The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope

In this intimate mini-episode of The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope, the roles are briefly shifted as host Dwight Dunston shares his own Quaker journey with guest John Calvi. From an antsy teenager in a Quaker high school to finding his "spiritual home" as an adult, Dwight reflects on the power of silence, memory, and the "upper room" of communal worship.
Dwight recalls the bittersweet grief of his final high school meeting for worship, a moment where he realized the profound value of "settling in" with others. "We were bodies in space, but we were also... in a different room," Dwight reflects. After years of traveling and studying poetry abroad, it was a return to Philadelphia during a time of personal loss that led him back to a meeting house, where he finally felt he had found his place.
In this episode, we discuss:
The transition from "antsy teenager" to a seeker of silent worship.
The lasting impact of Quaker education on alumni and their spiritual lives.
Dwight’s journey through grief and his eventual "spiritual homecoming" at Merion Meeting.
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How the practices of poetry and faith intertwine in Dwight's work as an artist and facilitator.
Related Resources:
Dwight Dunston’s Official Website
John Calvi’s Official Website
Merion Friends Meeting
Kingian Nonviolence Training Information
WWUH Radio: Gay Spirit Archive
Guest & Host Bios: Dwight Dunston (aka Sterling Duns) is a West Philly-based facilitator, hip-hop artist, and activist. A Level 2 Certified Kingian Nonviolence Trainer, Dwight brings creativity and care to his work in schools, festivals, and community centers to support healing and wholeness in individuals and ecosystems.
John Calvi is a Quaker healer and singer-songwriter. For over thirty years, he has offered massage and healing touch to survivors of trauma and those living with AIDS. He is the author of The Dance Between Hope and Fear.

NEW Video Version available at Pendle Hill's YouTube page.
The transcript for this episode is available on https://pendlehillseed.buzzsprout.com/
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The Seed is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center open to all for Spirit-led learning, retreat, and community. We’re located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape people.

Help us to grow The Seed!
Share your thoughts with us through our listener survey.

Follow us @PendleHillUSA on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to The Seed wherever you get your podcasts to get episodes in your library as they're released.  To learn more, visit pendlehill.org/podcast.

Online Quaker Worship with Dwight: Dwight will attend the Pendle Hill online Quaker worship on the last Friday of the month from 8:30 to 9:10 AM (Eastern Time). Visit Pendle Hill Online Worship for details.
This project is made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund.

In this mini-episode, host Dwight Dunston returns to his conversation with Quaker healer John Calvi. They explore the history of John’s seminal song, "The Ones Who Aren't Here," and the weight of carrying love across time and loss.
John shares the song's origins, written in his 20s during a time of "personal exile". Reflecting on the "fierce closet" of the early 80s, John notes, "As Pete Seeger said, you build a good building, can be used for a lot of different things over time". For John, the song became a "good building" for those seeking community during the AIDS crisis.
The episode features a 1982 recording from WWUH radio. John reflects: "Perhaps ministry is that rare, too rare, song that teaches the pain as it lifts us up towards knowing what is possible".
In this episode, we discuss:
The social origins of "The Ones Who Aren't Here".
Healing touch as Quaker ministry during the AIDS crisis.
John’s work with the late nonviolence educator William J. Kreidler.
Resources:
"The Ones Who Aren't Here" (Song): https://youtu.be/3EANcOHwLbc (1982 Recording)
John Calvi: https://johncalvi.com/
Suede (Singer - Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suede_(singer)
Meg Christian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Christian
LGBTQ Religious Archives Network (Calvi Profile): https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/profiles/john-calvi
William J. Kreidler (Memorial Archive): https://williamjkreidler.com/
"Nonviolence in the Classroom" (Reference to William Kreidler's work): https://biblioteca.cejamericas.org/handle/2015/4078
Guest Bio: John Calvi is a Quaker healer and songwriter who offered massage and healing touch during the AIDS crisis. A member of Putney (VT) Friends Meeting, he has had his music recorded by artists such as Meg Christian and Suede.
NEW Video Version available at Pendle Hill's YouTube page.
The transcript for this episode is available on https://pendlehillseed.buzzsprout.com/
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The Seed is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center open to all for Spirit-led learning, retreat, and community. We’re located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape people.

