Night of Grief & Mystery Concert ~ London
Event Information
Description
Doors open at 6:15 pm. Concert begins at 7:00 pm. Rush Seating - Latecomers Not Admitted.
Friends are forged on the dark road heading out of town.
And so we head there again, sojourning across the continent in the name of psychic sanity and spiritual resolve in these most troubled and troubling of times.
These are nights in which love letters to life are written and read aloud. There’s some boldness in them. They have that tone. These nights have the mark of our time upon them, and they’re timely, urgent, alert, steeped in mortal mystery. They’re quixotic. They have swagger. What would you call such a thing? We call them Nights of Grief & Mystery. Read more here.
Part poetry, part lamentation, part book reading, part ribaldry, part concert, part lifting the mortal veil and learning the mysteries there...that’s what’s in store. Watch the trailer here.
Concerts for Turbulent Times they surely are. We aren’t poets – we wouldn’t claim that – but the evenings are poetic. They are musical and grave and raucous and stilling, which probably means they are theatrical. They are ceremonial, you could say. They are nights devoted to the ragged mysteries of being human, and so grief and endings of all kinds appear.
The tour is served by the reckless labours of local friends and accomplices who fashion genuine gigs in their home towns from their dreams for a better day, their labours amounting to a love letter of their own that they are writing to their towns or cities, an act of citizenship of the most profound and responsible kind.
That dark road thing? That image is more than an image. That is what we do. That is our devotional act.
What people are saying about the show:
Such a beautiful, deeply soul stirring evening. Thank you. ~ JI
Don’t miss this. It’s transporting! May I just say “Wow...” ~ IH
Lucky, lucky me. . .got to see this show in Minneapolis tonight. For two hours, I was at the center of the universe, with dozens of others who walked in as strangers and left as fellow travelers. ~ AR, Minneapolis
Deep gratitude for the hours of story medicine, contemplation, laughter, musical tingles, and feeling-in-the-moment, Stephen and co. I still smile about that night at very random moments!! Love from Portland, ~ OR., Portland
Simply amazing evening in Victoria ... laughter, tears, smiles, shivers, and more tears. ~ JC Victoria
The Seattle show was so fantastic! ~ DG, Seattle
Nights of Grief & Mystery testifies to a storyteller’s, a singer’s, and a kick-ass band’s willingness to wonder how our corner of the world has come to be as it is, and how we might best serve its needs. One side effect? This bravura performance magically elicits a similar willingness in ourselves, perhaps unexpectedly so, making us somehow prone to one of Stephen Jenkinson’s road-tested observations: “Grief is a way of loving what has slipped from view. Love is a way of grieving that which has not yet done so.” The mid-wife of all this is the troupe’s no doubt hard-earned but marvelous ability to hang by the thread of improvisation & spontaneity, by the grace of all the Gods & assorted Tricksters. ~ MH
Updated tour dates and locations here
About Stephen Jenkinson
Stephen is a Harvard Educated Theologian, Culture Activist, founder of The Orphan Wisdom School. He is the author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief, and dying, and the great love of life. He is the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary, Griefwalker. He brings teachings of the ramshackling kind, about honour and grace under pressure, about how we might learn our darkening times. His new book, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble, wonders about elderhood in an age of age-intolerance, and about the withering of the World Tree. https://orphanwisdom.com/
About Gregory Hoskins
Gregory Hoskins’ career spans 11 recordings over 27 years and record deals on 3 continents. Hoskins’ lyrics and voice tend to break and bind at the same time in songs that are steeped in beauty and a muscular type of sorrow…and he does it over propulsive grooves, brooding electric guitar work, and rich sonics. He and the band use those sonic textures to underpin Jenkinson’s readings, too, using swirls of drums, bass, guitar textures, and synth throbs along with vocal harmonies, trumpet, and live looping. Material from his most recent release, Vain + Alone, is featured in the Nights of Grief and Mystery. Please visit Gregory Hoskins Music to listen.
About the CD: It is powerful business. The recordings from previous nights turned into something like dry lightning, like something somebody who wasn’t there might want to know about. The band went back to business, made offerings to the dance hall Gods, gave them their proper seat at the proceedings, brought all the road-tested learning to bear, tuned the whole thing up. What you have in your hand is something like thunder and a far-off storm, faithful to those strange, merciful nights. Purchase Nights of Grief & Mystery CD