Episode 11: Salad Beef Berry

This episode contains multitudes. Callid and Aria are an unlikely combination, but they came into each other’s lives at a time when life circumstances created opportunities for engagement. And thank goodness! They hold each other in dear care. In this episode, Aria and Callid talk about the role of higher education in the contemporary American experience, power and privilege (in everything), parenting and families, democracy and spirituality.    

Callid Keefe-Perry is a proud father and husband. He serves in the traveling ministry within and beyond The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), often working as an organizational consultant, retreat leader, or workshop facilitator for faith communities and non-profit organizations. Originally trained as a Communication and Media Theorist, he served as one of the two Co-Executive Directors of ARC: Arts | Religion | Culture until November 2020, an organization committed to supporting individuals and organizations whose work is at the intersection of spiritual and creative practices, especially as those practices are done for community-building and work towards justice. Organizationally, he focused on helping groups clarify their goals and make sure that their commitments to justice and equity become more than just aspirations and good intentions. He currently serves as Senior Editor of the academic journal "The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (ARTS Journal). He works with ARC to steward that publication in collaboration with The Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies and United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

Callid is also a Lecturer in Practical Theology at Boston University’s School of Theology. Academically, his research is about encouraging ways that religious and spiritual perspectives can be discussed in the public square in ways that support pluralism, democracy, and social justice. He publishes on issues related to the ways that schooling affects the interior life of children as well the importance of imagination and creativity in spiritual life. 

Previously, Callid has been a public school social studies teacher, the co-founder of a community theater in Rochester, NY, and the Executive Director of The Transformative Language Arts Network. He thinks it is OK for people to laugh a lot, that power cedes nothing without demands, and that creativity is a vital quality of adaptive and effective leadership. More about Callid is at CallidKeefePerry.com

Resources & Links: 

Callid’s Website: https://callidkeefeperry.com/

Callid’s Poem: https://artsreligionculture.org/blog/2020/10/19/chronicles10-19-20

Boston University School of Theology: http://www.bu.edu/sth

Kimberlé Crenshaw (originated term: intersectionality): https://aapf.org/kimberle-crenshaw

Intersectionality: https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en

Keywords: education, anti-racism, higher education, college, university, practical theology, arts, spirituality, democracy, intersectionality, privilege, marginalized identity