Poetry, hymns, and a Lewis–Tolkien play

Ben (speaker-1) describes the conference's singer-songwriter culture — earnest, obscure references, melodies too strange for radio — and the live power of hearing poetry and hymns read aloud: "an exchanging of words and ideas in a fresh way." On the final day the conference staged a dramatic reading of a hypothetical final meeting between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, recounting Lewis's conversion through Tolkien after walking away from the faith, their Oxford writing fellowship's mutual encouragement, and the hard break after Lewis's marriage to Joy, which Tolkien the Catholic would not acknowledge.