Sam Hamill, 74

Sam Hamill, Poet, Publisher and War Protester, Dies at 74
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, April 26, 2018

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Joanne Kyger, 82

Joanne Kyger, Beat Generation Poet, Dies at 82
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, April 6, 2017

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Toshi Reagon reflects on "Naked Soul" at the Rubin

As a follow-up to my post on the Naked Soul concert by Toshi Reagon and Juliette Jones at The Rubin Museum (read it here), I got permission from Reagon to share her beautiful notes from Facebook on her image and music selections and her overall experience at the Rubin.

She writes:

I had a heart opening experience at the Rubin Museum of Art. It was a thrill to sing in the a beautiful rosewood room with excellent acoustics. I am so used to creating dynamics with my voice and a microphone- it was a work out to sing off mic a whole show. I loved it. I worked with violinist Juliette Jones who jumped into every song with a soulful and sensitive creativity. Fierce! I was deeply moved by the good folks who decided to spend the time and money to be at that show. There was no loud sound to cover fidgeting, drinks, or small conversation. We all had to be really present. It was something else. This audience felt like they knew each other well, and sang so beautifully together. I am always humbled to see really old things survive in the 21st century. I as myself what will we leave for our people hundreds of years from now. Looking back could help us move forward in a brighter light.

Durga Mahishasuramadini
10th century
Tan Sandstone

I used usually 2 or 3 songs to cover the energy I felt from the pictures. I picked "Mountain top" for Maya because she gave birth to Buddha- she has a connection to life- and makes trees. She gave birth standing up- and she gave birth to someones who mission was known. So he is born grown. "Mountain top" is a rebirth song and the idea of standing on the mountain and standing down on the mountain made me think of this idea of being bigger than a mountain or grand enough to be there. So it is the idea of releasing power into the world and being powerful yourself that connected them.

I picked "Terrify Me" and "I hate I love" for Durga because they are both about having to deal with and vanquish problems you did not cause. They are both about a manipulative power structure that would never empower you to to be an equal creating chaos that you have to win in order for all to survive.

I picked "dream" for Rahula because it is the song about an end of life and everlasting life on the other side of death - it ends then we die no more. A guide is moving along side the person that is moving towards death- does not push or pressure but walks along side. Eventually the person finds death and welcomes by crossing the jordan river. How ever they are not gone from the ever. Rahula could be guiding us to a death and another life.

In good voice: Black women speak up, sing out

Melissa Harris-Perry
(photo: MSNBC/Heidi Gutman)

Yesterday, the stars aligned. And how!

In mid-afternoon, scholar, author and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry sat down at The New School for a provocative conversation with scholar and author bell hooks. In the evening, singer-musician Toshi Reagon took to the stage at the Rubin Museum of Art with violinist/fiddler Juliette Jones for an acoustic concert of songs organized around images from the Rubin's collection of Himalayan art. Without question, November 8, 2013 was a Power Day in New York City.

bell hooks

If you missed the (poorly announced) free ticket distribution for the New School event, you could watch via Livestream (complicated sign-up, especially at the last minute, but not impossible). Social media exploded right before, during and after with expressions of frustration (What??? I didn't know you needed TICKETS to get in!!!) and increasing awe as hooks and Harris-Perry addressed, all too briefly, numerous issues, each of which could have launched a thick dissertation. From divergent perspectives on recent Black-themed films (12 Years A Slave, Django, The Butler) to sexual violence against Black women to the relative privilege of having light skin when working in corporate media, hooks and Harris-Perry showed a willingness to take space, give voice and honestly grapple with difficult questions. And difficult people: Ironically, perhaps inevitably, one man chose to waste limited Q&A time by delivering a lecture then shouting over hooks' attempt at a reply. It's useful, though--isn't it?-- whenever a fool helps you prove your point about the arrogance of patriarchy.

Both women invoked the late congresswoman/presidential candidate Shirley Chisolm of Bajan heritage (her slogan: "Unbought and Unbossed") as a role model and, accordingly, spent the ninety-minute session breaking every possible code of silence. I was most amazed by--and even concerned for--Harris-Perry who displayed an outspokenness about her role at MSNBC and a degree of personal vulnerability that I would not have anticipated. I felt hooks--twenty years the broadcaster's senior, as she made sure to note at the beginning of their talk--prodding and then leading Harris-Perry into deep waters but making sure to surround her with loving support. Just breathtaking.

