Category: Fall Conference

Beloved GSV Tribe of Beautiful Men:

It’s countdown! Can you feel the buzz? Registration is high. Everybody’s talking about the conference, planning, preparing, and all psyched up…

Never before has a GSV event been more relevant than this conference given the dark times we are now living in. This is a spiritually challenging moment in American history and we as spiritually awakened men are called to rise in inspired ways, so let’s talk about how we are going to shine a bright light on these darker times.

There will be dynamic spiritual empowerment in our workshops and rituals. Raymond Rigoglioso, Toby Johnson, Hunter Flournoy, Mahan Kalpa Khalsa, Peregrine, Jim Stratton, Peter Cossaboom, Tim Flood, and Rocky Beeland are just some of those offering uplifting and inspiring workshops.

There will also be revelry and plenty of it. How can you have spiritually sourced activism if you don’t charge your heart-center battery with celebration? Wait until you experience the high voltage energy of this year’s rituals, dance, cabaret sing-a-long, walk of beauties, variety show, sacred touch, and yoga amidst the loveliness the Altared Spaces Work Group has sprinkled throughout The Mountain.

So, click on the link below to register for this year’s fall conference and remember to also…
* Pack splashy and creative wardrobe, rain gear, a flashlight, and hiking shoes.
* Bring items to donate to the silent auction as well as cash, personal checks or credit card to make purchases.
* Bring a very special gift for the small group gift giving ritual.
* Bring your drums and percussion instruments for the drumming circle.
* Sign up for the talent show in advance by contacting Dev at [email protected].
* Send favorite song suggestions for the Friday evening dance to Kevin at [email protected].

Vibrational hugs now, fleshy hugs in two weeks,

Cami Delgado
Convener – GSV 30th Anniversary Fall Conference

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Meade, American anthropologist.

Link to REGISTER NOW!

Come join us for a magical celebration of GSV’s 30th anniversary conference! For thirty years Gay Spirit Visions has created safe, sacred space where gay men can open their hearts, heal within, grow spiritually, and form heart-centered bonds that nurture and uplift their spirits.

Never before has GSV been more relevant given the times we are living in now. This is a challenging moment in American history. How are we going to shine a bright light on these darker times? Are we going to respond to tomorrow’s headlines with self-defeating pessimism, or with vigorous spiritual empowerment and activism? What’s really at the core of America’s spiritual malaise, and how do we become a powerful healing presence in the midst of it?

This conference will be a conversation on this current challenge. We’ll explore the underlying spiritual misalignment that creates the daily events we see, hear and read about in the media. We’ll have conversations about inspired activism, sacred activism, and activism by other names — all activism emanating from a spiritual source as a response to today’s events. This conference WILL NOT be a conversation on bipartisan politics, individual politicians, or the outer crust and everyday discourse we see, hear, and read about in the media.

This conference will also be an anniversary celebration — a way to thank GSV for offering us three decades of spiritual magic. Thus, we invite you to join us in ritual, ceremony, dance, singing, parading, and performing. Spiritually sourced activism replenishes itself with joy, humor, music, dance, creativity, and childlike merriment … and there will be plenty of that!

Raymond L. Rigoglioso is the founder and executive director of Gay Men of Wisdom and author of the book Gay Men and The New Way Forward. Former GSV keynote speakers Toby Johnson, Will Roscoe, Jon Stasio, and Mark Thompson have offered positive reviews of Gay Men and The New Way Forward. Raymond’s work and vision are more relevant and urgent now than ever before.

Watch your email inbox, the GSV Facebook group, and gayspiritvisions.org for more information about the 2019 Fall Conference. If you’re ready to register, click here.

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

Sweet Brothers in Spirit,

We have a special treat in store for you after this year’s Fall Conference! Many of you have recorded interviews for the GSV archives housed at Georgia State University, and some of you have donated programs, photos, and various assorted items to this collection. Now we’re going to gather while we’re still basking in Fall Conference afterglow to take a trip to the archives!

On Monday, October 1st (the Monday after the Fall Conference concludes) we will gather at the Chamblee Marta Station at 9:15 a.m. and board the 9:34 train for GSU. After spending a few delightful hours at the GSU Archives, wandering through the past, looking at our organization’s history, and, perhaps, identifying brothers in pictures we will share a late lunch together before returning to our default lives.
Brothers may leave at any time, and it’s an easy walk to the GSU MARTA station for those who need to get to the airport or other destinations.

If you would like to host an out-of-town GSV brother on Sunday night, or if you are an out-of-town GSV brother needing a place to stay Sunday after the conference, feel free to arrange that at the Fall Conference or send a note to [email protected] and we’ll see if we can help.