NASHVILLE
September 19th-20th 2022
An in-person, two day retreat
A creative retreat brought you by The Deep Place Podcast
(with Joel McKerrow and Joy Prouty)
Confluence: noun: the junction of rivers
The Invitation
This is an invitation to you…
To whoever you might be right now,
To wherever you find yourself in your creative journey and your spiritual journey.
It is not for who you wish you were
or who you feel you should be by now…no, no, no…
This is for you, for who you are...now.
It is an invitation for the weary and the heavy and the wandering.
It is an invitation for the passionate and the full-of-life.
It is an invitation for the ones who still call their Faith a home
and the ones who can no longer do so.
It is for the deconstructing
and the reconstructing
and the “Blow-this-shit up, I can’t handle this any more”…ing. ha.
It is an invitation for the prolific creative and the dried-up dreamer,
for the curious and the searching,
for the depleted and the aching.
It is for the painters, the dancers, the movie-makers,
the sculptors, the poets, the writers, the musicians
and for the ones who don’t think they are creative
or those who had their creativity stolen from them.
To all of you we say…
Welcome.
Welcome Home.
We have crafted two days of intentional time-out together.
Intentional. Time-out. Together.
We invite you to come and slow down and create and dream and dialogue and learn and dance and taste…Oh to taste again…
We will eat together. We will create together. We will move together. We will listen together. We will seek to be present…together.
So bring your creative project and most importantly bring yourself…there is no one who is not welcome here. This retreat is inclusive and welcoming of all types no matter gender, spirituality, politics, sexuality, etc etc.
The Heartbeat
A CONFLUENCE is the place, the junction, where two or more streams merge together to form one. This is that place.
Where the stream of our Creativity, meets the stream of our Spirituality, meets the stream of our Physicality.
Creativity
Spirituality
Embodiment
Confluence
Creativity
This is a creativity retreat. That place in us that takes the invisible and crafts it into the physical. It is a time to work on whatever project you might be working on in the company of others. To talk it through with them. To see how their creativity might shape your own. There will be time for you to work on your own individual creative projects and there will be a number of different creative workshops for you to learn new skills and to remember the heart of your practice. Do not fear though if you are not a practicing creative...this is a chance just to play.
Spirituality
This is a spiritual retreat. That place in us that yearns for something more, for a more spacious existence, for a more grounded existence, for a more connected existence. It is a time to slow down into some new rhythms, a time to listen, a time to sift through what might have been to find what you are being invited into. Joel and Joy, your retreat hosts, both come from a Christian background and have spent years working through their own faith journeys and thinking about the faith journeys of others...
Embodiment
This is a movement retreat. And we are not just talking about doing some yoga or pilates, which are great! But we are talking about an intentional process to draw us back into relationship with our own physicality. Geez, this can be a bit of a scary thing. And that’s ok, we are ok with fear. But we are going to push past the fear together and seek to love our bodies well.
"I believe everyone has a unique and beautiful song to sing with their lives. As an artist, it is my job is to gently create tangible proof of all the beauty streaming through the deep aching caverns of everyday life. I like to think of myself as a preservationist of hope, painting portraits with the light that shines out of both joy and suffering. It is my honor to walk alongside the courageous who invite me to sit beside them as a grand story unfolds." Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
The Hosts
Joel McKerrow is
an award winning writer, speaker,
educator, artist, creativity specialist and, having performed for hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, is one of Australia’s most successful, internationally touring, performance poets. Based out of Melbourne, Australia he is the Artist Ambassador for the aid and development organisation ‘TEARFUND Australia’ and was the co-founder of community arts organisation, 'The Centre for Poetics and Justice' (2010-2013). Joel was the third ever Australian representative at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships in the USA and is a highly sought after speaker at conferences and festivals all over the world. He has four published books and four spoken word/music albums, is a successful play-wright and is a co-founder/host of the The Deep Place: On Creativity and Spirituality Podcast.
from The Deep Place Podcast,
Tearfund Australia & the MELBOURNE YOUNG WRITERS STUDIO.
Joel McKerrow
"We have always waited and asked for better windows, a truer lens, some ways to see the brightness and goodness that we somehow know is there. It is to this deeper, already knowing, that Joel McKerrow appeals. He draws us through a much better window.” (Father Richard Rohr).
Joy has a way of walking into the seams of your heart, gently, tenderly, and in utmost care and giving you tools to courageously begin the mending, the healing of the creative soul once more. She gives practical steps to walk into healthier rhythms, as well as explosions of heart encouragement and daily steps to walk into these gifting within your own life. (Laura Duggleby)
with special guest...
Loini Ray
The Retreat Details
The Confluence is an actual physical retreat, not an online thing. Finally we get to be with each other and bask in the actual presence of one another. Noting too, the venue requires masks to be worn indoors, as of the registration date, and we will also be requiring you to show proof of a negative covid test taken on the day of the retreat. Sorry if this upsets or inconveniences you, but we have to be particularly careful due to the health realities of some of our team...this is about loving those people well, regardless of your own perspective. If you cant agree to this, we would ask that you do not register.
Nashville Retreat
At the Scarritt Bennett Centre
1027 18th Avenue South, Nashville, TN.
19th-20th September 2022
Join us at the beautiful and historic SCARRITT BENNETT Centre, right in the heart of Nashville. An oasis in the city hosted by a community of women passionate about bringing justice to this world through hospitality. They are amazing. It is a beautiful space to foster rest within and inspire your creativity.
.jpeg)
The retreat program will run from
9am- 5:30pm on each of the TWO days.
Morning tea - Lunch - Afternoon tea provided.
Accommodation is NOT provided.
You will need to organise your own. But you can also stay at the SCARRITT BENNETT centre.
Look HERE for info about booking an onsite room.
The centre truly is right in the heart of Nashville so there is plenty of accom around.
What you get...
All main sessions with Joel McKerrow and Joy Prouty.
All Creative Workshop sessions.
Access to talk things through with the two hosts over the retreat.
Access to the CONFLUENCE online community platform
for pre-conference and post-conference connections and learning.
NOTE: BYO your own creative gear (but nothing too messy)
Costing and Registration
For this TWO DAY retreat we have tried to keep the costing down as much as we are able.
AND if you can't afford it in one lump sum,
you can pay over FOUR MONTHS with a MONTHLY PAYMENT PLAN (On registration).
The total all cost of the retreat is:
$800
Register HERE...
FULL RETREAT
$800 one-off payment.
MONTHLY PAYMENT PLAN
4x $200
NOTE: this does NOT cover accommodation, nor breakfasts or dinners.
Click on the registration that applies for you.
You will then be taken to a registration page at www.ruzuku.com.
This is our online community platform and ticketing platform.
Terms and Conditions on the REGO page.
More info will be given to you upon registration
as to how to use the RUZUKU platform in the lead up to the retreat.
Why not make a week of it with STORY GATHERING
