PARZIVAL & FEIREFIZ

05/26/2023 01:00 PM - 07/19/2023 03:00 PM ET

Description

Co-Creating a New Grail Ritual

There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of forests, but through the forests of darkened minds. Out of them shines healing. They must create inner justice, peace, and conviction in the darkness of our time.”
~ Karl König

The medieval initiation story of Parzival (also written Percival, Perceval, Parsifal and Peredure), a knight who goes in search of the Holy Grail, has been an archetypal and spiritual inspiration for many great thinkers, including Rudolf Steiner. There are several retellings of this story, most famously Wolfram von Eschenbach’s medieval epic poem and Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal.

Wagner’s Parsifal does not include Feirefiz, the Black brother of Parzival, as Eschenbach’s story does. Why is this? It appears to be the outcome of a worldview that places the white European narrative first - at the cost of other experiences, cultures, and races. 

Using the Parzival narrative as a foundation, and an exploration of themes of light and dark within music and art, this workshop series will explore questions around brother and sisterhood, inclusion, and race. We will also explore how ritual can be a healing structure to connect with the ostracized Other and build wholeness and inclusion in our society. Seen through this lens, the story of the quest for the Holy Grail can be reimagined more as a collective or collaborative social process, a journey to the Other, than as a singular quest for individual enlightenment.


What: Exploring the Grail mysteries over the course of three workshops (plus a bonus performance session!). We will hear presentations on themes of color, tone, sound, ritual and more. We will also have the opportunity to explore our biographies and converse in pairs and groups. See below for the schedule and more details! 

When: May 29 at 3pm Eastern/ 12pm Pacific and 
June 5, and June 19, at 1pm Eastern/10 am Pacific for 75 min. via Zoom

Plus a bonus session on May 26 at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific! 
Click here to find your time zone.

Can't join us live? 
Each gathering will be recorded and posted in our Participant Portal (link emailed upon registration).

 

Contribution
Suggested: $60
Youth & Equity: $30
Supporter: $95

REGISTER NOW
Then check your inbox for a confirmation email with all links and resources.  


Series Schedule
PLEASE NOTE: Session 1 has been rescheduled and will now take place on May 29

Parzival and Feirefiz - A New Grail Narrative Concert
May 26: BONUS SESSION: Live-streamed performance from The Goetheanum
2 pm Eastern/11 am Pacific

Live from Goetheanum 
May 29- Session 1 
3 pm Eastern/12 pm Pacific

  • Opening and Music from the Parcival Project
  • Ritual as Healing with Orland Bishop 
  • Biography and Social Art with Chris Burke and Anne de Wild 


The Color of Sound
June 5- Session 2
1pm Eastern/10 am Pacific

  • The Role of Color in Eschenbach’s Parzival with Christiane Haid
  • Timbre as Musical Color  with Emmanuel, John & Kwasi from the Parcival Project 
  • Biography and Social Art with Chris Burke and Anne de Wild 

The Movement of the Spoken Word 
June 19- Session 3 
1pm Eastern/10 am Pacific for 90 minutes

  • The Spoken Word as Ritual with Orland Bishop
  • Ghanaian drumming with Kwasi Dunyo
  • Biography and Social Art with Chris Burke and Anne de Wild 

Register Now!


Contributors and Program Sponsors:

Orland Bishop combines a deep dedication to human rights advocacy and cultural renewal with an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology, anthroposophy, and indigenous cosmologies. He was a research fellow with the Center for the Study of Violence and Social Change at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and has consulted with many human development organizations. As director of Shade Tree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, he has pioneered approaches to urban truces and mentoring at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge.

Orland Bishop's unique leadership draws on both contemporary and ancient practices, particularly that of the South African tradition of Indaba or “deep talk.” Orland is the author of The Seventh Shrine: Meditations on the African Spiritual Journey: From the Middle Passage to the Mountaintop in which he describes his efforts to "...support the recovery of the individual’s capacity to stand in openness for the higher purpose of one’s own life."  To offer space for a community that makes possible "...new covenants within the larger collective sphere of human life."

Christiane Haid  studied German literature, history, art and educational science in Freiburg and Hamburg. Research assistant at Friedrich von Hardenberg for cultural studies, research on the history of anthroposophy in the 20th century. 2001 Research associate in the Section for the Fine Arts. 2006 cultural scientist at the Albert Steffen Foundation Dornach. 2009 Head of the publishing house at the Goetheanum. Doctorate in Literary Studies: Myth, Dream and Imagination. Die kleinen Mythen Albert Steffens, Basel 2012. Head of the Section for Fine Arts at the Goetheanum since 2012. 2019 Program director of the publishing house at the Goetheanum. Current research topics: Humanisation of the human being through literature, AI and transhumanism, including Christian Morgenstern, Rilke, Hölderlin, Goethe, Rudolf Steiner's work. 


The Hummingbird Principle: Chris Burke and Anne de Wild

Chris Burke is an associate professor of psychology at Lehigh University, where his research has focused on social relationships, grief, and coping with stress. He has been actively working with anthroposophy since 2012 and is certified as a Biography and Social Art facilitator. He sees biography work as a natural bridge between anthroposophy and psychology, with biography work offering a unique window into the archetype of the human being via the unique path of each individual. He has brought a biographical approach to his classes and other on-campus programs, and he has led and co-led biography and social art workshops both in the United States and internationally. He and Anne de Wild have developed a new project called The Hummingbird Principle, which is aimed at connecting individuals to the role that is theirs to play in facing the challenges of the modern world. He serves on the board of the Center for Biography and Social Art and lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and three children. 

Anne de Wild is a Naturopath whose work is based on Traditional European Natural Medicine (TEN) and kinesiology. After studying Anthroposophy at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, in 2015-16, she completed her thesis on the concept of the Five Temperaments and has been bringing her ideas out into the world since then. She began studying biography and social art in 2016. She brings biography work into her clinical practice, and she finds that it supports her clients’ personal development and encourages them to enter more confidently into their social relationships. She sees biography and social art as a step toward inner and outer peace. She lives and works in Basel, Switzerland, where she offers monthly lectures on biography and social art. A lover of travel, she can often be found in other parts of Europe and in North America speaking, teaching, and connecting. She has four almost-grown-up children.Anne is a Naturopath whose work is based on Traditional European Natural Medicine (TEN) and kinesiology. After studying Anthroposophy at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, in 2015-16, she completed her thesis on the concept of the Five Temperaments and has been bringing her ideas out into the world since then. She began studying biography and social art in 2016. She brings biography work into her clinical practice, and she finds that it supports her clients’ personal development and encourages them to enter more confidently into their social relationships. She sees biography and social art as a step toward inner and outer peace. She lives and works in Basel, Switzerland, where she offers monthly lectures on biography and social art. A lover of travel, she can often be found in other parts of Europe and in North America speaking, teaching, and connecting. She has four almost-grown-up children.

The Parcival Project 
The Parcival Project is an international creative community of musicians led by a spirit of collaboration and dedicated to transforming culture through the arts. Through through their projects, the groups aims for a continual striving for excellence in artistic quality, cultivating leadership based on collaboration, cooperation, and trust, and transforming culture through advancing the evolving art form.
Learn more at parcival.ca

Featured Members and Collaborators:
Poet, novelist, playwright, and critic George Elliott Clarke is a seventh-generation Canadian of African American and Mi'kmaq Amerindian descent. Clarke’s work reflects his interests in the Black culture of Atlantic Canada, an experience and identity he has described as “Africadian.” He has explored the cultural and social histories of Black Canadians across various genres, frequently braiding together archival research and personal experience. Clarke is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for his work, including numerous honorary doctorates, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize, the Planet Africa Renaissance Award, and appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia. He is professor of English at the University of Toronto.

Kwasi Dunyo  was born at the Ewe village of Dagbamete, in the Volta Region of Ghana. He has been playing the drums from the time he could barely reach the top of them. Since then, he has directed, coached, taught, drummed, and danced extensively in a variety of contexts.Kwasi was the lead drummer for Sankofa Dance Theatre from 1977 to 1981 where, under the tutelage of Godwin Agbeli, he learned much of his repertoire of Ghanaian music. He is the member of the faculties of York University, University of Toronto, Royal Conservatory of Music and the Toronto District School Board and the master drummer of The Parcival Project.

Film composer John McDowell achieved worldwide recognition with his soundtrack to the Academy Award winning documentary Born Into Brothels. Winner of Best Musical Score at the Bend Film Festival, the score blends Western and Indian music in a mesmerizing mix and features the seductive vocals of Brazilian Girls vocalist Sabina Sciubba. Subsequent film scores by McDowell include Orgasmic Birth: The Best Kept Secret, Who Does She Think She is? A Son’s Sacrifice, and the recently released, award-winning feature film Sold. He is also the composer for The Parcival Project.

Canadian violinist, composer and collaborative leader Emmanuel Vukovich is emerging internationally as an artist of technical virtuosity, musical integrity, and artistic maturity. He has performed as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader across North and South America, Australia and Europe and has recently recorded a debut solo album “Resilience” to be released worldwide by Warner Music. Emmanuel is the founder and artistic director of The Parcival Project, an international artistic collaborative currently co-creating a new and original contemporary musical narrative of the grail myth. His interest in collaborative leadership performance through an exploration of musical traditions from other cultures has led him to explore the role of music in the evolution of humanity and the world.

 

 

Brought to you in collaboration with the Parcival Project, which is sponsored by The Canada Council for the Arts



 

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