SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE
Alfie Bown is a Lecturer in Digital Media at Royal Holloway University London. He is a founding editor of 1968 Press and his journalism has appeared in Tribune, New Statesman, Paris Review and the Guardian. His other books include The Playstation Dreamworld and Post-Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production.
Lauren Fueyo is an artist, storyteller, and professional dogma wrestler from Lancaster, PA, USA. Through tragicomic performances, writing, paintings, and short films, Lauren leans on strategies of improvisation to explore questions of how we believe. Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at Management (NYC, USA), Konstbunkern (Örebro, Sweden), and Riverside Art Center (IL, USA). Lauren holds an MFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art and was a 2019 resident of the Chautauqua School of Art. She is based in Örebro, Sweden.
Henrike Gootjes an artist and regenerative strategist from the Netherlands, holds a Fine Art degree from Minerva, Groningen, and a Master's degree from ArtEZ. With international experience in arts, education, reconciliation, and ecology work, she utilizes artistic methodology to enable regenerative processes and to activate systemic change. Currently working at Art Academies in Arnhem and Zwolle, she is also the curator of Graceland Festival and is writing a book. Gootjes will share artwork inspired by her recent trip to Ukraine, enriching her exploration of the Church of the Contradiction.
Magic George is hard to describe… surreal performances are blended with absurdist comedy and a dose of bad magic to create an anarchic cocktail of madness. His energetic, kinetic, frenetic style has meant that he’s become a Wake favourite.
Phil Harrison is an author and filmmaker based in Belfast. His debut novel, The First Day, was published internationally in 2017. He has just completed his second. Previously he wrote and directed a number of award-winning short films, including Even Gods (2011) and On Going Home (2015), and a narrative feature drama (The Good Man, 2012), which screened internationally and was released by Soda Pictures in 2014.
Cadell Last is a philosopher with an interdisciplinary background in fields of evolutionary anthropology, psychoanalysis, complexity science and big history. He has established himself as a leading public intellectual through his establishment of Philosophy Portal; a space where people can discuss the most difficult and important philosophical works outside the confines of the academy. He is the author of numerous works, including Systems and Subjects. Cadell’s work is also very complimentary to the work of Pyrotheology.
Teresa Livingstone is a musical comedian and a classy lady, at least she tries to be, despite everything life throws at her as a 40-something Northern Irish woman.One of Northern Ireland’s top comedy acts and a skilled pianist and singer, she recently starred in her own BBC Sounds six-part series Tell Teresa and was previously seen on BBC’s The Blame Game, Soft Border Patrol and Late Licence.
Elliott Morgan is an American stand up comedian, actor, writer, host, producer and YouTube personality. He was a co-host of the YouTube channel SourceFed and is one half of The Fundamentalists.
Julie Reshe is a philosopher, practicing negative psychoanalyst, and public intellectual. She is currently a visiting professor at University College Cork and University College Dublin. She is also a Director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis at the Global Centre for Advanced Studies and author of Negative Psychoanalysis.
Helen Rollins graduated as top student in Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University, with a double first in modern languages. She was also a boursière étrangère at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon. At twenty-two, she taught French language, film and literature at Eton College, leaving that post two years later to work as a filmmaker. In her cinematic work, she explores ideas of desire, repression and loss. She has a particular interest in psychoanalysis, continental philosophy and film and literature from the French and Spanish-speaking world. She is one of the presenters of the theoretically cutting edge podcast The Lack. Although a distant relative, we met for the first time in 2016 and quickly became very close collaborators, working on various film projects together. The latest is an experimental philosophical documentary called A Guide to Making Love, which will be shown at the festival.
Barry Taylor is a theologian-philosopher, musician, artist, academic and writer who has spent more than thirty years challenging traditional notions of religion and church and creating alternative communities built on the idea that life is uncertain, the future is unwritten and that none of us has the answer. Barry's work collapses the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, blurs the lines between theism and atheism and raises new questions about life, death and everything in between.
