It’s been a long time since I’ve sent out a newsletter, and now seems a pretty good time to reignite that effort.
Over COVID, with the help of an Ontario Arts Council grant, my wife Claire Ross Dunn and I made a thing.
It’s a podcast and digital series called The Knitting Pilgrim Talks.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we thought, what should we do while we can’t tour The Knitting Pilgrim?
There was one thing audiences had always asked us about after the show: they wanted more detail about the imagery in the tapestries themselves. We were often asked where the ‘exhibition catalogue’ was to accompany the artwork—you know, the kind of book they have in museums and galleries.
So, we came up with the idea of a digital version of what audiences were asking for. We used each segment of each Stitched Glass tapestry—40 segments in all—as a jumping-off point to engage in conversation with someone who was really knowledgeable about that topic (way more knowledgeable than I).
Here, I’m sharing links to the first 3 episodes of The Knitting Pilgrim Talks.
Episode 101: Women and Judaism
This first episode is an interview I had with Rabbi Jennifer Gorman, who is National Director of Outreach & Programming at CJPAC (The Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee), themed on the section of the Judaic tapestry about women and Judaism. It was a fascinating chat, and I learned a lot of things.
Episode 101 is available on Youtube here: KPT 101 Women and Judaism
or all the podcast places: KPT on Spotify if you’d rather listen than watch.
Episode 102: The Lion and The Lamb
This is a great conversation I had with Rev. Michael Coren about the irony that Jesus -- whom Christians now call 'The King of Kings'-- was actually an anti-establishment rebel.
Youtube: KPT Ep 102 The Lion and The Lamb
Or all the podcast places: KPT on Spotify if you’d rather listen than watch.
Episode 103: Jihad and Peace
In Western society, “Jihad” may be the most misunderstood word of the Arabic language. In this third episode of The Knitting Pilgrim Talks, I chat with Imam Jihad Turk. We take a look at the true meaning of the word (and his name) and discuss the link between the adjacent sections of the Islamic tapestry depicting Jihad and peace.
Youtube: KPT 103 Jihad and Peace
Or all the podcast places: KPT on Spotify if you’d rather listen than watch.
A giant thanks to our supervising editor, Alex Fensham, Deb Sinha for providing the opening and closing theme music, and the Ontario Arts Council for funding the project.
We’ll be rolling out episodes for many weeks to come. If you’re interested in visual art, knitting, interfaith empathy and just listening to good, interesting, unpolarized conversations, I hope you’ll enjoy The Knitting Pilgrim Talks.
If you'd like to chat about any of the episodes, please reach out to me at www.kirkdunn.com.
All the best,
Kirk