Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Dr. Benjamin Myers’ upcoming book A Poetics of Orthodoxy, which will be released by Cascade Books. We are pleased to present this excerpt exclusively on the Forefront Festival blog.Many modern patterns of thought conspire against beauty. The soft utilitarianism that saturates our society tells us that beauty is just a distraction from …
The world watched in horror as yet another Black man gasped for air, murdered on camera. In those final moments, George Floyd called out to his mother, except his mother was not alive. She had passed away two years prior, giving this cry the transcendent anguish of one who knew he was about to die. But this is not the …
Amid the bevy of opinions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the qualifier ‘unprecedented’ seems to be one of the few descriptors we’re all in agreement on. It appears that not a single sphere of modern life has evaded the reach of sweeping measures put in place to mitigate contagion and suffering. From the effects of broad economic shutdown on virtually every …
For some regrettable reason, I watch Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s hit adult animated TV show, Rick & Morty. The show, which streams online and airs on Adult Swim among other shows like it, is a witty, irreverent, sci-fi sitcom that originated from a dark parody of Back to the Future. The episodes revolve around Rick Sanchez, an elderly alcoholic …
No matter how long you’ve traversed Christian culture, it’s doubtless that you’ve heard plenty of jokes and sighs about Christian art. From the cheesiness of faith-based movies to cookie-cutter lyricism and the barren wasteland of non-blasphemous religious visual art, our collective eye-roll is stuck in a loop. Many sense there is a fracture within our religious music especially and feel …
A great fear has gripped our world in recent weeks. With frightening swiftness we have been swept into a historical moment that is both unprecedented and familiar, and will require the heroic resolve of medical professionals and policy makers to see us through this crisis. As this disease continues to reveal the fragility of our life together and confront us …
“It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it.”Terrence Malick’s new film, A Hidden Life, is based on the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer. The film begins in 1939 when Jägerstätter lives a seemingly idyllic life in the Austrian countryside. He farms the land, lives in a tight-knit community, and has a happy family. Scenes depict Jägerstätter …
I just saw the new Little Women film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet and others. It is fantastic. Unlike so many remakes and adaptations of classic and beloved stories (in my experience) this film held all the magic and emotional power as the original Louisa May Alcott novel, first published in 1868. As …
Editor’s Note: Forefront Festival Founder and Director Nate Mancini delivered the following remarks to open our recent Meetup event in Rochester. His articulation of the changing role of the arts in the coming years and Forefront’s part to play within that shift offer a compelling vision of our work. The following is an edited transcript of his talk. An empire …
Medieval art often gets a bad rap. Placed between the recognizable Classical art of the Greeks and Romans and the infamous Renaissance art of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rafael, and Donatello, the artworks of the “Middle” Ages are often simply glossed over as two-dimensional and religious.The art of the Middle Ages is hard to appreciate because it lacks the monumental, realistic, and …
