Ben and Madeline talk vipers, first dates, and Curtis Sittenfeld's newest novel, Romantic Comedy.

Welcome to recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. The biennial festival brings together musicians, critics, journalists, artists, and listeners for three days of concerts, lectures, and conversations that explore the intersection of music and spirituality.

What follows is a panel on the role of artists in politically fraught times. Participants include Dr. Daniel White Hodge Director of the Center for Youth Ministry Studies at North Park University in Chicago. David Bazan a musician from Seattle perhaps best know as the chief creative force behind the band Pedro the Lion. Billy Mark, a poet, musician, and performance artist living in Detroit, he was the 2015 Kresge Fellow for experimental poetry. Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, editor-in-chief of Topology magazine, moderates the conversation, recorded on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 1st, 2017. A note to our listeners: some language and content may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

Thank you to everyone who spoke or performed or attended the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. These recordings were produced in collaboration between the Student Activities Office at Calvin College and the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. You can find more recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music and short films from the festival concerts at ccfw.calvin.edu.

Welcome to recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. The biennial festival brings together musicians, critics, journalists, artists, and listeners for three days of concerts, lectures, and conversations that explore the intersection of music and spirituality.

What follows is a lecture given by Katelyn Beaty, an editor at large at Christianity Today, an acquisitions editor with InterVarsity Press and the author of A Woman's Place: A Christian Vision for Your Calling in the Office, the Home, and the World. She’s written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post and lives outside Chicago. In this talk, she reaffirms the importance of creating art in times of political and cultural displacement as a vision of grace and love for the world. This lecture was recorded on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 1st, 2017.

Thank you to everyone who spoke or performed or attended the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. These recordings were produced in collaboration between the Student Activities Office at Calvin College and the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. You can find more recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music and short films from the festival concerts at ccfw.calvin.edu.

Welcome to recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. The biennial festival brings together musicians, critics, journalists, artists, and listeners for three days of concerts, lectures, and conversations that explore the intersection of music and spirituality.

What follows is a conversation between Jessica Hopper and Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. Jessica is a music journalist who has written for everyone from Spin to GQ to Rookie. She’s also written two books, The Girls' Guide to Rocking: How to Start a Band, Book Gigs, and Get Rolling to Rock Stardom and The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic. She currently serves as the executive editor at MTV News. Hanif is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His current poetry collection is titled The Crown Ain’t Worth Much and his first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, is due out winter 2017. In this session Jessica and Hanif discuss the importance of diverse representation in pop culture and of working in creative communities. The conversation was recorded on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 31st, 2017.

Thank you to everyone who spoke or performed or attended the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. These recordings were produced in collaboration between the Student Activities Office at Calvin College and the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. You can find more recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music and short films from the festival concerts at ccfw.calvin.edu.

Welcome to recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. The biennial festival brings together musicians, critics, journalists, artists, and listeners for three days of concerts, lectures, and conversations that explore the intersection of music and spirituality.

What follows is a conversation with Julien Baker an independent artist who wrote an album in her first year of college that garnered praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, and NPR. In this chat with John Williamson from the Student Activities Office at Calvin College, Julien discusses the themes of self-worth, depression, and faith in her music. This conversation was recorded after her show in the Covenant Fine Art Center auditorium on March 31st, 2017.

Thank you to everyone who spoke or performed or attended the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. These recordings were produced in collaboration between the Student Activities Office at Calvin College and the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. You can find more recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music and short films from the festival concerts at ccfw.calvin.edu.

Welcome to recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. The biennial festival brings together musicians, critics, journalists, artists, and listeners for three days of concerts, lectures, and conversations that explore the intersection of music and spirituality.

What follows is an interview with Ann Powers, a critic for NPR Music and the author of several books, including her recent Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music. Here she discusses her path to becoming a music critic, and the politics and power of art. This interview was recorded on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 30th, 2017. A note to our listeners: some language may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

Thank you to everyone who spoke or performed or attended the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music. These recordings were produced in collaboration between the Student Activities Office at Calvin College and the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. You can find more recordings from the 2017 Festival of Faith & Music and short films from the festival concerts at ccfw.calvin.edu.

A popular blogger and widely traveled speaker on racial justice and reconciliation, Austin Channing Brown will be doing a reading based on her upcoming book about the burdens her black body carries by virtue of living and working in spaces characterized by whiteness. Her reading will be followed by a conversation about the authors—Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ntozake Shange, and Audre Lorde, among others—whose work has been the lifeblood for her own writing.

AUSTIN CHANNING BROWN is a speaker and writer advocating for justice and racial reconciliation. A graduate of North Park University and Marygrove College with a master's degree in social justice, Austin currently serves as a resident director and multicultural liaison at Calvin College. Connect with Austin on Twitter @AustinChanning and on her website at http://austinchanning.com/.

This series is presented in partnership with:

African & African Diaspora Studies at Calvin College

Ambrose @ WMCAT

The Asian Studies Program at Calvin College

Brazos Press

The Calvin Center for Community Engagement & Global Learning

The Calvin College Campus Store

The Calvin College Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion

The Calvin College History Department

The Calvin College Office of the Provost

The Calvin College Department of Sociology & Social Work Heyns Fund

The Calvin College Student Life Division

The Calvin Theater Company

The Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice

Event and Tech Services at Calvin College

The Paul B. Henry Institute at Calvin College

Schuler Books and Music

In THE DEAD WRESTLER ELEGIES, up-and-coming poet W. Todd Kaneko mines the history of professional wrestling to examine complex relationships between fathers and sons and makes the wrestling ring an allegory of childhood, desire, and loss. All this as an Asian American and in spite of the racist melodramas that frequently play out in the personas of the wrestlers and between the athletes and audience. Kaneko will read from his book and discuss the racial dynamics of the sport, writing from and about Asian masculinity, and the literary properties of spandex.