Help us to grow The Seed!
Share your thoughts with us through our listener survey.

Follow us @PendleHillUSA on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to The Seed wherever you get your podcasts to get episodes in your library as they're released.  To learn more, visit pendlehill.org/podcast.

Online Quaker Worship with Dwight: Dwight will attend the Pendle Hill online Quaker worship on the last Friday of the month from 8:30 to 9:10 AM (Eastern Time). Visit Pendle Hill Online Worship for details.
This project is made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund.

What does love look like when it moves beyond sentiment and becomes a force for healing, justice, and transformation?
In this Season Six finale of The Seed, we welcome John Calvi, a Quaker healer, certified massage therapist, and longtime advocate for survivors of trauma. John began offering healing touch during the AIDS crisis in 1983 and has since worked with survivors of war, torture, sexual abuse, and incarceration—always centering presence, compassion, and deep listening. He is also the founding convener of the Quaker Initiative to End Torture.
The conversation is grounded in All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks, including her insistence that “there can be no love without justice.” From there, Dwight and John explore how love is experienced somatically—in the body—and how it becomes power when it refuses domination and instead fosters dignity, accountability, and repair.
Reflecting on decades of healing work, John describes moments when the boundary between stranger and kin dissolves, when tenderness reveals both suffering and possibility at once. He speaks candidly about power—how “power over” wounds and constricts, while power rooted in love expands our capacity to remain present even in the face of immense pain.
As John puts it:
“Pain becomes suffering when it becomes all that we are. The work is to loosen the contraction of the body, of the heart, of the mind—so that pain does not take over our entire existence.”
John and Dwight discuss the wisdom of the body, Quaker worship as a deeply somatic practice, and the slow, cyclical nature of healing. John distinguishes between pain and suffering, noting how laughter, stillness, touch, and truth-telling can interrupt despair and make space for hope.
In his closing reflection, Dwight weaves together John’s stories with his own experiences of intergenerational care—of children and elders, beginnings and endings—inviting listeners to consider how love becomes real when it is practiced in tangible, embodied ways.
This episode closes Season Six with a grounded offering of wisdom: that love, when paired with justice, is not abstract. It is practiced with hands, breath, presence, and courage.
NEW Video Version available at Pendle Hill's YouTube page.
The transcript for this episode is available on https://pendlehillseed.buzzsprout.com/
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The Seed is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center open to all for Spirit-led learning, retreat, and community. We’re located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape people.

Help us to grow The Seed!
Share your thoughts with us through our listener survey.

Follow us @PendleHillUSA on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to The Seed wherever you get your podcasts to get episodes in your library as they're released.  To learn more, visit pendlehill.org/podcast.

Online Quaker Worship with Dwight: Dwight will attend the Pendle Hill online Quaker worship on the last Friday of the month from 8:30 to 9:10 AM (Eastern Time). Visit Pendle Hill Online Worship for details.
This project is made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund.

In this mini-episode of The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope, we return to a Season Six conversation with Inaara Neal-Shiraz and ,O—two people whose lives and work embody love as a healing force for justice.
Inaara Neal-Shiraz served as the Inclusion and Belonging Coordinator for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, supporting Friends across four states and nurturing communities of care, discernment, and connection—especially among young adult Friends.
,O is a longtime healer, educator, and community organizer who has spent more than twenty-five years working at the intersection of social and environmental justice, supporting individuals and communities in healing legacies of harm.
In this excerpt, Inaara and ,O reflect on fear not as something to conquer or eliminate, but as something to listen to. They explore breath, nervous systems, worship, and what it means to practice alchemy with our emotions. Fear, they suggest, may carry distorted messages—but also wisdom—inviting us to slow down, breathe, and remain present long enough to hear what is asking for our attention.
As Dwight reflects, this conversation points toward a form of love that is not sentimental or passive, but embodied, intentional, and deeply attentive—a love practiced in grocery stores, on train platforms, and in moments when nothing appears to be “wrong,” yet everything is asking for care.
To hear the full conversation this excerpt comes from, visit pendlehill.org/podcast or listen on Spotify. 
What did you notice in your body as you listened?
What did fear reveal to you?
You can share reflections by emailing [email protected] or connecting with @PendleHill on social media.

