The Porch Gathering 2024
The Porch Gathering builds a better world through telling better stories. We gather around art and activism - those who desire to heal our personal and cultural wounds as a diverse community, laugh and cry around the “campfire experience” of transformative storytelling, and gain tools for constructive, respectful, and thoughtful dialogue across boundaries.
We're opening a space for significant ideas of grounded hope, individual and communal purpose, provocative and meaningful storytelling, and - frankly - enjoying life together. We truly believe that we are here not just to save the world, but to be changed.
Our work is forged in real suffering, conflict, and trauma - as individuals and in the societies in which we were born and raised. What we seek to offer is not a panacea or quick fix, but deeply rooted in the history of transformative storytelling, authentic spirituality, and courageous creativity for the common good.
Our vision is that the Porch Gathering would be a place where a couple hundred people could come together to take life seriously without taking ourselves too seriously; meet brilliant people from all kinds of places; and better understand ourselves, our place in the world, what we can do for the good, and the ways in which we can authentically give ourselves a break.
The third Porch Gathering runs from Thursday evening March 7th through Sunday morning March 10th, 2024, with a range of storytelling, music, breakout sessions, talks, movies, and opportunities for quiet or just connecting with friends old and new. We'll have a dozen or more speakers/musicians/facilitators distinguished in their fields, and lots of options for engaging a better story and way of being, including deepening a sense of community together, and practical tools for the journey of living with courage and creativity.
It's not a typical conference - more like an informal festival-meets-retreat, where conversations on the sidelines matter as much as anything that happens on a stage. The times are showing us that we need each other - and we need truer and more helpful stories to guide us beyond cultures of domination and polarization, hopelessness, and constant activity. The Porch Gathering is a place to find those stories, and to meet people who will share the journey.
