Ken Feit IF
Itinerant Fool for Christ
A Poem
for Ken Feit
Itinerant fool
God's clown
silent mime
story teller
inspirational teacher
true friend
sadly missed
by Herbi A Harlequin, hah
Photo of Ken Feit performing as Pathetique
Photo of Ken Feit courtesy of Br. Joseph Martin
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
Ken died on Aug 8, 1981 on a stretch of road outside of Heber City, Utah
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
Pathetique/patetico in the context of musical works goes back to the Greek origins of the word.
“Pathetikos” literally translates as suffering, but “pathos” can also just generally refer to something that arouses the emotions.
So Pathetique/Patetique could be suffering, full of emotion, full of pathos as well as the common English pathetic.
Ken said that children often called him "Pattycake"
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
File puptcrit/puptcrit.0612, message 60
From: "steve abrams" sapuppets-AT-ucwphilly.rr.com
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 22:27:25 -0500
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Ken Feit Request.
mjm
My friendship with Ken was similar. He died in Aug 1981, I seem to remember
it was Utah where the car ran off the road.
I first met Ken at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Marin county, north of
San Francisco. The meeting was unforgettable
Bruce Schwartz was performing at the Faire too.
Back east in Philadelphia, my home became Ken's "crash pad" in Philly.
We traveled to quite a few other places together-Washington, Baltimore, NY,
Canada. As you say he had fascinating friends everywhere.I spent some time
with him and his mom in the house he grew up in, in Chicago
He would sometimes create a paper animal in a check out line in the grocery
store and give one to the clerk.
I saw him perform many times- mostly at Catholic Colleges.
I still have some of the paper animals, and also little parchment cards with
his sound poetry, some things he brought back from Asia too.
Zack the jazz player of the one-string bass is also one of my favorites.
I am grateful that Stephens request for stories brought Ken closer to me again Steve
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
From: "mjm" mmoynihan-AT-wi.rr.com
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Ken Feit Request.
I saw Ken many times, but rarely with an audience. More often than not
it was just he & I or he and a couple of us. many times we were having
other convesations and he would ask if he could show something he was
working on (when he had his old little cardboard suitcase that he
basically live out of). We lived in the same space in Milwaukee for a
while. When he was out of town, which was usually, it was my tiny room.
When he came back into town it became his, and I would sleep in one of
the many little loft like spaces in the owner designed house of our
friend and mentor insui.
I also met up with him on a trip to Berkeley, SanFran & Oakland . he
introduced me to many of his friends in the three cities, who were all
almost as interesting, brilliant, creative, individualistic and
talented as he was.
My 60 year old brain now mixes much of his story
telling/puppetry/poetry/dance together into one patchwork quilt of Ken.
The freeing of the water from ice cube form, the origami characters,
the soda straw music, the no/Noh string bass player, so many, many
inventions of narrative. And then was the usual: hey, this is something
you guys should do. After his death we actually did a show inspired and
dedicated to him that we entitled SMALL MIRACLES.
You probably already found these images:
http://members.internettrash.com/patetique/kenfeit3.jpg
http://www.storynet.org/Programs/Awards/Images/kenfeit.JPG
(Are you sure this is the same Ken Feit?)
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
On Dec 6, 2006, at 10:08 PM, Stephen Kaplin wrote:
Hello again,
I am repeating a request to all elder pupt critters, asking if anyone
has seen a performance by the master storyteller, holy fool, Ken Feit.
He died in 1981. If you have- please send me a short description of
what you saw. This is for an article for the next Puppetry International on micro-theater.
Also-- I am still looking for photos of Ken in action.
Thanks in advance.
The Rev. Jim Friedrich, a filmmaker, writer and member of Episcopal Communicators, has won the top award for Biographical Profile in the 1998 Associated Church Press competition for "The Priestly Folly of Ken Feit" appearing in the Summer 1998 issue of "Christianity and the Arts" magazine, received the Award of Excellence.
Foolish Wisdom : Stories, Activities, and Reflections from Ken Feit, I.F. (Itinerant Fool)
Joseph F. Martin / Paperback / Published 1990
Amazon has the book for $11.95
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
There are several used copies available as of March 8, 2007 for $3.94 plus shipping at Amazon
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
A review of Foolish Wisdom
An itinerant gladness scatterer
May 14, 2000
Reviewer: Philip D. Noble (Prestwick, Scotland)
Ken Feit is the most extraordinary human being I never met.
In the late 1980's (sic-Ken died in 1981) he visited London, England for one show only.
When I hear of this I applied to go but it was too late.
He had already left and was, I was informed, somewhere in the middle of the Sahara desert.
My attempts to find our more about this wise fool have constantly been frustrated by lack of information.
Now Joseph Martin has put together a collection of stories, sketches, haiku poems and foolish thoughts as an excellent tribute.
From the setting free ice cubes which had been bought at the local garage by floating them on the lak , to allowing his hand to be used as a ' tree' by a spider making his web, Ken challenges our priorities and worldviews.
This book beautifully catches Ken's challenge to playful religion, with chapters on such topics as the priest, the fool, the story teller and the mystic.
Some sound poems are also included with a brief introduction to this art form along with several performance scripts and dozens of ideas for storytellers of all kinds and ages.
Even with all this stimulating material, perhaps the book is most effective as a doorway into the imagination.- It shows us how to live foolishly in everyday situations. As Ken says,
we fools merely probe playful possibilities, mirror ridiculous realities, and retreat behind our motley, with a twinkle in our eyes. Don't take us (or yourself) too seriously.
A great collection of the thoughts and acts of one, very unusual, person. I highly recommend it for all trainee fools.
Bearing Witness Sermon by Patricia E. de Jong of FCCB [my onsite copy] Her email address is in the Sermon
Storytelling as an Everyday Window to the Divine by Carol Mc Cormick. Carol reflects on the life of Ken Feit [my onsite copy]
Carol McCormick is a professional storyteller who shares programs with all ages.Carol's email :mccobuch@minn.net
Michael Lane Trautman in PDF format credits Ken Feit for training in storytelling.
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
TRADITIONAL STORIES ABOUT PEACE AND WAR
— from storyteller Ken Feit
Once a samurai warrior went to a monastery and asked a monk, “Can you tell me about heaven and hell?”
The monk answered, “I cannot tell you about heaven and hell. You are much too stupid.”
The warrior¹s face became contorted with rage. “Besides that,” continued the monk, “you are very ugly.”
The warrior gave a scream and raised his sword to strike the monk.
“That,” said the monk unflinchingly, “is hell.”
The samurai slowly lowered his sword and bowed his head.
“And that,” said the monk, “is heaven.”
[which appears at http://www.sisterschoice.com/peace.html]
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
I am looking for this article
"A Storytelling Fool at Forty" by Ken Feit
Which appeared on page 12 in Jan/Feb 2002 issue of "Frontiers of the Storytelling Movement: Past, Present, Future"
Write to me about other ideas for this site.
Write to me about new links to add.
richwmiller@gmail.com
or
[NEW on March 8, 2007]
Use the feedback form
[last updated March 9, 2007]
[Broken links to be repaired as of March 8,2007
1a-http://www.dfms.org/ens/99-079.htm -Episcopal news service site at the news site scroll way down for this reference.
1b-http://www.christianarts.net/Magazines/98_3/98_3.html --Christian Arts Magazine
2-http://word.net/books/drama.htm -- book recommendation by Christian Drama Online Bookstore ]
3-http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Channel/5025/quotes.html --quote by Ken Feit
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