Last Call to Have Fun
September 27 – 30, 2018
The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center ~ Highlands, NC
4 day / 3 night package (Thursday through Sunday)
Bunkhouse $324.18 | Cabin $380.22 | Lodge $418.65
5 day / 4 night package (Wednesday through Sunday)
Bunkhouse $398.90 | Cabin $473.63 | Lodge $524.87
Dear Men Who Love Men,
Many of us will soon gather at The Mountain for our annual fall conference. If you plan to attend but aren’t registered, please
click here to register now. We’ll send an email that explains how to prepare for and what to bring to the conference to all registrants around September 12th.
Our keynote speaker will be artist Patton White. Patton will present “Insatiable Curiosity/Radical Collaboration” as a two-part experience, asking deep questions and seeking answers. In the first session, we will get in touch with our bodies and creative energies by examining a dance/movement technique developed by Lawrence and Anna Halprin called RSVP Cycles. In a later session, we will work in small groups to create brief performances that embody the collaborative investigations that have happened during the weekend. These sessions will serve as bookends, of sorts, for the work that takes place throughout the weekend.
About Patton White
Patton has been working as a multidisciplinary artist for over 40 years. He has designed costumes, created installation sculpture, video art work, and photography, and has choreographed and danced since the late 1970’s. He has worked as an independent artist and has been a part of many performing ensembles, including Beacon Dance, Core Dance, Dance South, Ruth Mitchell Dance Theatre (now Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theatre), The Georgia Ballet, and many others. For the past decade he’s focused on improvisation as a performance technique and the intersection of social dance and dance for the stage. As a member of Alternate ROOTS since 1997, he believes passionately in the arts as a tool for social justice.
The fall conference workshops will address ideals set forth by one of history’s most insatiable curious gay artists: Leonardo da Vinci. These are some examples:
To test our questions and to demonstrate our thoughts we will create poetry and embrace our gender outsiderness.
To exalt in our sensuality and how we experience the world we will honor and adore our bodies and participate in sacred healing touch.
To celebrate ambiguity and paradox we will examine faith versus reason and question whether the beliefs we developed as children were based on faith or reason.
To cultivate grace, beauty, and spirit we will communicate answers to deep questions using motion storytelling and body language, practice yoga, and examine the male nude through drawing.
To learn how to embrace a balance of logic and imagination, and art and science, we will embrace the spirit of Peter Pan and Euclidian geometry, examine how things fly, and create flying objects.
To recognize and appreciate the connectedness of all things and phenomena we will explore the roots of our compassionate hearts and minds and examine our stories to go beyond the work of the ego.
To embody persistent empowerment we will acknowledge the cultural significance and importance of the role of the gay man as a leader, prophet, and healer for our tribe and community, and we will create personal symbols of empowerment to use in our daily lives.
Evenings at the conference will continue exploration of the theme of insatiable curiosity. On Friday evening we will have a contra dance (a communal-style folk dance that’s easy to learn and needs no experience) with live musicians. An expressive dance with recorded music will follow. There will also be opportunities to sing, perform, and find your drag persona with a cabaret sing-along, talent show, and the ever-popular Parade of Beauties.
The conference will be supported by:
• The opening and closing rituals that call upon the forces and ideals of hope to guide us in the work that we do.
• A community altar that represents the ambiguity and paradox that we find in the world.
• Heart circles that allow us to meet in sacred space, be fully present with one another, and share openly, honestly, and lovingly about our conference experiences.
• Small group meetings that allow each of us to feel acknowledged and supported while we share and discuss confidentially how our conference experience fits with (or challenges) our personal spiritual journeys.
Financial Assistance
We want anyone who resonates with our mission to be able to attend our gatherings. The Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund was created to help offset the cost of a GSV gathering so that attending does not impose undue financial hardship. For more information and to apply for assistance,
click here. Financial assistance applications must be submitted no later than September 16 th.
We’d like to thank everyone who’s given generously so that others may find sanctuary and space at our gatherings. Your tax-deductible donations are needed to sustain the financial assistance fund. Visit
GaySpiritVisions.org and complete the DONATE TODAY section on the right side of any web page.
In conclusion, please bring to the conference your affection for men who love men and your insights about how our being gay allows us to question society’s expectations and replace our subservience with insatiable curiosity.
With loving intentions,
Randy Taylor
GSV 2018 Fall Conference Convener
Register for the 2018 Fall Conference