Watch the archived conversation

 on Livestream here.

Toshi Reagon
(photo: Erica Beckman)

Introducing Toshi Reagon at the Rubin, Tim McHenry (Director of Public Programs and Performance) wondered aloud what had taken him so long to invite her. So now that that oversight has been rectified, I'm sure it won't take long to bring her back. McHenry's sold-out audience was not only appreciative but clearly smitten.

The Rubin challenges singer-songwriters in their Naked Soul acoustic concert series to peruse the collection and select three images to build a set list around. Reagon--who looks much like a delighted Buddha herself--clearly enjoyed her opportunity to learn about the legends of Himalayan deities and demons and recognized, in them, a way to talk about her ongoing concerns around social and environmental justice. The connection of her specific song lyrics to the sacred themes wasn't always obvious, but the delicate interplay of her high-flying voice, her bluesy guitar and Juliette Jones's sinuous fiddle work made their own sense and had grounded, and grounding, spirituality--always welcome. Her ease with the audience and her sense of humor were winning. Someday ask Reagon to tell you the story of the warrior goddess, Durga--one of her image choices. The Rubin really ought to hire her as a docent.

******

Future Naked Soul evenings will include appearances by Mary Gauthier (January 3), Susan Werner (Febuary 14), David Wilcox (March 14) and Shelby Lynne (May 30). For information and ticketing, click here.

National heritage sites threatened in Afghanistan

OP-DOCS: ‘A Chinese Threat to Afghan Buddhas’
by Brent E. Huffman, The New York Times, April 23, 2013

Museums explore the art of meditation

Om Is Where the Art Is
by Nick Earhart, ARTnews, October 2011

He's melting, melting...

Night of the Melting Buddha

To mark the closing of Grain of Emptiness, the Rubin Museum of Art has asked South Korean photographer Atta Kim to document the melting of a five-foot-tall ice sculpture of the Buddha. Visitors can participate in the work by collecting the melting water with the injunction that they use it to tend to new growth.

 

The melting begins on Friday, March 25 at 6pm during K2 Friday Night, and the museum will be open after hours so that it can be viewed through the night and into the weekend.

For more information on this event, click here.

Rubin Museum of Art

150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

(directions)

Black sutra

Chelsea's Rubin Museum of Art, a beautiful home for the classic arts of the Himalayan region, regularly looks far beyond the Himalayas for ideas, imagery and energies that resonate with its spiritual focus. Last Saturday, the Rubin hosted If We Breathe, a living installation by Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates that featured members of The Black Monks of Mississippi, five Black men and women whose performance practice involved the unexpected blending of gospel, blues and Buddhist chant; yoga asanas and the strumming of cello.

At their 2pm public performance, Charisma Sweat's mellow gospel vocals led us up the museum's spiraling staircase to a tiny gallery. There Khari Lemuel plucked spare notes from his cello, while Aya-Nicole Cook performed a smooth yoga sequence before sitting in meditation. In a short while, the monks quietly retreated, and the audience dispersed.

That performance--part of an afternoon in which the group appeared on each hour, from noon to 3pm, and in "a special salon concert for high-level members"--could not have lasted much more than five minutes. For something so short and so understated, though, it left a residue of serenity with an undercurrent of soul that said firmly, without shouting, "We are present." To me, it suggested a place for difference, and our awareness of difference, within the context of sameness, the context of expectations--Buddhism is Asian; Buddhism in today's America is white and affluent; yoga in today's America is white and affluent; Black Americans are Christian, period. In its quiet way, this installation blew down all kinds of boundaries.

I didn't expect, though, that it might have something to suggest to me about dance writing. But I found a thought arising, unbidden, about dance criticism and about how prominent critics of dance and other disciplines have recently taken defensive postures about the value and even the very survival of their profession. It was this question: "What if we were to think of our dance criticism not as 'my job' but as 'my practice?'"

