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SUMMARY:HYBRID: The Fire Inside with Rima Vesely-Flad & Thenmozhi Soundararajan (Book Event)
DESCRIPTION:The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde \nConversation with author Rima Vesely-Flad and Thenmozhi Soundararajan \nMonday\, June 1st 2025 \n5:30-7:00pm PT \nIn-person at EBMC: 2406 Webster St.\, Oakland CA \nOnline via Zoom \n  \nEBMC is thrilled to host Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad\, author of the newly released book The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde! Dr. Vesely-Flad will be in conversation with Thenmozhi Soundararajan\, author of The Trauma of Caste and Executive Director of Equality Labs. There will also be time for audience Q & A. We hope you’ll join us for this deeply intersectional discussion about two iconic Black queer writers\, timeless Buddhist teachings\, and our current work toward social justice and collective liberation. This event is for lovers of literature\, Buddhist teachings\, and social justice activism. All are welcome to attend. \nFrom publisher North Atlantic Books: \nThe Fire Inside explores the writings of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin through a Dharmic lens\, revealing for the first time how two of America’s greatest literary voices reflect—and expand—Buddhism’s most timeless truths toward justice and liberation. \nDr. Rima Vesely-Flad dives deeply into a dharma of liberation as lived by Baldwin and Lorde\, offering timely lessons to help us each meet this moment. She explores the writers’ enduring legacies to show that liberation depends not only on organizing and mass movements\, but the generative power of inner well-being\, authenticity\, art\, and embodiment. Each chapter shares how looking inward is the way forward\, examining Baldwin and Lorde through key Buddhist principles. \nThis book offers space for emerging conversations within spiritual communities—ones that don’t shy away from difficult or uncomfortable truths; that center—and celebrate—Black\, queer\, radical thought; and that embrace the ways our inner lives\, creative fire\, sensuality\, and expressions of love can ignite and sustain revolutionary liberation. \nThe Fire Inside will be for sale onsite\, courtesy of Nomadic Bookshop\, a nonprofit bookstore and cultural space in Oakland. \nPlease note the address for EBMC’s new space: \n2406 Webster St.\, Oakland\, CA \nDoors open 5:00pm\, event begins at 5:30pm \nThis event will be in-person. Space is limited to the first 200 people who register. \nCost: \nRegistration does not require a donation\, but the offering of a financial contribution is deeply appreciated and will support our center and programs. \nDonations are welcomed even if you’re unable to attend. \nFor a list of our offerings and more information please visit our website at www.eastbaymeditation.org. \n  \n \n  \nBIOGRAPHIES \n  \n \nRima Vesely-Flad\, PhD\, is the author of three books: The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde (2026\, North Atlantic Books: Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press\, 2022); and Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution\, Black Lives\, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press\, 2017). She is Founding Director of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies and a Visiting Affiliate Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Culture\, Society\, and Religion. Dr. Vesely-Flad is former Founding Director of the Inside Out Prison Education Program\, a partnership between the Swannanoa Correctional Institution for Women and Warren Wilson College\, and also taught college-level courses at Sing Sing Prison in New York State. She was a Fulbright Scholar and Awardee in South Africa and Ghana. You can follow her work at www.blackbuddhiststudies.org and on Instagram @blackbuddhiststudies. \n \nThenmozhi Soundararajan\, a Dalit rights artist\, technologist\, and theorist. Currently\, Thenmozhi is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Equality Labs\, a Dalit Civil Rights organization that uses community research\, cultural and political organizing\, popular education and digital security to build power to end caste apartheid\, white supremacy\, gender based violence\, and religious intolerance. \nThrough her work across mediums she centers the voices of communities into the vital debates of our time. Her work has been recognized by the Producers Guild of America Diversity Program\, The Museum of Contemporary Art\, The Sorbonne\, Source Magazine\, Utne Reader\, The National Center for the Humanities\, The National Science Foundation\, and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. You can follow her work as a Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellow and the Atlantic Foundation for Racial Equity. To learn more about her work around caste equity\, abolition\, and healing\, you can find her book\, The Trauma of Caste\, from North Atlantic Books. You can find her on twitter\, instagram\, and facebook at @dalitdiva and Equality Labs @equalitylabs. \n 
