February 13th, 2006.
An Evening Of Love Poetry and Songs In Honor of Valentine's Day
Love songs performed by Steven Stein, guitar, and Ellen Curr, vocals.
Excerpts from the Documentary "Rumi: Poet of the Heart," narrated by
Debra Winger with interviews with Coleman Barks, Robert Bly and others.
A reading by Stuart Sovatsky, Ph.D., from his just-published third
book:
YOUR PERFECT LIPS: A SPIRITUAL EROTIC- MEMOIR
Destined to be a modern classic on devotional love, "Your Perfect Lips"
lyrically unfolds the story of two lovers discovering the tantric
awakenings of gender worship (pariyanga). This poetic narrative opens doors
to the vast tantric world beyond the reach of "how-to" books by
conveying the romantic spirit of mutual awe in which tantra emerges
spontaneously as devotion, not as technique:
As John Welwood states,"YOUR PERFECT LIPS is an ode to devotional
sexuality inspiring, poetic, and hot!"
Weaving intimate details of romantic life, yogic esoterica and grand
cosmic vistas, YOUR PERFECT LIPS calls forth a new wave of sexual
revolution, but this time embracing lifelong commitment within a profoundly
extended view of deeply embodied spiritual development. Sovatsky's
performance readings are equally spellbinding and the work stands on its own
as poetic literature. Listeners identify with the poem's hopes for an
endless love, but also pause enthralled with accounts of breathless
yogic awakening so rare that no English terms for them exist.
Sovatsky holds degrees in Religion from Princeton University and
Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). A
psychotherapist for 30 years, Stuart was chosen to co-direct Ram Dass's
'prison ashram" in 1977. He is co-president of the Association for
Transpersonal Psychology, and a trustee and faculty member at CIIS. Chant-master
for the trance-band, Axis Mundi, his private counseling practice
specializes in transforming troubled marriages using forgiveness, revived
admiration and meditative intimacy. Author of "Words From the Soul: Time,
East/ West Spirituality and Psychotherapeutic Narrative" (State
University of New York Press) and "Eros, Consciousness & Kundalini" (Inner
Traditions. 3rd edition, Motilal Banarsidas, India), his Axis Mundi CDs
are available at www.soundclick.com.
February 27, 2006
Brian Komei Dempster - author
"From Our Side of the Fence Growing Up in America's Concentration
Camps": Readings by Japanese Americans, honoring the memories of interned
Japanese-Americans interned in
concentration camps during World War II.
The personal accounts of some of the authors: Florence Ohmura
Dobashi, Sato Hashizume, Florence Miho Nakamura and Daisy Uyeda Satoda.
Prior to the reading, Brian's parents Stuart Dempster on didjeridu and
Renko Ishida Dempster at the piano perform a musical interlude.
