Greetings!
Our Living Room last week with Sabeeha and Khalid Rehman was, in the words of one attendee, "enchanting." Sabeeha's talk and the program for "Salat: The Beauty of Prayer in Islam" is now available on our website.
Next Wednesday, May 12, we will have a chance to engage "What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet" with author and organizer Ibrahim Abdul-Matin.
Two weeks later, on May 26, in an evening Co-Sponsored by the Center for Inquiry NYC, writer and activist Austin Dacey will lead a Living Room event on "Music's Lessons for Mystics: Three Songs and a Talk on Secular Transcendence."
Tell your friends and come on out!
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Living Room
Green Deen:
What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet
 Wednesday, May 12, 2010
6 pm Doors, 7 pm Program
Intersections, 274 5th Ave
Btwn 29th
and 30th Sts
With Ibrahim Abdul-Matin
From childhood, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin was taught that "the Earth is a
Mosque," leading him to his belief that the planet is a sacred place
where prayer and worship happen and therefore, we are responsible for
protecting every aspect of it. You are invited to an interactive
evening with the author of "Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet", Ibrahim Abdul-Matin. The evening will include
his story of becoming an environmental justice activist and organizer,
discussion of Islamic scriptural passages that describe a faith-based
mandate to protect the planet, role plays and story telling on how faith
relates to waste, water, watts (energy), and food.
Ibrahim
Abdul-Matin is the author of "Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet", coming to you in Fall 2010 by Berrett-Koehler publishers.
He is currently a Senior Policy Advisor in the New York City Mayor's
Office on issues of long term planning and sustainability. Most
recently, Ibrahim was a consultant for Green City Force, a green jobs
training program for young people of color living in economically
depressed neighborhoods of Brooklyn. He is also a member of the Interfaith Leaders for Environmental Justice and frequently represents the
environmental viewpoint on faith-based panels. His interest in
environmental justice began as Director of Youth Programs with the
Prospect Park Alliance where he was instrumental in establishing the
Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment, a charter school by New
Visions. His skill working with youth led him to Outward Bound - an
organization dedicated to developing young people's self esteem and
appreciation for the Earth.
In 2007, Ibrahim was accepted into
the National Urban Fellows program, completing a Masters in Public
Administration from Baruch College and a fellowship with SchoolNet where
he learned vital product marketing skills. He then joined Green For
All to organize the "National Day of Action" resulting in the inclusion
of green jobs and environmental policy in the Obama campaign platform.
In college, Ibrahim was an all-star linebacker, Political Science major,
and finalist for the prestigious NCAA scholar-athlete award in 1998.
Today, he is the sports contributor on WNYC's nationally syndicated news
show, "The Takeaway." He continues to intersect sports,
politics, and the environment on his blog, Brooklyn Bedouin.
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LIVING ROOM
Music's Lessons for Mystics: Three Songs and a Talk on Secular Transcendence
 Wednesday, May 26, 2010
6 pm Doors, 7 pm Program
Intersections, 274 5th Ave
Btwn 29th and 30th Sts
With Austin Dacey
Co-Sponsored by the
Center for Inqiury, NYC
The experience of the transcendent is often taken as the hallmark of
religion. Or is it the hallmark of the human? Must meaningful
transcendence of self proceed upwards to touch the divine, or is it
better directed outwards to touch truth, beauty, and other persons? In
this presentation, secularist philosopher (and amateur musician) Austin
Dacey examines music as a model of non-religious, "horizontal"
transcendence. Discussing his activities on behalf of censored musicians
from around the world, and performing samples from his study of
traditional Irish singing, he explores his own favored modes of
self-transcendence that keep both feet on the earth.
Austin Dacey is a writer and human rights activist based in New York City. He is the
author of The Secular Conscience, and his writings have been published
by the New York Times, Washington Post, Dissent, and USA Today. A
philosopher by training, he has taught most recently at Marymount
Manhattan College. He serves as an adviser to Freemuse: The World Forum on Music and Censorship. In March 2010 he launched The Impossible Music Sessions, a concert series featuring the artists who cannot appear and
the music they are not free to make. He is still seeking a percussionist
for his new band, The Free Reed Faction.
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5/26 Living Room Co-Sponsored by Center for Inquiry
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Our May 26th Living Room with Austin Dacey is Co-Sponsored by the Center for Inquiry, NYC, whose mission is to "foster a
secular society
based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values." Visit our Donate page to learn about Sponsoring or Co-Sponsoring a future Faith
House event. |
More Upcoming
Living Rooms
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June 9
Peter Rollins,
Founder of Ikon and author of How (Not) to Speak of God
June 23
Carole Forman on Spiritual Storytelling
More information on Upcoming Living Room Gatherings
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