URL:https://eastbaymeditation.org/calendar/hybrid-the-fire-inside-with-rima-vesely-flad-thenmozhi-soundararajan-book-event/
LOCATION:East Bay Meditation Center\, 285 17th Street\, Oakland\, CA\, 94612\, United States
CATEGORIES:Fundraising Events,Hybrid
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260711T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260711T170000
DTSTAMP:20260616T111627
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SUMMARY:Watering Our Roots\, Planting Seeds: Exploring South Asian Lineages and Collective Futures
DESCRIPTION:Watering Our Roots\, Planting Seeds: \nExploring South Asian Lineages and Collective Futures \nSaturday\, July 11th 2026 \n12:30pm Doors and altar-building \n1-4pm Program \n4-5pm Social time \nIn-person at EBMC (2406 Webster St.\, Oakland CA) \n  \nTogether with Access to Zen\, EBMC is excited to invite everyone to attend our biggest summer event\, “Watering Our Roots\, Planting Seeds: Exploring South Asian Lineages and Collective Futures”! Join us for a very special afternoon dedicated to uplifting the South Asian histories of Buddhism\, music\, dance\, and yoga. We’ll also look at what it means for a diverse community to practice with these lineages today and in the future. \nLet’s join together to celebrate past and present\, our personal and shared heritages\, and an afternoon of joy in community! \nFeaturing: \n\nLive Indian classical music concert with Srinivas Reddy (sitar) and Ferhan Naheeb Qureshi (tabla)\nPanel discussion with Srinivas Reddy\, Jyoti Argade\, and Anjali Rao\, moderated by Rahil Rojiani\nOpening ritual with Sakkshi\nInteractive altar-building\nMusic and snacks from community members – details to be announced!\n\n  \nPLEASE NOTE THE ADDRESS OF EBMC’S NEW BUILDING: \n2406 Webster St.\, Oakland\, CA \n[If you are using a navigation/map app\, DO NOT type in East Bay Meditation Center. That will take you to our 285 17th St. location instead.] \nDoors open 12:30pm. Program begins at 1:00pm and ends at 4pm. From 4-5pm\, enjoy music\, snacks\, and mingling! \nIn person attendance: Space is limited to the first 200 people who register. \nPlease allow time for parking! We recommend using public transit if possible. \n  \nCost \nWe’re continuing to fundraise for EBMC so that we can keep our center sustained. We humbly request that folx give at the highest level they can for the benefit of the collective. If you are able\, please purchase a Generosity Ticket for someone who cannot afford to buy one for themselves. The tickets are sliding scale and there is an option to name your own donation amount. Thank you! \n  \nOur Organizations \nLearn more about EBMC here. \nLearn more about Access to Zen here. \n \n  \nSPECIAL GUESTS! \n \nSrinivas Reddy (musician & panelist) is a scholar\, translator and musician. He studied classical sitar in the traditional guru-shishya style with Pandit Partha Chatterjee\, a direct disciple of the late sitar maestro Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Srinivas also trained in classical South Asian languages and literatures at Brown University and UC Berkeley. He has released three CDs and published five books including the latest Illuminating Worlds: An Anthology of Classical Indian Literature (Bloomsbury 2024). Srinivas is currently Associate Professor of South Asian Studies at Nayanta University in Pune\, India. www.sankalpana.org \n \nFerhan Najeeb Qureshi (musician) is a senior disciple of the legendary tabla master Ustad Tari Khan. Prior to his ongoing training with Ustad Tari Khan\, Ferhan took his initial lessons in Hindustani music theory and practice with Surinder Singh Mann. Ferhan studies the Punjab gharana of classical tabla which both of his teachers represent. In addition to performing tabla lehra (tabla solo)\, Ferhan Qureshi has also accompanied numerous distinguished classical artists (vocalists\, instrumentalists and dancers) both in the United States and in Pakistan. \n \nAnjali Rao (panelist) brings an intersectional and decolonial feminist lens to the study of philosophy and religion integrating storytelling\, art and poetry. Deeply influenced by her yoga practice and dance training\,  her work emphasizes an embodied approach and explores how spirituality\, power and politics intersect. Her first book\, Yoga As Embodied Resistance: A Feminist Lens in Caste\, Gender And Sacred Resilience in Yoga History\, North Atlantic Books was named as one of the 10 most inspiring\, insightful and seriously worthwhile books of 2025 by Yoga Journal and  “a scholarly work and a deeply personal journey” by L.A Book Review. \nShe is on the faculty of multiple yoga education programs. She considers herself a first\, foremost and forever a student and is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy and Religion (Women’s Spirituality) in California Institute of Integral Studies. \n \nJyoti Argade (panelist) is a bharatanatyam artist\, scholar\, and educator whose work sits at the intersection