Current Wake Line-up for 2017

2017 year marks the fifth anniversary of my Wake festival, and it’s shaping up to be a great one. The festival itself offers incendiary theological exploration mixed with the very best in art, music, magic, comedy, whisky tastings, street art and cosy bars. This is a full-spectrum sensory exploration of Pyrotheology. One where I share the stage with some of the people I respect the most.

Every year we open the event up to 50 people. Over four days we hang out, share our lives, explore radical ideas and conspire together by open fires.

It’s called Wake, because a wake is an Irish ritual that accompanies a funeral. A wake is a time of remembrance, mourning and celebration that helps the living bear the weight of the lost, and offers rituals that help people move forward. Many who attend Wake are there because they’re working out how to live in the aftermath of a loss. Often it is the loss of a religious system that defined their past. But it is also often the death of a political position, cultural reality or personal relationship.

So who’ll be joining us this year? The lineup is still being finalized, but so far some of the thinkers who’ll be contributing to the festival are Jeff Robins, Gladys Ganiel, and Miranda Van Holland. There’ll be music from the incredible Duke Special, and Trevor Gordan Hall. Poet, activist and musician Padraig O Tuma will be joining us, and there will be a photo exhibition from Stephen Wilson. I’ll also be launching my comic book Enduring Love, and we’ll be spending a day at the beautiful Temple of the Winds in Mount Stewart (pictured above).

We’ve already sold 60% of our tickets. So, if you’d like to attend, grab a ticket quick.

Contributor Bios

Jeff Robbins is a thinker situated at the very forefront of Radical Theology. However, he is not just a world class academic (Chair and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at LVC, and Fellow of the Westar Institute), he’s also an engaging and inspiring communicator who was awarded the “Thomas Rhys Vickroy Award for Outstanding Teaching”. Jeff has authored numerous works, and has just released the brilliant book, “Radical Theology: A Vision for Change”. This is a visionary text that wrestles with the themes of liberation, gender, and race, as it traverses the landscape of radical theology and revolutionary thought.

Gladys Ganiel has been a friend of the festival for many years. Gladys is a Research Fellow in the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queen’s University and has done extensive research into the Emerging Church in general and Pyrotheology. Indeed her fantastic book on the subject (written with Gerardo Marti) was awarded the prestigious “Distinguished Book Award” from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Gladys is an academic with her ear to the ground. Her work is grounded in close, in-depth study of communities and extensive interviews. A perfect accompaniment to the philosophical bent of Jeff Robbins. Gladys is a perfect fit for Wake because her academic expertise is blended with her commitment to push academic research beyond the walls of the university.

Miranda van Holland has a background is in art history, but she has also worked as a make-up artist, photo-stylist, radio DJ, event producer, road manager and festival programer. In addition to all this, she’s just finished her second Masters degree in the Science of Religion, and is currently researching the intersection where religion, neo-spirituality and modernity collide. Miranda started to engage my work early on. Indeed she has has been stoking the fires of Pyrotheology since 2008 through articles, talks and interviews.

Duke Special is a distinguished artist who has twice been nominated for the Choice Music Prize and nominated for three Meteor Music Awards. In 2008 he won the Meteor Music Award for Best Irish Male. He has appeared on stage at the Royal National Theatre with Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children”, has played Last Night of the Proms, and presented a documentary on the life and songs of Ruby Murray. His live performances have a theatrical style inspired by Vaudeville and music hall, and often incorporate 78s played on an old-fashioned gramophone.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is a world renowned poet, musician and public theologian who works in the area of conflict mediation and group dialogue. While known for being team leader of Corrymeela Community, for his work in advocacy across the world, as the founder of Tenx9 and for his regular appearances on Krista Tippett’s “On Being,” he was also one of the key contributors to ikon and key people in the development of pyrotheology. His latest book is the beautiful “In the Shelter”, and he has an album of music and poetry called “Hymns to Swear By”. Krista Tippett says of Pádraig, “[he] is an extraordinary person, whose influence extends quietly and gracefully across the world. His poetry bears these same qualities and brings him close. It is a gift to us all.”

Over the last 20 years, Stephen Wilson’s photographs have featured in numerous international publications. He has made a reputation by covering conflicts in Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Mozambique and Romania, famine relief in Southern Africa and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, among other things. Now a university lecturer, Stephen continues to work on long form documentary projects dealing with identity and running photography workshops in interface areas.

Rated one of the top 30 guitarists in the world under 30 years of age by Acoustic Guitar magazine, Trevor Gordon Hall is an instrumentalist from Philadelphia whose compositions range in style from edgy driving rhythms to soft melodic phrases. Trevor leaves no physical aspect of the guitar untouched, weaving together different textures into grand yet intimate and lyrical compositions. He has been featured on various national radio stations including NPR and national and international television networks including NBC, and PBS.