Makers & Mystics

This Season Premiere Episode features a conversation with writer and director, Ryan Daniel Dobson of the feature film HOSEA, along with the film’s music composer, Michael Gungor of Gungor music and The Liturgists podcast. After studying theology in college, Ryan turned his attention to the entertainment industry with a focus on marrying theological and philosophical concepts to powerful visual sto...

Visit Khalisa Rae’s Website Visit Co-host, Ashley Blake’s Website Read the Winning Poems Become a Patron of the Podcast, join our creative collective and enable us to continue lifting up the voices of makers and mystics across the globe. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Sign Up for Our Newsletter! http://eepurl.com/g49Ks1 Connect with Makers & Mystics Website: https://makersandmystics.com Pat...

The three strands of art, faith and culture encompass the ethos of Makers & Mystics and provide the guidelines for our topics and discussions. We believe that the path of the maker and the path of the mystic are one and the same. The creative life is inherently spiritual and healthy spirituality will always be expressed through creativity. Makers & Mystics is committed to asking the questi...

Elephant Heart is the husband and wife musical collaborative of Jason and Victoria Evigan.  Jason Evigan is an award-winning producer and songwriter responsible for some of today’s biggest hits from artists such as Maroon 5, Madonna, Ellie Goulding, and Rufus Du Sol. Victoria Evigan is a musician, visual artist, set designer and stylist known for using make up, hair, environments, and fashion to c...

Marcel Duchamp was a visual artist, writer and avid chess player born July 28, 1887 near Blainville, France. His works are characterized by irony, movement and the dissolution of pre-conceived notions about art. Duchamp was an artist who defied categorization. He sent shock waves through the art world with the premiere of his line of found, manufactured objects called Readymades. In this episode,...

A Boy & His Kite is the music project by Colorado singer-songwriter and producer, Dave Wilton. In this episode, Stephen talks with Dave about the silence of God, expressing joy and grief through art, and the creative process behind his latest release, The Path Became A Ghost . A Boy & His Kite Join The Makers & Mystics Creative Collective. Gain Access to our monthly book club, private...

Ben Chung is a freestyle dancer, choreographer and one of the co-founders of the Kinjaz American dance crew in Los Angeles, California. He is a former member of the famous Jabbawockeez male dance troupe and is the winner of the first season of America's Best Dance Crew. In this episode Stephen talks with Ben about his creative process, collaboration and the art of finding flow. Connect with B...

Turtledoves is the musical project of husband and wife duo, Ashley and Alex McGrath. Their inventive sound explores the balance between lo-fi electronics and acoustic instruments to create harmonically rich soundscapes, labyrinthine melodies, ambient textures, and layered vocals. Turtledoves exist in the liminal spaces – as their biography tells us, they are messengers between the seen and the uns...

Howard Washington Thurman was a poet, mystic, philosopher and spiritual activist. He authored more than twenty books in his lifetime and played a leading role in The Civil Rights Movement where he served as a spiritual mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Learn More About Howard Thurman Follow Makers & Mystics on Instagram Support the Podcast! Become a Monthly Patron and help us continue creat...

This episode is our third release from the Makers and Mystics LIVE series. This conversation comes to you from Denver, Colorado and highlights our panel discussion on Art As Incarnation. You’ll hear from a diverse panel of voices including Master Penman, Jake Weidmann , Graphic Novelist, R. Alan Brooks and Printmaker, Kim Morski . This live event was hosted by QRZ Denver and The Gallery at FDC . A...

The 27 Club is a cultural phenomenon that recognized how a large number of famous artists, actors and musicians all died at the age of 27. Although there is no scientific evidence to back up the connections, the tendency to rise to fame and die young is baked into the tropes of Western culture. In this live keynote talk, given at The Breath & the Clay 2020, Stephen Roach invites listeners to g...

This bonus Episode features a live performance and interview with spoken word artist La’Tasha Strother. La’Tasha threads her relationship with God throughout her life and work and creates poignant imagery about her life experiences. The poem performed in this episode is titled Love Is Not Blind and was performed live at our Art As Healing Podcast in Charlottesville Virginia.  Become a Patron of th...

