The Existential Buzz

“Day of the Dead”

We celebrate the Day of the Dead as a time to recall and honor those who have died. We bring photographs and flowers to remember them on this occasion. This Mexican
holiday is somewhat like a joyful family reunion – with dead ancestors the guests of honor.

Reverend Marsha Mitchiner was ordained by us, the First Existentialist Congregation, after several years of study with founding minister R. Lanier Clance. Today she is part of the connective tissue of our congregation, holding together disparate elements, reaching out to folks whom we haven’t heard from recently, and comforting those who need support. She plays in the dirt whenever she can, refreshes herself with her partner on trips to the Georgia mountains, and shares her thinking with us several times each year.

• Facilitator: Patton White
• Musician: Jean Heinrich

“How LGBTQ Rights Bring The Bible Belt Out of Bondage”

LGBTQ rights challenge gender-conforming norms, patriarchy and the prevailing power structure.  Learn to live with it!

From Oct 10, 2021: Born and growing up in seacoast New Hampshire, Dave Bryant Hayward became an activist while a student at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. from 1967 -1971.

Desperately coming out to the legendary Frank Kameny, president of the D.C. Mattachine Society, in a May 1969 phone call, Dave learned where the gay bars were in D.C.  In the Fall he joined the Mattachine Society at an outdoor reception, and co-founded the Washington, D.C. Gay Liberation Front in January 1970.  The GLF celebrated the first anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots at a D.C. intown park in 1970, and also picketed the gay bar The Lost and Found on Capitol Hill for its multiple carding policies of women and people of color.

Dave is thrilled to have campaigned for Dr. Kameny for the House of Representatives in 1971, as the first openly gay man to run for Congress.  Also he wrote for the GWU Hatchet newspaper all four years, often covering LGBTQ themes in the arts, and for the DC GLF Newsletter.

Since October 1971 Dave has aided and abetted every Atlanta Pride.  One of the core collective producing Atlanta Pride in 1972, the first Pride March in the streets, Dave is honored to be thrown out of two gay bars for promoting Pride.  

Initially “the city too busy to hate” spewed backlash for a gay march in the streets, which abated after a successful event, culminating in Georgia’s first openly gay political appointee: – Charlie St. John appointed by Mayor Sam Massell,  to Atlanta’s Community Relations Commission in January 1973.

From 1977 to1979 he and his former partner Greg James anchored “Gay Digest” on Radio Free Georgia WRFG FM 90.1, and he and Greg produced Atlanta and Georgia’s first two LGBTQ film festivals in 1979 under the auspices of the newly formed Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Center.

Primarily Dave’s mania for social justice expresses in his writing, and he has published in local, regional, national, and international media, including The Advocate, OUT Magazine, Canada’s LGBTQ magazine Frontiers, and most recently in Georgia Voice, where he reveals our LGBTQ roots,  and pens tributes to pathfinders and pioneers and trailblazers.

After founding Touching Up Our Roots in 2002, in 2016 Dave became one of Atlanta Pride’s Grand Marshals.  In 2015 he created Our Founding Valentines with Atlanta Pride to recognize community icons, and in 2016 he initiated the LGBTQ Story Tour with Pride and with the LGBT Institute at the Center for Civil and Human Rights.  Since 2017 he and Lesbian herstorian Maria Helena Dolan have co-hosted the Story Tour.

Currently with a grant from the Georgia Humanities Council, Emory University professor Eric Solomon and Dave are posting the LGBTQ Story Tour online, for an October launch in conjunction with October Pride and National Coming Out Day October 15th.

– from https://firstexistentialist.org: October 10, 2021

• Facilitator: Jan Lister
• Musician: Kristen Hampton

“13 Decades Deep: Tone Poem Reflections on the Rose Hill Community and Echoes of Displacement Today”

Last October, our congregation joined Antioch East Baptist Church, the BiRacial History Project, and Candler Park and Edgewood neighbors to raise awareness of the more intimate Black history in our post-Civil War neighborhood. We honored and celebrated the creativity, resilience, and brilliance of Antioch’s and other Black families’ presence on this land they nurtured with fortitude and faith.

Now, one year later, four local White creatives are coming together to reflect upon this revealed history, healing, and justice… each with their own personal probing into the deeper stories and truths that “echo beneath our feet.”