Pádraig O Tuama is a poet and theologian whose work centers on themes of language, power, conflict and religion. Pádraig presents Poetry Unbound and was named Theologian in Residence for On Being, in recognition of his work in bringing art and theology into public and civic life. Pádraig has published numerous books and his work is featured widely in places such as Poetry Ireland Review, The Academy of American Poets and On Being. From 2014-2019 he was the leader of the Corrymeela Community, Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation community.
WAKE | Program
SUNDAY 2ND JUNE
7:00PM | WELCOME PARTY | OBEL TOWER
Let’s start the festival right with a party at the top of the tallest building in Ireland. This is literally the best view of the city, overlooking the famous Belfast cranes.
MONDAY 3RD JUNE
10:30AM | THE PROFANE TEMPLE | PETER ROLLINS | BLACK BOX
This is a little welcome to the theme of this year’s theme, ‘The Profane Temple’… a place where nothing lives, nothing binds and nothing saves.
12PM | KITCHEN HYMNS | PÁDRAIG Ó TUAMA | BLACK BOX
Kitchen hymns are the songs sung at home, not in the chapel; in vernacular speech, not Latin. The poems in Padraig O Tuama's new collection are a form of hymnody that arise neither from belief nor devotion. A man asks himself if he believes in God and turns to language rather than the maker of language; an agnostic Jesus meets a curious Persephone at hell's exit; a mass for the end of the world is offered by some- one more interested in birds than in salvation. In registers of rage, eros and melody, towards nature, elegy and praise, Kitchen Hymns is a study in form and lyric address: the sights and sounds of a poem; the lungs of the world; skin touching skin; experience. Here are poems of originality and feeling - a provocation to thought, and an invocation of the forces that direct the strange, branching paths of our lives.
1:30PM | LUNCH
2:30PM | PSYCHOCINEMA | PETER AND HELEN ROLLINS | BLACK BOX
Helen is about to release her excellent book Psychocinema (with a glowing forward by Slavoj Zizek). The work interrogates the connection between psychoanalysis and film, arguing for a return to the universalist core of both cinema and subjectivity. It traces the history of the influence of psychoanalysis on cinema and shows how the detour into ideologies of identity and difference eclipses the premise of the first and the emancipatory power of the second. She argues that cinema has the power to act upon the viewer like psychoanalysis acts upon the analysand… exposing them to the Lack inherent in desire. A process undermines the unconscious logic of capitalism, which relies on a promise in fulfilment. I’ll be sitting down to chat about the themes of the book and how they link with Pyrotheology.
3:30PM | BREAK
4PM | NOTHING IN COMMON | BLACK BOX
I recently created a series of three videos that offered a look at what a Church of the Contradiction might look like. In this session we’ll be showing clips from these videos, showing a short film that is part of the project and discussing the themes.
5PM | DINNER
7:30PM | THE SECRET PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY | BLACK BOX
Originally created by Barry Taylor and run for many years in LA, TSP mixes music, art and spoken word to explore a theme. The topic for this event is Comedy. It will be hosted by Barry Taylor and include comedy from Elliott Morgan and Magic George, performance art from Lauren Fueyo and a conversation with Alfie Bown, author of the upcoming book Post-comedy.
TUESDAY 4TH JUNE
10AM | PICK UP | ST. ANNE’S CATHEDRAL
We’ll be spending the day at the incredible Crawfordsburn Inn.
11AM | COFFEE AND (SIMPLE) CONCEPTS | PETER ROLLINS | GALLERY
This is your chance to ask any questions you like, the only rule is the dumber the better (inspired by Lauren Fueyo, who just requested a time for this). And everyone can shout at me if I start getting too lost in philosophy. So start thinking of your dumb question… no philosopher names allowed, or jargon!
12:30PM LUNCH
2:00PM | BREAKOUTS | VARIOUS
Is there a conversation you would like to have about something related to Radical theology? If so, this is your chance. People will get a chance to facilitate a conversation. We already have people who want to discuss psychedelics, performance art, community support and creativity.
