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Upcoming TNS Events
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Sunday, Sept 5
Stories and Poems at the End of Life
A Reading and Conversation with Rachel Naomi Remen
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Thursday, Sept 16
Shodo Harada Roshi
Calligraphy demonstration at the Asian Art Museum,
San Francisco
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Sunday, Sept 19
Sacrifice Zones
Conversation with Steve Lerner
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Visit The New School website for more information.
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Art Exhibitions
| October 10 - Nov 12
Ken Botto
Last Works
Reception:
Sunday, October 10
3-5 pm
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Dear New School Friends:
Last night I watched a documentary that changed me. Which Way Home, a 2010 Oscar nominee for best documentary feature film, tells the story of several children traveling alone as they ride the train they call "The Beast" from southern Mexico north toward the U.S. border. Two beautiful nine-year-old Hondurans, Olga and Freddy, are traveling together. Olga hopes to find her mother, somewhere in Minnesota. She doesn't know where she lives. She wants to be a doctor some day. Kevin, 14 years old, hopes to join his father in New York. His mother hopes he will send money.
Olga and Freddy meet others on the train: Jose, 10 years old and from El Salvador, has been abandoned by smugglers and ends up in a Mexican detention center. Another boy tears up as he tells of watching fifteen men rape a woman and her daughter in a freight car.
Later, In a hospital, we meet a beautiful young mother who left her children to make money in El Norte. She fell from the train and lost both legs at her upper thigh. She listens as a doctor tells her how fortunate she is to be alive. He tells her she will be able to support her children by working at home doing hand embroidery. She looks down at the small embroidery she holds in one hand, and the needle she holds without conviction in the other. "That is my hope," she softly says.
Across the United States, the battle lines are drawn on immigration. Just as meaningful climate legislation has failed, meaningful immigration reform is dead. In Arizona and other border states, the movement to greet the migrants with detention centers grows. I do not pretend to have the answers on immigration. Stopping desperate people from crossing borders is almost impossible. My father and his parents came to America, steerage class, from Russia. That is why I am here. Am I any different from these new immigrants? I don't think so.
In Bolinas, many of the Latinos who maintain our yards, clean our houses, and work in the fields growing our food, are willing to tell you, quietly, what their journey was like. All you have to do is ask.
At The New School, we do ask. We ask questions that may not have simple answers. We learn together. Whether it is grief, or joy, or wonder, we are enriched by sharing the exploration together. That is what learning community is about. Thank you for being part of The New School.
Michael Lerner
Founder, The New School
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 Rachel Naomi Remen
Stories and Poems at the End of Life
Sunday, September 5, 2010, 2pm-4pm
Join us in a conversation between New School founder Michael Lerner and Rachel Naomi Remen, co-founder and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Rachel has been featured in the Bill Moyers PBS series Healing and the Mind, and is author of both Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal, and her newest book, My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging - both national bestsellers. As a master story-teller and public speaker, she has spoken to thousands of people throughout the country, reminding them of the power of their humanity and the ability to use their lives to make a difference. |
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The New School at Commonweal is a "community in dialogue" with one rule for participation: the practice of kindness and civility.
We focus on the emergent, and we believe that the process of inquiry builds a more resilient community, nourishing our creativity so that we are better able to be of service to others during this time of global crisis.
During the past four years, The New School has presented more than 80 lectures,
conversations and events at no charge, which are recorded and
downloadable as podcasts on our webpage.
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