Author: GSV Administration

2014 Spring Keynote: Franklin Abbott

Spring Retreat
Franklin Abbott
Franklin Abbott

One of the original radical faeries to gather at Running Water Farm in 1978, Franklin Abbott keynoted the first Gay Spirit Visions conference twenty-five years ago. We’re happy to welcome him back to keynote in preparation for GSV’s 25th Anniversary year. In addition to helping organize the early GSV conferences, he attended the first faerie gathering at Short Mountain Sanctuary and coordinated ritual and process at the first Eurofaerie gathering on Terchelling Island in the Netherlands.

Franklin is an Atlanta-based psychotherapist, poet and community organizer who has led numerous workshops on issues of gay identity, spirituality, and creativity. A clinical social worker by training, Franklin has been in independent private practice in Atlanta since 1979. He co-founded the Atlanta Circle of Healing, a monthly circle for the early years of the epidemic, and also co-founded and chairs the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival.

He has travelled broadly and written about his experiences in stories and poems published in his two books of poetry, Mortal Love and Pink Zinnia. He is a contributor to Radical Faerie Digest (RFD) and was its poetry editor for a number of years, also working as poetry editor of the profeminist men’s journal Changing Men. His first anthology, New Men, New Minds was collected from both RFD and Changing Men as well as other sources. Published in 1987, it brought together work by Essex Hemphill, Thomas Moore, Assotto Saint, James Broughton, Harry Hay and Robert Bly among others.

Franklin currently works with Special Collections at Georgia State University, both on his own papers and on a virtual symposium for the centennial of James Broughton. He has an ongoing interest in personal narratives drawing on Harry Hay’s three questions: who are we, where do we come from, and why are we here? He lives just outside of Decatur which is just outside of Atlanta with a cat and five fish.

 

Why We Pray

if your luck goes bad
get a witch to give you
a bath
get a shaman to cook
your supper
get a high priestess
to do your hair
get a siren to sing you
a lullaby
all ritual is illogical
and impractical
but when it works
the absurd
becomes
the sublime

—Franklin Abbott, Pink Zinnia

Holding The Future in Our Hearts

Council of Nine, Past Event, The Path Forward

A few months ago, a group of men gathered to look at the rapid changes GSV has experienced in the past five years and how these changes might inform where we’re going. We’re grateful for the members of the visioning committee and all the men who participated with such love, commitment, vision, and honesty in service to our retreat goals, which included:

  • Reflect on the changes of the past four years and, with the guidance of spirit, seek a path forward by refining our process and identifying ways to open the organization through collaboration, community participation, and mutually supportive leadership.
  • Ensure the continuation, longevity, and sustainability of the GSV community, and consider how GSV can support men in their spiritual growth.

The retreat’s facilitator, John Ballew, delivered a wonderful report with recommendations for fulfilling our goals based on the voices he heard during that weekend. As our events quiet down for the summer, the Council of Nine will be working with John Ballew to look at how GSV can best integrate both the feedback from the men at the visioning conference and the recommendations in John’s report, and how best to make that information available.
Please keep the Council in your hearts as we work with John.

GSV Working Agreements

The Path Forward

Update: In response to sharing at the 2014 Spring Retreat, GSV’s Working Agreements are now called the Three Agreements.

During the Visioning Retreat, our brothers identified some implicit core values within GSV’s mission statement that were woven into three agreements. These agreements are intended to guide and support us as we co-create our conferences and steward the larger container of the organization.

 

GSV Mission Statement

We are committed to creating safe, sacred space that is open to all spiritual paths, wherein men who love men may explore and strengthen spiritual identity.

We are committed to creating a spiritual community with the intent to heal, nurture our gifts and potential, and live with integrity in the world.

We are committed to supporting others in their spiritual growth by sharing experiences and insights.

 

dancers

 

GSV Working Agreements

In the spirit of love for ourselves and each other…

  1. We engage in respectful, honest, and openhearted dialogue.
  2. We agree to hold ourselves and each other accountable to speak and act with integrity in our community.
  3. We embrace opportunities to empower others and challenge ourselves to grow spiritually.

We acknowledge these agreements before us and we enter into them together.

 

The Council will meet during the Spring Retreat to review the agreements and consider adding them to our official documentation. Until then, we’d love to hear your feedback regarding these agreements at [email protected]!

 

25th Anniversary Visioning Retreat

Past Event, The Path Forward

Gay Spirit Visions (GSV) is celebrating its 25th year of creating safe sacred space where men who love men can explore and deepen their spirituality.

  • As part of the 25th Anniversary celebration, GSV is hosting a visioning retreat March 7-9 at The Mountain to look at where we have been and where we might go as a community in the next 5-10 years. During the retreat, we will:
  • Reflect on the changes of the past four years and, with the guidance of spirit, seek a path forward by refining our process and identifying ways to open the organization through collaboration, community participation, and mutually supportive leadership.
  • Examine the present moment in gay culture and identify the new rhythms, arcs, and themes. Also, provide a framework to collect, document, and propagate the wisdom of our community.
  • Ensure the continuation, longevity, and sustainability of the GSV community, and how GSV can support men in their spiritual growth.
  • Consider ways to attract new participants to diversify our community-introduce new ideas, connect us with new communities, and create a synergy that helps GSV remain relevant and move forward as a perpetually synthesizing community that honors our core values and history.

Do you feel called to participate?

Participation in the retreat is limited, and participants will be selected by nomination. Please consider nominating yourself or someone who might have a pulse on our community, similar communities, or the direction we’re being called toward as men who love men.

View the Visioning Retreat PDF for more information.

GSV 25th Anniversary Visioning at The Mountain