3:30PM | BREAK
4PM | ROUND TABLE WITH PHILOSOPHY PORTAL AND EVERYDAY ANALYSIS | GALLERY
The main aim of my work is to forge an institution that enacts the theory of Pyrotheology. A work that can be a lonely one. So I’m always looking for people who I might be able to develop relationships with. People who are on a similar track. Two organisations that share a similar intellectual vision are Everyday Analysis and Philosophy Portal. So I invited them to Wake to continue that conversation.
5:30PM | PIZZA | LOAF
7:30PM | DOCTORED | ELLIOTT MORGAN | BLACK BOX
Something that is not allowed in Northern Ireland is saying nice things about your friends… but I am feeling all sentimental about my dear friend and (occasional) podcast partner performing at Wake. It’s such a big deal for me that he’d agree to come out and spread his heretical Jungian ideas at my event. We’ll be doing a live podcast together on Thursday, but the highlight will be letting him loose on Tuesday night, in the beautiful Old Inn. Because we’re overlooking the forest that inspired Lewis’ vision of Narnia, I’ve asked him to do a one-man performance of The Chronicles of Narnia, but I’ve been told he’s opted for a lot of penis jokes instead… we shall see
9PM | BUS TO BELFAST
WEDNESDAY 5TH JUNE
10:30AM | COFFEE AND CONCEPTS | CADELL LAST | BLACK BOX
Cadell Last is an incredible thinker and public intellectual who has an expertise in the thinkers of contradiction. In this session he’ll be introducing the logic of contradiction.. this might be the opposite of the dumb questions section… a chance to be confused, in the best possible way.
11:30PM | CARAVAGGIO | BARRY TAYLOR | ULSTER MUSEUM
To mark 200 years since the opening of the National Gallery in London, Some of its most precious paintings have been loaned out across the UK. And the Ulster Museum is one of the recipients. They have been lent two incredible paintings by Caravaggio, The Supper at Emmaus and The Taking of Christ (one of the most famous religious paintings in the world). This is a chance to see these incredible works, before reflecting on them with Barry Taylor. Barry lectured on art at the Art Center College of Design in LA for many years and writes for the art magazine Trebuchet.
1:30PM | LUNCH
2:30PM | FROM COMMUNITY TO COMMUNION | PETER AND JULIE RESHE | BLACK BOX
Julie is known for her unique work called Negative Psychoanalysis. Her work opens up a space for people to encounter the darkness with no promise of light. Recently Julie and Peter have engaged in a series of conversations exploring the possible connections between Negative Psychoanalysis and Pyrotheology. In this conversation, we’ll be attempting to tease out how deep this connection goes.
4PM | FREE TIME
5PM | DINNER
7:30PM | ‘THE PROFANE TEMPLE’ LAUNCH | EVERYDAY ANALYSIS | BLACK BOX
This will mark the launch of Everyday Analysis’ new pamphlet, which is an essay written by myself on the Church of the Contradiction. This essay is a companion piece to the CCon videos which will be debuting earlier in the day.
THURSDAY 6TH JUNE
10:30AM | AFTER PETE HOLMES | WITH BARRY TAYLOR | BLACK BOX
Recently Pete Holmes quoted Barry in his most recent one hour special. After this they both spoke on a podcast called The Sacred Speaks. Interestingly, what this podcast started to bring to light is the difference between Radical Theology and the Contemplative tradition. In this session, I’m going to sit down with Barry and dissect the similarities and differences.
12PM | BREAK
12:30PM | BEYOND RIGHT AND LEFT | PETER AND PHIL HARRISON | BLACK BOX
1:30PM | LUNCH
2:30PM | NOTHING SAVES | PETER ROLLINS | BLACK BOX
5PM | DINNER
7PM | THE FUNDAMENTALISTS | OBEL TOWER
This will be a live recording of a Fundamentalists episode where we delve into the theme of contradiction.
8:30PM | PUB CRAWL | VARIOUS
As the tradition goes, every Wake ends with a pub crawl.
FRIDAY 7TH JUNE - BOLT-ON
10:30AM | SUPER EXCLUSIVE VIP BREAKFAST
For those who were kind enough to purchase the bolt-on, we’ll be having a home cooked Ulster Fry together, along with fresh orange juice, freshly ground espresso drinks, Mimosas and some small thank you gifts.