How might that shift things? How might commitment to practice open up, for each of us, the possibility of humility, curiosity, attention, creativity? What if we realized we had nothing to protect and much to learn and exchange?

Really, I don't know why that thought about practice arose at that particular moment, but I thank Gates, Sweat, Cook, Lemuel, Yaw Agyeman and Dayna Lynn for planting the seed.

Theaster Gates: The Black Monks of Mississippi performing at 2010, the Whitney Biennial

More videos:

The Black Monks of Mississippi on blip.tv

Theaster Gates lectures at Milwaukee Art Museum

For information on current and future programs of the Rubin Museum of Art, click here.

The Black Monks of Mississippi

Rubin Museum of Art:

Theaster Gates and the Black Monks of Mississippi

Saturday, January 22

Echoing his video installation in Grain of Emptiness, sculptor, urban planner, and performance artist Theaster Gates infuses the gallery with live monastic chanting at the top of each hour. Monks layer meditative sutras and gospel singing in this accumulative performance, juxtaposing the Buddhist and African American spiritual experiences. Each performance is distinct, building upon the experience of the previous hour.

Public performances at 12, 1, 2 and 3pm

Free with museum admission

(complete information)

Rubin Museum of Art

150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

212-620-5000

(directions)

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's "Sutra"

Here's my Dance Magazine review of Sutra, part of the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center (November 2-4, 2010). Click here and scroll down the page.

E. Gene Smith, champion of Tibet's literature, 74

E. Gene Smith, Guardian of the Tibetan Canon, Dies at 74
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, December 28, 2010

When you're ready to move beyond Oprah...

The gorgeous, always imaginative Rubin Museum of Art is well into a series of seven Wednesday evening conversations called Tibetan Book of the Dead Book Club in association with its special exhibitions, Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife and Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures. Each Wednesday, curator Ramon Prats explores the TBD from different perspectives with an expert representing a particular discipline. They inquire: Does the TBD have relevance, wisdom and practical application for us today?

This week, I attended Prats's talk with Jungian psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins on "The Analysis of Dreams," a topic of perennial relevance. According to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, dreams will always be relevant as long as humans exist, as long as humans remain unenlightened. Enlightened beings do not dream. They no longer have to, for to dream is to open onto an altered level of awareness in which we come face to face with avoided, unknown or normally inaccessible issues.

Stebbins discussed how Tibetan ideas and traditions around this heightened state of awareness parallels the theories and practices of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychoanalytic approach, he said, represents a journey into the "totality of one's being--the Buddha nature" where one can gain information on unconscious patterns of behavior, insight into so-called symptoms that are actually "symbolic attempts to get to somewhere new." Dreams herald a shift towards liberation.

And the TBD considers this liberation through hearing, as Prats mentioned, in his intriguing introductory remarks. Why hearing, I wondered? One sentence from a TBD passage read later suggested the reason: "So, recognize what I show you without distraction." We are simply too distracted by illusion to get with reality. Like children in school, we have to be brought to attention and made to hear. The Bardo afterlife process, Tibetan Buddhists believe, first brings the soul to that required place of attention and learning before it can move on in its journey. But dreams offer powerful opportunities for growth within our lifetime.

And what of the images of deities of wrath, featured in so much Tibetan art? And what of our own terrifying nightmares?

"Psychologically speaking, nightmares are great news," says Stebbins. "Wake up! Look at this! It has a lot of energy. You have a lot of energy you're not using. Change is scary."

Upcoming TBD Book Club sessions will feature Rabbi Neil Gillman on "The Death of Death" (July 28), Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg on "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" (August 11), medium Jesse Bravo on "Channeling the Dead" (August 18) and Roshi Enkyo O'Hara on "How to Die" (August 25)--all at 7pm. Click here for full information and tickets, and promptness--in both ticket purchasing and showing up to get a good seat--is strongly advised.

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

Directions

What are you reading this summer? Part 2

Toni Bernhard offers a practice for life

I've had the great fortune to be introduced to Toni Bernhard, author of How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers, scheduled for publication in September (Wisdom Publications). In this lovely, informative volume, Bernhard tells of how she suddenly fell ill in the spring of 2001 while vacationing in Paris with her husband. What at first felt like a tenacious, energy-sapping flu was, in fact, a far more serious viral infection that would make it impossible for her to resume life as she'd known it. The university law professor with a treasured marriage and family soon found herself unable to work, shop, travel, meditate or even enjoy the visits of loved ones without a flare-up of debilitating symptoms.

