As literature PhD candidate Adam Burgess notes, “One of the best parts about reading classic literature is discovering, and often falling in love with, great characters. Talented writers have the ability to craft characters in such a way as to make us, the readers, imagine we could know these people […]
Convivium
GUEST POST — Exploring the Sounds of a Shared Style with Tom Jones
Dear Friends, My impulse in creating this seminar was to share with others the type of experience I had when first reading the poetry of Du Fu, an experience that stayed with me through my career as a composer and conductor. One of the greatest ways to be exposed to […]
GUEST POST — Getting Into the Spirit of the Qur’an by Don Whitfield
Dear Fellow Rumi-nators, I hope that you have been able to get copies of the two books for our seminar this summer, The Prophet and the Poet: Reciting God. As I have started to prepare for the seminar, my focus has been on the Ma’navi of Rumi, the first book […]
GUEST POST — Beauty in All Things by Sean Forester
Dear Friends, In the Edo period (1603-1867), Japanese culture achieved a rare level of refinement. This summer in Toronto we will explore how beauty infused nearly every aspect of life, and everything people saw, touched, smelled, and tasted: Zen gardens, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, poetry, calligraphy, woodblock prints, and dress […]
GUEST POST — Gary Schoepfel thanks Ashish for the gift of India
Ashish, you have given us a great and wonder-filled gift: India You have given us India’s sights: • Palaces and mountains, • Lakes and mighty forts, • Tombs and gardens, elephants, Persian wells, and Punjabi suits, • Temples and mustard fields, • Tools to read the heavens and camels, • […]
GUEST POST – Breaking Out of Cocoons with Üstün Bilgen-Reinart
Dear breakers-out of cocoons, How to confront tough issues compassionately? This is a question that I keep asking as I prepare for our seminar and reflect on my own literary and actual journeys across cultures. Together, we’ll explore two books by two very different women, Egyptian Alifa Rifaat (1930–1996), and […]
GUEST POST – Spare Beauty and Epic Literature in Iceland with Mark Cwik
Iceland is stark and stunning. It’s everything the travel brochures say it is: beautiful in a way that’s hard to imagine without visiting. When I travelled to Iceland a few years ago, I couldn’t get enough of the glaciers, waterfalls, geysers and gorges, the vast lava fields and the miles […]
GUEST POST – Happy Year of the Horse from Lisa Pasold
Gung Hei Fatt Choi! (or Gong Xi Fa Cai in Mandarin) Happy Lunar New Year, and welcome to the Year of the Horse! I’m celebrating by rereading two fascinating memoirs about twentieth-century China: Anchee Min’s Red Azalea and Jan Wong’s Red China Blues. With the seminar “Living the Red Revolution,” I’m looking […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS – Melanie Blake se rapelle la Belle Epoque Paris en septembre
The leaves were showing their first golden tinge when we arrived in the Luxembourg Gardens, and a few had begun to fall on beds still bright with summer flowers. The city’s springtime glories are undeniable, but for me the best time to visit Paris has always been September. It’s […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS – Camino Reflection + AV Memory (by Mssrs. Schoepfel + Marquis)
This past fall I took my soul for a stroll. When I set out from León, Spain, with Santiago on my mind, I had no notion of just how much that undefinable part of me wanted to walk. Apparently, it had been whispering to me for some time. Apparently, I […]