Kindlings and pastor of Orcas Island Community Church, which hosts the festival.

KindlingsFest 2012 is the fifth annual “celebration of art and ideas where they intersect with the spiritual.” People of all spiritual and religious traditions are welcome at the four-day event, held July 25-28. This year’s theme is “Crabbed Age and Youth Cannot Live Together: Towards Creating An Intergenerational Future In A Fragmented Age.”

“The Kindlings is a relational, intergenerational movement whose mission is to rekindle the spiritual, intellectual and creative legacy of Christians in culture,” says Staub.

In Staub’s view, post-World War II marketing strategies have sliced and diced populations by demographics, resulting in communities divided by age groups, with the young cut off from the wisdom of their elders and the gray-haired missing out on the energy and innovation of youth. By way of contrast, he notes that human history is rich with guilds and apprenticeships, Socratic dialogue at The Academy, mentors and spiritual directors, and says that only recently has our culture has lost those inter-age connections.

The KindlingsFest schedule will include lectures by Cambridge University theologian and poet Malcolm Guite, daily meditations by C.S. Lewis scholar Dr. Jerry Root, performances by UK-born guitarist and composer Jason Carter, Seattle-based indie band Family and Friends, and contemplative Celtic music from Jeff Johnson and Wendy Goodwin. Also presenting will be Fulbright scholar and painter Jeremy Mangan, writer Jim Riordan, Dr. Jeff Keuss, actor Nigel Goodwin, photographer Dieter Zander and more.

The event will also feature an evening BagEnd Café with open mic, an artwalk in Eastsound, and three films selected from the annual Sundance Film Festival that relate to this year’s theme.

“Orcas Island’s older generation has a wealth of experience and our younger generation is hungry for learning,” says Staub. He invites islanders and visitors – young and old – to come and join the dialogue, making merriment, art and memories together at KindlingsFest 2012.

For more information or to register, call 376-6422 (10 a.m. -3 p.m. M-F), or visit https://www.thekindlings.com/kindlingsfest/.