Bernhard remains ill today, usually confined to her bed. Her book describes how she came to apply her longstanding Buddhist practice to this new reality and to the feelings of frustration, grief and envy of other people's freedom that often arose. Would it surprise you, though, to learn that her difficulties have inspired a lively, enjoyable book? With endearing candor and lucidity, this fine writer and teacher explores principles and practices that should help anyone who suffers, whether physically sick or well, and whether or not that person identifies as a Buddhist.

I have always respected Buddhism but felt distanced from its philosophical ideas and approaches to life and spirituality. In fact, there was much about it that I could not fully grasp. But Bernhard leads readers through easy-to-follow discussions and illustrations of practices such as mudita—taking joy in the joy of others—that not only offer liberation from resentment, loneliness and suffering but, in and of themselves, are just delicious. I suddenly realized that I've been practicing mudita and metta most of my adult life: It has always felt wonderful to enjoy the happiness of others and to sincerely wish them well. The trick is to extend this to all sentient beings and, trickiest of all, to remember to offer this loving gift to oneself. Bernhard shares what has worked for her.

Bernhard's experience reminds us of the preciousness of vulnerability, the impermanence of all that is, the value of the present moment, and the importance of releasing one's anxious tendency to grasp and desperately quest for answers that may never come. She admits that her life with chronic illness is a work in progress. Well, every life is a work in progress, and it is a fine thing to have allies and guides along the path. I am happy to have met Toni Bernhard through her generous teachings in this book and, in gratitude, I wish her peace and freedom.

How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers by Toni Bernhard

Paperback, 185 pages

ISBN-13-978-086171-626-5

Coming September, 2010 from Wisdom Publications 

Also see What are you reading this summer?, posted June 29.

Workshop in traditional chant and dance of Korea

Traditional Korean Buddhist Ritual Chant and Dance with Myung Suk Lee

Saturday, June 12 (2-5pm)

This workshop presents a rare opportunity to learn about Korean traditional meditative arts. Master artist Myung Suk Lee, assisted by Nuria Divi, will give an introduction to Bumpae, traditional Korean Buddhist ritual chant and dance. She will teach the Buddhist chant Doryang Ge, and how to play and dance in time to Baras (cymbals).

No experience in dance or singing is necessary to attend this workshop.

Admission: $5

RSVP by email at nuridisa@hotmail.com or walk in on the day of the workshop.

Location: Westbeth Community Room, 155 Bank Street (left side), Manhattan

Rubin Museum goes all OUT in June

OUT in the Himalayas

Five Wednesday night events in Gay Pride Month focusing on gay, lesbian and transgender issues in the Himalayan region

Wednesdays, 7pm

For complete information, click here.

To purchase tickets by phone, contact the box office at 212-620-5000 x344.

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, Manhattan

Peter Campus: an appreciation

Peter Campus--Image and Self

by Bill Viola, Art in America, February 2010

The artist Bill Viola brings his knowledge of digital technology and Buddhism to this appreciation of the work of Peter Campus.

Bush and Helstroffer: To dream without cease

The Himalayan imagery on display in Chelsea's classy Rubin Museum of Art has found a champion in Nadine Helstroffer, a French-born dancer-choreographer with a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Helstroffer's commissioned solo, Absence Presence, was premiered in the Rubin's special exhibition gallery, surrounded by Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art. The record of that performance--filmed by John Bush, edited with exquisite sensitivity by Brent Felker--received its world premiere last night at the Rubin along with another Bush film scored by Felker, the quite enchanting Dream on Me.

Helstroffer's snaky dancing evokes the couple's shared spirituality and pleasure in nature; her perpetually inward expression gives a poetic, even solemn flavor to her work. But she is not just Bush's ethereal muse but also his anchor. Like the hyper-energized, exalted beings at the center of the Tibetan images that flicker through Absence Presence, Helstroffer acts as the radiant core from which Bush's loveliest light can flow in the dream-inspired Dream on Me. The ripples of reflections in water; the deep, resonant clang of super-saturated color; the languorous bobbing of blossom-laden trees in lingering moments of drowsy beauty and gentle humor: They all seem sourced and grounded in this iconic performer.