W. TODD KANEKO is not cool enough to be a rock star, not tall enough to be a professional wrestler and not virtuous enough to be a super hero. He is the author of THE DEAD WRESTLER ELEGIES (Curbside Splendor). His poems, essays and stories can be seen in BELLINGHAM REVIEW, LOS ANGELES REVIEW, BOXCAR POETRY REVIEW, BARRELHOUSE, THE COLLAGIST, [PANK], PAPER DARTS, MENACING HEDGE, BLACKBIRD, THE HUFFINGTON POST, SONG OF THE OWASHTANONG: GRAND RAPIDS POETRY IN THE 21ST CENTURY, 99 POEMS FOR THE 99 PERCENT and many other journals and anthologies. He holds degrees from Arizona State University and the University of Washington. A recipient of fellowships from Kundiman and the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, his work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. He is currently co-editor for WAXWING magazine, and an assistant professor in the department of writing at Grand Valley State University. Originally from Seattle, he currently lives in Grand Rapids with the writer Caitlin Horrocks.

This series is presented in partnership with:

African & African Diaspora Studies at Calvin College

Ambrose @ WMCAT

The Asian Studies Program at Calvin College

Brazos Press

The Calvin Center for Community Engagement & Global Learning

The Calvin College Campus Store

The Calvin College Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion

The Calvin College History Department

The Calvin College Office of the Provost

The Calvin College Department of Sociology & Social Work Heyns Fund

The Calvin College Student Life Division

The Calvin Theater Company

The Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice

Event and Tech Services at Calvin College

The Paul B. Henry Institute at Calvin College

Schuler Books and Music

Listen to the extended version with community response and Q&A here:

Jim Wallis speaks about his latest book AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN: RACISM, WHITE PRIVILEGE, AND THE BRIDGE TO A NEW AMERICA at Calvin College on Monday, September 12.

JIM WALLIS is a bestselling author, public theologian, preacher, and activist. He is the founder and leader of Sojourners, a publishing platform, organization, and global network whose mission is to put faith into action for social justice. He recently served on the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and currently serves on the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. Jim is the author of 12 books, including AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN: RACISM, WHITE PRIVILEGE, AND THE BRIDGE TO A NEW AMERICA and GOD'S POLITICS: WHY THE RIGHT GETS IT WRONG AND THE LEFT DOESN'T GET IT.

This event was free and open to the public thanks to the generous sponsorship of the following organizations:

African & African Diaspora Studies at Calvin College

Ambrose @ WMCAT

The Asian Studies Program at Calvin College

Brazos Press

The Calvin Center for Community Engagement & Global Learning

The Calvin College Campus Store

The Calvin College Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion

The Calvin College History Department

The Calvin College Office of the Provost

The Calvin College Department of Sociology & Social Work Heyns Fund

The Calvin College Student Life Division

The Calvin Theater Company

The Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice

Event and Tech Services at Calvin College

The Paul B. Henry Institute at Calvin College

Schuler Books and Music

Sly, funny, intelligent, and artfully structured, THE FORTUNES by Peter Ho Davies recasts American history through the lives of four Chinese Americans and reimagines the multigenerational novel through the fractures of immigrant family experience. Spinning fiction around fact, Davies uses stories—three inspired by real historical characters—to examine the process of becoming not only Chinese American, but American. Released just this fall, THE FORTUNES has garnered swift and widespread critical acclaim. Davies, who is also faculty in the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, will read from his novel and discuss the challenges of writing fiction inspired by real people and how his own experience of becoming American since immigrating 25 years ago informed the book.

PETER HO DAVIES is the author of two novels, THE FORTUNES and THE WELSH GIRL (long-listed for the Man Booker Prize), and two short story collections, THE UGLIEST HOUSE IN THE WORLD (winner of the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize) and EQUAL LOVE (A New York Times Notable Book). His work has appeared in HARPERS, THE ATLANTIC, THE PARIS REVIEW, THE GUARDIAN, AND THE WASHINGTON POST among others, and has been widely anthologized, including selections for PRIZE STORIES: THE O. HENRY AWARDS and BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES. In 2003 GRANTA magazine named him among its Best of Young British Novelists. Davies is also a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and is a winner of the PEN/Malamud Award. Born in Britain to Welsh and Chinese parents, he now makes his home in the US. He has taught at the University of Oregon and Emory University, and is currently on the faculty of the Helen Zell MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

This series is presented in partnership with:

African & African Diaspora Studies at Calvin College

Ambrose @ WMCAT

The Asian Studies Program at Calvin College

Brazos Press

The Calvin Center for Community Engagement & Global Learning

The Calvin College Campus Store

The Calvin College Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion

The Calvin College History Department

The Calvin College Office of the Provost

The Calvin College Department of Sociology & Social Work Heyns Fund

The Calvin College Student Life Division

The Calvin Theater Company

The Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice

Event and Tech Services at Calvin College

The Paul B. Henry Institute at Calvin College

Schuler Books and Music