of devotion\, embodied practice\, and critical inquiry into South Asian performance traditions. Born into a family of bharatanatyam teachers\, she trained under her mother\, Srimati Veena Argade\, and later with V.P. and Shantha Dhananjayan in the Kalakshetra style. She has performed at The Asia Society\, The Brooklyn Museum\, The Guggenheim\, The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art\, and the American Dance Festival\, among others. \nJyoti holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and served as Chair and Associate Professor of Dance at the University of East London. As a producer\, she produced Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company’s historic first tour to India\, where she chaired public dialogues on diaspora\, identity\, and the politics of contemporary South Asian dance. Her scholarly work examines the historical\, devotional\, and political dimensions of South Asian dance traditions\, with ongoing research into the devadasi lineage and bharatanatyam’s modern reconstruction for nationalist and global stages. She runs a bharatanatyam studio in Berkeley and leads The Actual Project\, a consultancy focused on leadership and organizational development. Jyoti is also the mother to two extraordinary humans. \n \nRahil Rojiani (they/them) (panel moderator & planning team) is a queer\, genderfluid\, South Asian facilitator and healer\, currently swimming the waters of capitalism as an abolitionist trauma-oriented psychiatrist. They are committed to a path of weaving together the many threads and contradictions of their life\, spanning decades of community organizing\, neuroscience research and medical training in ivory tower academia\, contemplative and somatic healing practices\, and a primary orientation toward Spirit. Rahil’s spiritual lineages include Mahamudra and Dzogchen schools of Buddhism\, the esoteric tradition of Ismaili Islam in which they were raised\, and Hindustani classical music through sitar under Srinivas Reddy and the Ali Akbar College of Music. They feel most alive when supporting queer and trans BIPOC communities in healing complex trauma through conscious use of psychiatric tools\, liberatory somatics\, shadow work\, and reconnecting to Spirit for the sake of our collective liberation in apocalyptic times. When not making long lists\, you might find them climbing\, gardening\, reading\, or deliciously lost in deep conversation and cuddles with their dear ones. \n \nSakkshi (she/her) (opening ritual & planning team) is a Queer immigrant rooted in Indian lineage and the living tradition of Sanathana Dharma  the eternal Vedic path she has walked alongside her family for over three decades. Her practice is supported by the rhythms of ancestral ritual and the wisdom of Jyotish aka Vedic astrology\, where our energetic footprint becomes a way to explore the relationship between karma and dharma\, a journey she holds space for through her Jyotish practice\, Cosmicdesi. In her work as the founder of a boutique residential design firm\, she brings this same philosophy into the spaces people inhabit\, understanding that the places we build are extensions of the lives we are creating. She is a devoted student of ancestral veneration and healing\, understanding that the wounds and gifts carried in our bloodlines are portals to collective liberation. For the past four years\, she has been co-facilitating weekly meditations at East Bay Meditation Center. At the heart of her work lives a single conviction: that separation is an illusion\, and that through conscious creation\, our remembering\, and aligned action we can return to a living relationship with our metaphysical existence as our birthright. \n \nSarwang Parikh (he/they) (planning team) is a decolonial psychotherapist and meditation teacher based on unceded Ohlone land in the SF Bay Area. Born into a devotional Indian lineage with an immigrant\, working-class background\, Sarwang has been practicing and studying the Dharma for over 25 years through their ancestral traditions of Vedic yoga\, Theravāda\, and Indian Vajrayāna. They have completed various multi-year teaching and study programs\, including East Bay Meditation Center’s (EBMC) 2-year Spiritual Teacher Leader program\, and are currently in Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader cohort. Sarwang teaches with Dharma Homies\, East Bay Meditation Center\, Braided Wisdom and Inward Bound Mindfulness where they also serve on the board. Rooted in a liberatory approach to mindfulness and healing\, Sarwang integrates deep ancestral wisdom with contemporary practices. They find joy in playing their handpan\, frolicking with friends in nature\, and getting free on the dance floor.
URL:https://eastbaymeditation.org/calendar/watering-our-roots-planting-seeds-exploring-south-asian-lineages-and-collective-futures/
LOCATION:East Bay Meditation Center\, 285 17th Street\, Oakland\, CA\, 94612\, United States
CATEGORIES:Fundraising Events,In-Person Only
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