PAST EVENT
Culture activist, worker, author ~ Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe.
He has Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work).
Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school.
He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture.
Since co-founding the Nights of Grief and Mystery project with singer/songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/tent show revival/ storytelling/ceremony of a show across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand. They released their Nights of Grief & Mystery album in 2017 and at the end of 2020, they released two new records; Dark Roads and Rough Gods.
He is the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life – (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul’s Desires: A Meditation (2002). He was a contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007).
Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie).
His books, recordings and DVDs are available for purchase at the Orphan Wisdom Shop.
To inquire about Stephen Jenkinson’s work, speaking engagements, live-streams, counsel calls, concerts, media interviews, and school, please contact us.
Territory Acknowledgement
Our broadcast venue Sunset Labs sits on the traditional, ancestral, unceded homelands of the Lekwungen people, now also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. We endeavour to honour this land and its treaties by strengthening our relationship and responsibilities to them, and we acknowledge and thank the Lekwungen people, on whose land we live, work, create, dance and play.
We have a plague…What’s the spirit etiquette now?
If truth has been personalized – and it has – and if we’ve turned from organized religion – and we have – then what we have left is the Disorganized Religion of the One True Self. And now we have a plague.
So: what is a generation of elders untested by real adversity worth to their juniors in a time of plague?
What is a life’s work undertaken in peacetime mean for plaguetime?
Who are strangers to you now? A problem to solve? A contamination that awaits? What’s the spirit etiquette of strangerhood?
Questions like these are the background to our meeting. Your questions are its foreground. We’ll be troubled aloud, full of strange wonder. Together.
Stephen Jenkinson’s new book, A Generation’s Worth, spirit work while the crisis reigns, inspired this conversation and is available HERE
JOIN US ONLINE FOR THE WHOLE CONVERSATION!
We’re very excited to share that this event is being made available LIVE online so that you can join us from wherever you may be! These days most of us have big full lives, and are dealing with various commitments around family, time, money and work. Digitally, you’ll have the speakers, conversation & community – all from the comfort of your own home.
LISTEN. ANSWER. ASK. CONNECT!
You’re not watching – you’re PARTICIPATING! Through our easy online webinar system, you can engage with other viewers, participate in polls & discussions, and even ask questions during question periods. You certainly CAN choose to just sit back and watch & listen, if you like – your active participation isn’t an expectation, but it IS an opportunity.
NO FANCY TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED
There’s nothing to install, nothing to download, nothing to figure out. Here’s what you need to participate and have a great viewing experience!
> a modern internet browser (we recommend Chrome or Firefox)
> a reliable internet connection (hardwired is better than wifi)
> earbuds, headphones or good computer speakers
With guests joining us remotely from around the world, our show will be broadcast live from Sunset Labs, an intimate waterfront multi-purpose venue located downtown Victoria, Canada. This beautiful, high-tech venue hosts live broadcasts, meetings & workshops, dance nights, film screenings, live rock shows, fashion events, book fairs and everything else the community comes up with. For more information, please visit www.sunsetlabs.ca.
