SpeakingTruth.org user: jonwatts

Shiloh Quaker Camp

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:14:07 -0700

Shiloh Quaker Camp is a Summer Camp in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. It is a part of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) Camping Program, along with Catoctin, Opequon and Teen Adventure (TA). BYMCamps.org

Announcing Quaker Maps.com!

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:42:15 -0700

For the past few months we have been working on compiling maps of all the Yearly Meetings in North American Quakerism into one site. It is not totally completed, but we're ready to unveil it nonetheless. Thus we give to you: QuakerMaps.com

Jon Watts at Friends School of Baltimore

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:39:49 -0700

Quaker poet and songwriter Jon Watts performs a spoken word poem for the Middle School at Friends School of Baltimore.

Jon Watts plays "Instructions for Us(e)" live at FGC '09

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:45:14 -0700

Quaker Musician Jon Watts performing his poem "Instructions for Us(e)" for a rowdy audience at the Quaking Caberet, held at Deet's Place on Virginia Tech's campus, FGC Gathering 2009.

Jon Watts - Mantra - "Inhale Exhaust, Exhale Love"

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:48:56 -0700

Jon Watts describes his process of transforming his anger into healing energy. "We Are Lovers of Our Lost Earth" is an anthem for those feeling furious about the objectification of our world and seeking to find a peaceful way to personally affect the shift from destruction to healing - Jon calls upon us to "inhale exhaust and exhale love".

Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting and the BYM Junior Young Friends (JYF's)

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:53:24 -0700

Vlog #2 in Jon Watts' 2010 Two Wheel Tour series. Videos from Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting and the BYM JYF gathering. Jon prepares for his tour kickoff in Chapel Hill and gets his bike ready for the journey.

Friends School of Baltimore | The Custis Trail in DC | Quakermaps.com

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:56:15 -0700

Vlog # 6 in my Two Wheel Tour series. In this episode I bike from DC to Baltimore via the Custis Trail, enjoy a show with the Middle School at Friends School of Baltimore and announcing Quakermaps.com!

You Are Pulling Down the Pillars of the World, George Fox

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:08:33 -0700

You Are Pulling Down the Pillars of the World, George Fox

i found george fox living in a journal with his life documented. i found george fox living in a journal that is waiting to be read. i could sing his song for you; i could sing it for you. i could sing his song for you; i could sing it for you.

george didn’t find comfort in idolatry or dogma. he went to the countryside to see what christ jesus would offer. he found margaret. he found james. he found that truth and light remain in times of darkness, in times of pain, in times of restlessness he prayed.

he prayed.

george didn’t think god spoke more to educated clergy. he would never doff his hat. he said that everyone is worthy. he was laughed at, thrown in jail. he let his inner christ prevail. he wore plainclothes and he was strong and there were sixty thousand quakers when he was done.

he prayed.

guitar, bass guitar, trombone, vocals by jon watts

Early Friends and Music

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:34:18 -0700

Max Carter discusses Early Friends' hesitations participating in music as popular culture and as worship in the first track from Jon Watts' "A Few Songs Occasioned":

Early Friends believed that they were restoring original Christianity and, in their own experience, there was no need for programming in hymns and rites and rituals and liturgies because they had the very presence of the living God and it had come to them apocalyptically in their own inner selves. Christ was present. So you don’t need to sing hymns to Christ; Christ was there. You didn’t have to be baptized into this life. Christ was baptizing you inwardly. You didn’t have to take communion in remembrance of Jesus, he was there. You could commune directly.
...people coming together in expectant waiting upon the very reality of the presence of Christ and God in their midst and communing with that Spirit. And if that Spirit then leads you to preach, to prophesize, to sing, that’s proper.
They sang songs or hymns out of their own spiritual leading but not out of hymn books, not out of liturgies, not out of masses, not out of rites and rituals.
Instead of depending on other peoples’ experience second-hand, have your experience. And the best way to do that is in the silence and waiting. And if then the Spirit moves you to sing, to burst forth with a psalm or music that the spirit gave you, then that was fine.
They just rejected all forms that had become idols - or impediments, actually - to the real substance that those forms sought to manifest.
In personal life, it was a rejection of the superfluous. It was a rejection of classism. And in the religious life, with the Quaker emphasis on the direct and immediate experience of God, why would you sing other peoples’ words about their religious experience? You should have that experience yourself.

Read more about Early Quakerism and music: 'Sing Ye In the Spirit': Music and Quakerism in Harmony

Read more about "A Few Songs Occasioned": Bull and Mouth Records Myspace

Introduction by Max Carter

Sat, 24 May 2008 17:53:07 -0700

Dear Friend,

On behalf of Friends Center and the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program at Guilford College, I am pleased to introduce to you the musical compilation A Few Songs Occasioned. This album represents the Senior capstone work of Quaker Leadership Scholar Jon Watts, who for the project received a national Clarence and Lilly Pickett Quaker Leadership Award. Jon created this body of work to bring together his musical, technical, and Quaker interests, and he did so in stunning fashion. After witnessing the profoundly positive impact Jon's work has had on the Quaker community at Guilford, I have felt moved to share the fruits of his labor with the wider Quaker world.

When Jon approached me in the fall of 2005 to suggest a project of original Quaker-themed music, I figured he would offer up a few "summer camp" or "pop" tunes that would be performed in a student coffeehouse and promptly be forgotten. Jon had other plans in mind, however. He wanted this project to push the limits of his own ability and knowledge. In the end, it did that for him and for me!

Jon did thorough research into the lives and writings of early Friends to come up with inspiration for his work. he conducted exhaustive interviews, read widely and deeply, and lived, breathed, and ate Early Friends until the musical inspiration began coming out of his thorough preparation. He built a sound studio in the basement of a local Friends meeting, recruited talented musicians from among the student body, and spent hours and hours during the fall and spring semesters of his senior year composing, directing, singing, playing, and producing.

As a culmination of all this work, Jon presented a stunning live concert on campus at which the various musicians he had assembled helped him interpret and perform his music. The auditorium was packed, and all were deeply moved by the experience of hearing the seven pieces distilled from Jon's creative mind and heart. In a powerful way, the concert created a mood and atmosphere that effectively conveyed the reality of the personalities and issues that were the subject of the music. George Fox, Solomon Eccles, and James Nayler came alive to us, and Jon's interpretive lyrics and score did far more than reiterate historical facts; they created a spiritual experience. Some attenders professed to having a profound spiritual awakening as a result!

Jon's CD, A Few Songs Occasioned, captures that mood well. In addition to offering up interesting insight into three fascinating characters, the songs are entertaining, catchy, and clever. They lead the listener not only into captivity to songs stuck in the head but also into contemplation of the commitment of those first Quakers.

I hope that Jon's music will inspire others to dig deep into the experience of early Friends and discover, as Jon did, deep resources for our lives today. I am proud to recommend his work and to claim him as a product of the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program at Guilford College.

Max L. Carter, director
Friends Center at Guilford College