NEW Video Version available at Pendle Hill's YouTube page.
The transcript for this episode is available on https://pendlehillseed.buzzsprout.com/
----
The Seed is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center open to all for Spirit-led learning, retreat, and community. We’re located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape people.

Help us to grow The Seed!
Share your thoughts with us through our listener survey.

Follow us @PendleHillUSA on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to The Seed wherever you get your podcasts to get episodes in your library as they're released.  To learn more, visit pendlehill.org/podcast.

Online Quaker Worship with Dwight: Dwight will attend the Pendle Hill online Quaker worship on the last Friday of the month from 8:30 to 9:10 AM (Eastern Time). Visit Pendle Hill Online Worship for details.
This project is made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund.

How do we move beyond the "gatekeeping" of our institutions to practice a love that is truly transformative?
In this soul-stirring conversation, host Dwight Dunston is joined by Zae Illo and Lisa Graustein to explore the intersection of spiritual practice and radical justice. Together, they challenge us to look beyond "market logic" and historical comfort to find a faith that meets people exactly where they are—on the streets, in the struggle, and in the heart.
The episode grounds itself in the words of early Quakers Isaac Pennington, John Woolman, and Catherine Payton, using their 17th and 18th-century visions as a springboard to ask: What does it mean to "restore love to its right place" in a world of broken systems?
Zae Illo is a public theologian and street minister in San Francisco. His ministry focuses on the material and spiritual needs of the unhoused, bridging the gap between faith and the harsh realities of urban life. He is the author of Wild Deep Waters and a prophetic voice on the necessity of "transgressive" love—a love that flows outside the bounds of what society deems "normative."
Lisa Graustein is a lifelong Quaker, artist, and justice educator. Her work centers on healing, transformation, and dismantling white supremacy within spiritual and secular institutions. She brings a wealth of experience in mutual aid, peacebuilding, and "Afrofuturism," inviting us to imagine a future where resources are shared in common and every gate is opened.

They explore:
Love as Transgression: Why following the spirit often requires us to break cultural norms and "market logic."
The Myth of Private Property: A critical look at the "Diggers" vs. early Quakers and the radical call to hold all things in common.
Institutional Gatekeeping: How our organizations (and meeting houses) inadvertently limit access to the "light" and how to dismantle those barriers.
Tools for Connection: Lisa’s "Great-Great-Grandchild" framework for finding common ground in a polarized world.
The Ministry of the Streets: Why material assistance is a vehicle for hearing the testimonies of those the state deems "disposable."
Politics does not determine someone’s character or someone’s essence... What if we were curious as to why?" -Zae Illo
Hear "radical curiosity" and a call to live into the Kingdom of God as a present, breaking reality.

NEW Video Version available at Pendle Hill's YouTube page.
The transcript for this episode is available on https://pendlehillseed.buzzsprout.com/
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The Seed is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center open to all for Spirit-led learning, retreat, and community. We’re located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape people.

Help us to grow The Seed!
Share your thoughts with us through our listener survey.

Follow us @PendleHillUSA on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to The Seed wherever you get your podcasts to get episodes in your library as they're released.  To learn more, visit pendlehill.org/podcast.

Online Quaker Worship with Dwight: Dwight will attend the Pendle Hill online Quaker worship on the last Friday of the month from 8:30 to 9:10 AM (Eastern Time). Visit Pendle Hill Online Worship for details.
This project is made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund.