From kevyn@KSUVM.KSU.EDUSat Jul 8 17:02:09 1995 Date: Fri, 7 Jul 1995 16:30:52 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Cc: GLB-NEWS Subject: (USA, KANSAS) Midwestern Men's Gathering in Kansas FROM THE NEWS-TELEGRAPH JUNE 23-JULY 13, 1995 ========================== MIDWESTERN MEN'S GATHERING IN KANSAS by Lisa Marie Neff It is a place for men to come together and share. This is how Jason Carrigan, of Kansas City, describes the fourteenth annual Midwest Men's Festival planned for July 18-27 at Camp Gaea, a retreat about one hour west of Kansas City. Carrigan, involved with the men's festival since its start, says, This group is pretty unique. We don't make plans. It's attended mainly by Gay men. It's an earth-centered, spiritual festival, an event unfolded by the men who come." Carrigan describes the festival as "free-flowing." Possibly its only structure is the registration, the vegetarian meals prepared by the group and the regular morning and evening circle gatherings. Everything else--the workshops, the musical entertainment, the craftmaking, the rituals, the poetry readings-- just happens. Even the organizing of the next year's festival is left to the group of men that attends the present festival. Toward the end of the event, men gather to form a planning group for the next year. "We have no positions, no leaders," Carrigan says. On any given day, 150 men may be at the festival. As many as 300 or 400 men may attend over the festival's ten days. And the festival appears to be growing each year. Carrigan says he has attended the festival each year because "it's a way to check in with my peers. I am stimulated by the experience. I don't know of anywhere else where there is such a sharing of ideas. I've really seen people go through incredible change" at the festival. For the past four years, Midwest Men's Festival has been held at Camp Gaea. Previously, the festival was held in the Lake of the Ozarks, at a park in Illinois and a site in Iowa, but Carrigan says Camp Gaea, private land owned by Earth Rising, feels like Home. Here, there are no curious park rangers guarding against nudity. There are no public accommodations rules, only those set by Earth Rising and those agreed upon by consensus at the festival. At the festival, there is an emphasis on creating a "safe space," Carrigan says, adding that festival-goers are respective of "boundaries." Festival registration is $50 for three days and $10 for each additional day. The price includes meals. Also, fees may be adjusted based on income. For more information, write to MMF, PO Box 32663, Kansas City MO 64171 or call 816/931-6521. ========================================================== Permission granted by the News-Telegraph for distribution to the KQN email list (KQN@casti.com), and archiving in the Queer Resources Directory (QRD) on the Internet (http://www.qrd.org/QRD). For News-Telegraph subscription information (published twice a month), please call 1.816.561.6266, or email: newstele@aol.com ==========================================================