A flowing composite of the four seasons, Dream on Me hits a jarring, undreamy note only when surf-side passages too closely resemble slick, New Age magazine ads for yoga retreats. But, overall, strategies for overlapping color-bearing dancers with natural or manufactured environments speak to the complexity of notions of permanence and impermanence. What is eternal? What is fleeting? Rigid skyscrapers? Mounds of snow? Wafting saffron banners? Elusively drifting bodies of flesh and bone?

A Q&A followed the screening in which Helstroffer and Bush were joined on stage by Michael Vincent Miller, PhD, a Buddhist psychotherapist. Miller offered thoughtful insights--about engagement with and consideration of art, about empathetic surrender in the moment, about the similarities between wellness in health and in art--that he made me wonder if the future of really useful dance criticism might not actually lie in Buddhist psychotherapy!

For more information on the work of John Bush and Nadine Helstroffer, click here and here.

For more information on the Rubin Museum of Art and a schedule of upcoming events--including the impressive BRAINWAVE series, pairing artists with neuroscientists and astrophysicists--click here.

Classical TV interviews Meredith Monk

Interview with Meredith Monk
ClassicalTV: The greatest performing arts online

Posted via email from Eva Yaa Asantewaa's posterous

Journalist Bergen on Afghanistan

Peter Bergen lecture on Afghanistan Today

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium)

Thursday, September 17 (6pm)

Admission: $23 (Ticketing)

Years of war and much foreign intervention have had a profound effect on the traditional way of life in Afghanistan. Peter Bergen will shed light on the country’s recent history, drawing on his personal experiences during his many visits to the region. To augment his discussion of the Bamiyan Buddhas and their significance in the rich cultural heritage of the Afghan people, the film The Giant Buddhas will be screened following the lecture.

Peter Bergen is a print and television journalist, an author, and an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, June 23–September 20, 2009.

Becoming Intimate with the Body: Awareness in Stillness and Motion

I'm happy to pass along the following announcement for one my Body and Soul podcast interviewees, Nadine Helstroffer. To hear my interview with Nadine, click here.

--Eva

****************

New York Insight Meditation Center presents a day-long retreat with Nadine Helstroffer and Sandra Weinberg--Becoming Intimate with the Body: Awareness in Stillness and Motion.

Saturday, February 16, 10am–5 pm
Fee: $40
28 West 27th Street, 10th floor, Manhattan
Phone: 212-213-4802
E-mail: nyinsight@earthlink.net

This day is an opportunity to enjoy getting to know yourself in your body. As we tune into the spaciousness inside and outside the body, we come closer to our true nature. Building on the foundation of mindfulness practice, we will engage in a joyful and challenging form of inquiry in both stillness and movement. We will shift our awareness from concepts about the body to the arising and falling of each moment to moment experience. The four postures of body--sitting, standing, moving, and lying down--will be the place of exploration of our grasping and letting go.

NADINE HELSTROFFER

A Buddhist practitioner and a New York-based dancer-choreographer, Nadine Helstroffer has directed workshops in France, Canada, Korea, and the United States. In 1998 she founded the Resonance Body workshop, which explores the link between meditation and movement. She has been presenting her workshop at the Zen Center of New York City, the New School University and Bowling Green State University, Ohio. Vajra Realm, a dance pilgrimage with Nadine filmed in Central Tibet, was released in January 2007 and distributed by WGBH Boston/PBS as a special feature on the DVD Vajra Sky Over Tibet by John Bush. In collaboration with John, she is preparing the feature-length dance art film Schimmer, a meditation on impermanence.

SANDRA WEINBERG

Sandra Weinberg is a co-founder, member of the Teachers Council, and Board of Directors of NYI. She has studied and practiced mindfulness meditation for over 25 years and is a graduate of the first Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Program. Sandra has taught insight meditation at NYI, the New York Open Center, City University of New York and elsewhere. She is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City.