JANET METZGER lives in Decatur where she is an audiobook narrator recording literary fiction, history and political science. She recently retired from over 25 years as an adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law teaching courtroom persuasion. She finds peace tending her garden and spinning wool.

Jeff Crompton is a saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer from Atlanta, living in Candler Park. Since retiring from 30 years teaching music in Atlanta area public schools, Jeff has focused on composition and performing his off-center, jazz-based music around the Southeast.

Craig Rafuse is a singer/guitarist and a Candler Park neighbor. He has been performing songs with social significance since 1963, while also playing in dance bands. Craig currently appears with CJ Jones and the Spirit Bones, ExPand Band, Owls and Kahootz.

Edi/th Kelman is a Candler Park neighbor, 17-year Project Manager for the Early Edgewood-Candler Park BiRacial History Project anchored here at the Old Stone Church/First E, and language-channeler for “13 Decades Deep.”

• Facilitator: Libby Ware
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

“What Would Martin Buber Do? The I-Thou Principle and Moral Action”

Martin Buber, the German-Jewish existentialist philosopher and formulator of the ‘I-Thou Principle,’ certainly had his fingers in a lot of pieces of scholarly and intellectual pie. During his lengthy career, Buber wrote about Hasidic folklore, Asian thought, mysticism, pacifism, the Holocaust, Israeli politics, interfaith relations, and various other social and psychological applications of his dialogical philosophy. However, Buber’s ideas were controversial, and often misunderstood. So what did Buber really say? And is any of it relevant to today’s social and ethical problems?

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Mick Kinney

“Bless the Beasts and the Children”

Brownie has been a long time member of the First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta. She is honored to speak to you. Her talk is about children’s rights. She has been blessed to have many many children in her life. These children came into her life through teaching, social work and parenthood.

• Facilitator: Rev. Marsha Mitchiner
• Musician: William Chelton

”Read a Banned Book Lately?”

Libby will delve into her childhood in a book-filled house and how Florida politicians interfering in education isn’t new, leading into a look at the history of book banning and what is really behind the current rash of book banning. She is asking the congregation to bring copies of banned books to display on the stage.

Libby Ware is a life-long reader, a writer, a book collector, and a bookseller. She is the author of the award-winning “Lum,” and co-writer of “Murder at the Estate Sale,” and the upcoming “Murder at the Book Fair,” co-written with her wife, Charlene Ball. Libby owns Toadlily Books, an antiquarian book business. She is a member of Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, The Atlanta Writers Club, The Georgia Writers Association, and Sisters in Crime. Libby lives in Grant Park with her dog, Grover, a mile from Charlene.

• Facilitator: Charlene Ball
• Musician: Craig Rafuse and Jean Heinrich

“Existentialism and the First E Founding”

Members will share how learning about existentialism through First E has influenced their lives.    

Our Fellowship Minister, Rev. Marsha Mitchiner, has served the Congregation for over two decades, since ordination by us, following her study with Lanier Clance. She counsels, connects, and contacts members and friends, and for those who need it, performs the laying-on of hands in her role as a massage therapist. Many of us can vouch for the quality of her work, and appreciate the wisdom, restraint, and compassion she brings to the job of caring for our Congregation.

• Facilitator: Cindy Lou Who
• Musician: E-Chorus with Jean Heinrich

“Indigenous Approaches to Growing Institutional Efforts”

Michel will describe Emory’s efforts to increase the visibility, voice, and contributions of Native American people. She will highlight people, departments, and initiatives at Emory that continue to be instrumental in this effort. She will bring news describing progress of the new Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies launching this fall in Emory College. Michel also will summarize and highlight Emory’s active relationship with the Tribal communities on and off campus including plans for continuing and growing engagement. 

• Facilitator: TBA 
• Musician: Kathy McGuire

“Sharing Our Work Stories”

An open mic service in which we share stories of our work experiences, the challenges we’ve faced, the lessons learned and thoughts about labor struggles in our country and the world. It’s a time to celebrate our work and the work of countless others whose labor has built our world — and to point out injustices that exist. 

• Facilitator: D. Patton White
• Musician: Kristen Hampton