This episode is our second release from the Makers and Mystics LIVE series. This conversation comes to you from Charlottesville, Virginia and highlights excerpts from our discussion on Art As Healing. You’ll hear from a diverse panel of voices including Farm House community founder, Lauren Stonestreet, Philosopher, Bernard Hankins, Pastor and songwriter, Brendan Jamieson, Neuroscientist and Jazz m...

Vàclav Havel was a Czech playwright, political dissident, and consistent moral voice on human rights who went on to be elected President of the newly democratic Czech Republic. His life is a shining example of what artists can achieve when they have a robust sense of the time in which they have been placed in the world. Guest host Vesper Stamper talks about Havel’s life, work and spiritual perspec...

When it comes to spiritual formation, our individual temperament plays a large role in how we connect to God, one another and the world around us. There is not a one size fits all for how we approach the spiritual life. In fact, the same systems that bring us clarity and definition can also leave us frustrated or feeling confined to search for God in a manner contrary to our natural temperament. B...

Leonardo Da Vinci was an artist, scientist and inventor. His capacity to metaphorically dream while awake, through the use of his imagination, enabled him to perceive the natural world as a playground for investigation, exploration, discovery and invention. This mentality would lead him to creative innovations in various fields of study including painting, architecture, mathematics, engineering, a...

Kimbra Lee Johnson is a singer, songwriter, producer + musician from New Zealand, now based in New York City. Her award-winning, debut album Vows was released in 2011. In 2012, she appeared on Gotye’s multi-platinum single, Somebody I Used To Know. Kimbra’s music pushes the boundaries of genre and style juxtaposing pop sensibilities with influences in Jazz, R & B, and electronic music. Lyrical...

Carey Wallace is the author of Stories of the Saints, The Blind Contessa’s New Machine, The Ghost in the Glass House, Choose, New Thing, and the forthcoming Discipline of Inspiration. Her work has appeared in Time, the Awl, The New Decameron, and Detroit’s Metro Times. She has spoken to students at Princeton, Yale, Julliard, Pratt, Emory’s Candler School of Theology, and the Festival of Faith and...

Cynthia Newland is an artist, educator, speaker and wellness consultant. She is the founder of Alible3 – Nourishing the Body, Soul and Spirit, providing educational resources and equipping tools for holistic health. With her work in the area of wellness, she partners with the Health Made Simple community. Cynthia is the founding Director of Feet Speak Dance, a dance company whose mission aims to u...

Social distancing can feel a bit destabilizing. All of our habits and routines and normal ways of functioning are suspended and we have to adopt new daily rhythms, ways of doing life and finding work. For the artist, this can lead to questions about the validity of our work and where art-making and creativity belong in a time of global crisis. But it is vital for our own mental and emotional healt...

Heather Stringer is a therapist, artist, and ritual maker. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Seattle, WA and a Fellow with the Allender Center. She completed her M.A. in Counseling Psychology at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and the Externship Program at The Allender Center. Heather has a practice of creating narrative informed trauma therapy as well as creating ritual...

We are calling all creative arts communities, individuals, seekers, believers, skeptics, doubters, craftsmen and bakers, tongue talkers and Quakers, anyone who needs community in the midst of quarantine. Come hang with us this Friday night at 7 pm Eastern time.  The communion time will be hosted by our  Makers and Mystics creative collective  along with Justin McRoberts and members of The Breath a...

Vincent van Gogh was a leading postimpressionist painter of the late nineteenth century, known for his thick, swirling brushstrokes and radical use of color. Before he was an artist, though, he was a pastor to a village of destitute coal miners in Belgium, an experience that shaped him deeply. Vincent was full of compassion and wonder, anguish and hope. “Sorrowful yet always rejoicing” was one of...

In this episode, Stephen talks with Producer of Marketing and Distribution for Aspiration Entertainment, Erik Lokkesmoe. The two discuss Erik's vision for individuals, families and churches who want to support artists and the arts. Erik's charge to "democratize patronage" and create local communities of patrons is an important idea for our time. “I encourage everyone to listen...

In this Season opening episode, Stephen talks with singer-songwriter John Mark McMillan about the creative process behind his new album Peopled With Dreams John Mark McMillan If you’ve been inspired by the Makers & Mystics podcast please consider joining our tribe of monthly supporters. For the cost of a cup of coffee to a date night at the movies, you can partner with us in creating and susta...