Krista Tippett’s Space: A Temple of Talk in Minneapolis

      At a certain spot on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, several tributaries of culture converge.  There’s the Blake School; the Walker Art Center and sculpture garden; the Beaux-Arts Basilica of St. Mary, the oldest Roman Catholic basilica in the United States; and, catty-corner from the basilica, the spacious and and woodbeamed and sunlit headquarters (if that’s the right word) of Krista Tippett Public Productions, where Krista’s weekly On Being broadcasts are created.

All this on an avenue named for Louis Hennepin, the Franciscan missionary who was the one of the first Europeans to spend time in present-day Minneapolis.  

I say “if that’s the right word” because 1619 Hennepin Avenue is not so much an office as a  public space, which opens – like the broadcasts – both onto inner space and into the wider world.

That’s certainly the case just now.  The American Pilgrimage Project is in Minneapolis, recording three days of conversations – several dozen people from the Twin Cities telling stories about how their religious beliefs have figured into crucial moments in their lives.  Krista Tippett and the On Being team are our hosts, and their casa is our casa – or so they’ve made us feel.

It’s an apt pairing.  Through On Being (formerly “Speaking of Faith”), Krista has used the art of conversation to represent religious experience in all its vitality and diversity; and through this project – a Georgetown partnership with StoryCorps – we’re trying to use the art of conversation to represent religious experience in all its vitality and diversity.

In conversation with Krista yesterday, I found myself saying, “You know, my real religion is narrative”: and if that’s the case, then 1619 Hennepin Avenue is its cathedral – or, better, its basilica.

Thanks to Krista Tippett, Trent Gilliss, and their On Being colleagues.

• 29 May 2015
• #american pilgrimage project#krista tippett#on being
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