ROBERT BLY’S 30TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON
THE GREAT MOTHER AND THE NEW FATHER

June 5th thru June 13th, 2004
at Camp Kieve, Nobleboro, Maine.
"rebuilding our cultural life"
author
Elaine Pagels
 Click here for registration form
astrologer and visionary activist
Caroline Casey
poet and translator
Coleman Barks
author / storyteller extraodinaire
Gioia Timpanelli
poet
Li Young Lee
master of mythology
Danny Deardorff
poet
Naomi Shihab Nye
poet and author
Robert Bly
sacred song and chant
Doug Von Koss
poet
Jay Leeming
poet
Kate Barnes
musician
John Densmore
tablas
Marcus Wise
sitar
David Whetstone
We will gather again and honor creativity! Plus many more musicians and artists!


–for more info–

"rebuilding our cultural life"
Like the Bal ShemTov, who danced in the forest during the darkest time of the Jews in Poland, we dance with the feet of poets and painters, and with the toes of Indian and Iranian music. Each day we’ll pay attention to form in pottery, in poetry, and in story.

We are delighted that Elaine Pagels will join us for talks and discussions. In her spectacular new book, Beyond Belief, she tells the story of the purging of Thomas and his gospel from the Christian canon and the serious losses that come from that. Caroline Casey will be here with her blazing intelligence to describe the secret roads that are opening all around us.

Gioia Timpanelli will bring her enormous purple wagons of story, teaching us to rejoice in the human condition. Coleman Barks will bring Georgia and Rumi into the room. We are pleased that Danny Deardorff has agreed to come again and bring in the luminous mythological.

We are honored to have with us the poets Li-Young Lee, Jay Leeming, and Naomi Shihab Nye. David Whetstone and Marcus Wise will bring the treasures of the sitar and tabla with them. Reza Darakshani will bring his astonishing Iranian music. Doug von Koss will lead us in sacred song and chant.

We will have the opportunity to share in workshops and in small groups, and to learn from the children and young people whose courage always shines in these gatherings.

This is the thirtieth year in which this community has persisted despite the shallow cynicism of recent decades. Each year participants bring poems, music, and art which resembles men and women entering the room "carrying trays of shining fruit." We are fed by community caring, by friendship among each other, and by Sophia, who teaches us to feed the featherless nestling of cultural longing.

In general this year we will ask again how we can lift our voices in a time of cultural disaster. Lifting refers to our need to resist the tendency toward silence, to fight the endless habit of war, and struggle against depression, passivity and fear. As a nation, we are now in the deepest state of unconsciousness we have experienced since the McCarthy era.

During these ten days we will have a taste of what it is like to live in a community of women and men who have raised their voices already in acts of resistance, through painting, poetry, thought and storytelling. The conference as usual will give thanks to many who are gone, including William Stafford, Etheridge Knight, Marie Louise von Franz, and Joseph Campbell. Children are welcome. We have teachers who work specifically with projects for children and teens.

- Robert Bly

THE CONFERENCE
The Conference on the GREAT MOTHER and the NEW FATHER was begun by Robert Bly and has met annually since 1975 to consider a wide variety of mythological, poetic and fairy tale traditions. The aim is to create an environment in which participants are able to move toward an understanding between men and women, young and old, and people of diverse cultures, ethnic backgrounds, mythological and ritual traditions. Expect to find interesting opportunities for creative expression in conversation, movement, writing, music, and the visual arts.
CONFERENCE SITE
The 2004, the 30th annual Conference will be held once again at Camp Kieve. The Camp has a collection of log cabins which sit on 300 wooded acres and three miles of shoreline on a peninsula at the mid-point of the length of Lake Damariscotta, in Nobleboro, Maine, 60 miles northeast of Portland. The accommodations are simple with a communal orientation, the environment beautiful and the water pristine. For out-of-town guests a bus will be available for a fee to transport you to and from Camp Kieve and the Portland, Maine airport.

For more information about Camp Kieve


For more information about Camp Kieve






The Greek Ships

When the water holes go, and the fish flop about
In the mud, they can moisten each other faintly,
But it's best if they lose themselves in the river.

You know how many Greek ships went down
With their cargoes of wine. If we can't get
To port, perhaps it's best to head for the bottom.

I've heard that the mourning dove never says
What she means. Those of us who make up poems
Have agreed not to say what the pain is.

For years Eliot wrote poems standing under
A bare light-bulb. He knew he was a murderer,
And he accepted his punishment at birth.

The sitar player is searching: now in the backyard,
Now in the old dishes left behind on the table,
Now for the suffering on the underside of a leaf.

Go ahead, throw your good name into the water.
All those who have ruined their lives for love
Are calling to us from a hundred sunken ships.

copyright ©2004 — Robert Bly


Conference participants who work with
the visual arts will have an opportunity
to show their work in a Conference gallery.
INFORMATION

Dates: June 5th —June 13th, 2004

Place: Camp Kieve, Nobleboro, Maine

Cost: $750

Phone: 617-332-3541
please leave message with your name, address, phone number, and best time to reach you in the next 24 hrs!

for more info email:
greatmother@yellowmoon.com

Click here for registration form

We are making a new effort to solicit funding for our scholarship positions in order to keep the conference size to an optimal number of participants. If you are able to make a contribution to the diversity /work /scholarship fund, please indicate that on your registration form.

This conference owes its continuance
to no institutions or foundations —
It is entirely supported by those who attend.

Diversity/Work/Scholarships:

The conference community is committed to attracting teachers and participants of all ages, ethnicity, and spiritual traditions. To this end we accept a limited number of participants at a reduced fee in exchange for work at the conference. If you would like to be considered for one of these places, please include with your registration form a short statement explaining your circumstances.
.
ROBERT BLY’S 30th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
ON THE GREAT MOTHER
AND THE NEW FATHER

for more info:
greatmother@yellowmoon.com

Click here for registration form

NEW!- online version of Rake Magazine article on Robert Bly

Call and Answer- a poem by Robert Bly
The Greek Ships- a poem by Robert Bly
TEACHERS list and weblinks:
 Elaine Pagels
Caroline Casey
Coleman Barks
Gioia Timpanelli
Danny Deardorff
Li Young Lee
Naomi Shihab Nye
Robert Bly
 Jay Leeming
Kate Barnes
John Densmore
Marcus Wise
David Whetstone

Download 1 page flyer to print


Download 2 sided brochure to print on 10x16 paper, 4 panel fold



Download 4 page brochure -
print on 2.5 x 11 paper


Download 11x17 flyer to print
Images sources. Here are links to explore for more information:

Goddess with Flower Bud Pins, Crete, Terra-cotta. 1350 BC. http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/minoansculpture3.html

Seated Harp Player, Marble, Cycladic, late Early Cycladic I-Early Cycladic II, ca. 2800-2700 B.C., Rogers Fund, 1947 (47.100.1)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (cyclad.jpg)
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Greek/Bel1.htm

Depictions of Minoan women and goddesses.
Minoan women (fresco painting)
http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/achilles/age/bronze_age.html
also: Fresco of three Minoan Women.
http://www.mankato.msus.edu/emuseum/prehistory/aegean/pre-greece/minoan/minoan.html

Conference brochure and website designed and maintained by Mark Stanley and Lydia Kulesov at 4insight.com
3/16/04