"Brother Arnold Watches 'The Shakers'"
"Brother Arnold Watches 'Rock My Religion'"

In mid-August 2010 Brother Arnold and I recorded audio commentary tracks over two existing documentary video essays about the Shakers, both made in 1984: Ken Burns’ “The Shakers” and Dan Graham’s “Rock My Religion”.

In 1978, Arnold Hadd, then twenty-one years old, joined the Shakers. Brother Arnold is now the youngest of the three living Shakers. A scholar of American utopianism and a farmer, he is technologically sophisticated, culturally savvy, and a spiritual light within his community. He is a man of the world who lives by the motto “hands to work, hearts to god.”