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Welcome to The New School at Commonweal.
No degrees, grades, or homework—we're a new kind of school, a community of inquiry exploring topics in health, the arts and sciences, the environment, and the inner life. The New School presents conversations, book readings, performances, and other events with thought and action leaders who are changing our world. The events, more than 100 over the past four years, are recorded and then offered as podcasts on iTunes and our website. Most of our events are offered free of charge as gifts to the Commonweal community—and you are part of it—giving forward into a circle of generosity.
Click here for directions to The New School events.
Click here to get to our ride share page (password: thenewschool). Please carpool if possible.
Upcoming New School Events
Friday, February 3, 2012
10am-12:30pm
Donald Abrams, MD, and Clint Werner
Marijuana: Is it Medicine Yet?
Cannabis for Pain and Palliative Care
~NOTE UNUSUAL DAY AND TIME~
Please join us for a science-based talk and conversation with Donald Abrams and Clint Werner on the medicinal uses of this ancient herbal remedy.
Donald Abrams, MD, is one of the world's foremost experts on the medicinal uses of marijuana, especially for cancer. He is professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and chief of hematology/oncology at San Francisco General Hospital. He provides integrative oncology consultations at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.
Clint Werner is author of Marijuana: Gateway to Health: How Cannabis Protects Us from Cancer and Alzheimer's Disease, which Andrew Weil, M.D., says "should be required reading for all medical professionals, elected officials, and everyone interested in health and wellness." He has worked in preventive health for more than 25 years.
Please join us for a science-based talk and conversation with Donald Abrams and Clint Werner on the medicinal uses of this ancient herbal remedy.
RSVP to the New School at thenewschool@commonweal.org. Please carpool! Check our rideshare page to offer or search for a ride to the event (password: thenewschool).
Sunday, February 19, 2012
2-3 pm (followed by a gallery opening 3-5pm)
Stephen Parker, PhD
Jung, Art, and Healing
I have been struggling with this never-ending wound for more than a year, and still it haunts me by the hour.
A heart attack is also a deeply isolating event. Others act as if their lives will go on forever, but how can I participate in this charade, knowing deeply and irrevocably that any moment could be my last one? I identify much more with people who have terminal illness than with those who are caught up in the illusions and routines of everyday life.
In hopes of reducing this isolation and finding a way through this purgatory, I thought I would try to post a daily blog about the experience.
I am fascinated and struck by the story of Chiron, that mythical Centaur who had a permanent wound in his knee that would not heal. In Puget's painting, Achilles is being dragged by his rationality, his head, and it looks like there isn't much he can do about it.
Not particularly wanting to be hunted, I have to somehow find out just where this heart attack is leading me.
With these words written in his blog, Dr. Parker begins an exploration – in words and paintings – of the dreams and meanings around his 2005 soul-changing heart attack.
In The New School conversation with Michael Lerner February 19, Dr. Parker talks about this journey and presents the opening of his show at Commonweal Gallery. His talk will be followed by a gallery reception from 3-5pm.
Dr. Stephen Parker is has lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, since 1980, consulting in many of the Alaskan communities as a psychologist and as an expert witness in all of the superior courts of Alaska. In 2005, he experienced a severe heart attack, changing the focus of his life. He now works extensively with people with chronic illness and life-threatening conditions. Stephen is a graduate of Stanford University and the California School of Professional Psychology – San Diego.
RSVP to the New School at thenewschool@commonweal.org. Please carpool! Check our rideshare page to offer or search for a ride to the event (password: thenewschool).
Sunday, March 11, 2012
2-4 pm
Irene Borger
Ten Thousand Joys and Ten Thousand Sorrows:
A Conversation and A Little Time to Write
Co-presented with the Institute for Art and Healing
The sources of our writing life – the range of joys and sorrows – are close at hand: What we have seen, heard, smelled, touched and been touched by, what we remember, how we have befriended our life experiences through words.
Whether we are dealing with illness, creating something from scratch, or just going about our business in the wild world, we are always swimming in the stream of the unknown. Transformed through the eyes of curiosity, uncertainty becomes vitality, and the core of our creative life.
Irene will talk with Jaune Evans, director of Commonweal's Institute of Arts and Healing, about her life as a writer, master teacher, and muse. Those who attend will also have the opportunity to write (briefly) with Irene, working with simple exercises that invite discovery, playfulness, and, no less important, a bit of exhalation. No prior experience or talent is required. Please bring pen and paper.
Writer and teacher Irene Borger leads workshops in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and in Washington, D.C., at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. Since 1990 she has developed a special offering of her work, grounded in not-knowing and witnessing, to art makers, and people living under conditions of extremity. The founder of the Writing Program at AIDS Project Los Angeles, the country's second-largest AIDS service agency, and artist-in-residence there for ten years, Irene is the editor of From a Burning House: The AIDS Project Los Angeles Writers Workshop Collection, published by Washington Square Press/Pocket Books. The audiotape version was nominated for a Grammy in the Spoken Word category, and the workshop profiled on the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.
Irene's writing has appeared in many publications including The Los Angeles Times, Vogue, O, Architectural Digest, and on The Wall Street Journal arts page. Irene is also director of the Alpert Award in the Arts, where she oversees the giving of five annual $75,000 grants to outstanding artists working nationally in dance, film/video, music, theatre, and the visual arts. Her conversations with 19 of these artists are the subject of the book, The Force of Curiosity. She is the writer and curator for a prize-winning website. A Bennington College graduate, with an M.A. in dance ethnology from UCLA, Irene is also a former member of the dance history faculty at University of California, Riverside. A longtime meditation student, she is working on a book on listening.
RSVP to the New School at thenewschool@commonweal.org. Please carpool! Check our rideshare page to offer or search for a ride to the event (password: thenewschool).
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Paul Hawken
An Uprising: The Global Crisis and Our Response
2-4 pm, following a fundraising brunch 11am-1pm
Co-presented with Point Reyes Books
Paul is a truly visionary thought and action leader. He is among the great contributors to the global effort to re-imagine our place in nature and how we may live balanced and creative lives together. In this talk, Paul will discuss the interlocking global environmental, financial, and human crises we face and the ways we can respond. Paul's return to The New School will unquestionably fill the Gallery, so RSVPs are required. The gathering is, as always, free, but since Paul has been kind enough to do this as a benefit for The New School, donations will be gratefully received.
Paul has also been kind enough to join us for a brunch benefiting The New School from 11am to 1pm. The brunch is for New School friends who are able to donate $500/plate toward the much-needed renovations of The Commonweal Gallery where many New School events are held. Paul will also speak informally at the brunch. Brunch invitations are very limited.
Please click the links below to register yourself and your guests through our new online registration system.
Register for the talk, 2-4pm
Register for the fundraising brunch, 11am-1pm
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author who has dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is author of seven books including The Next Economy, The Ecology of Commerce, and Blessed Unrest.
RSVP to the New School at thenewschool@commonweal.org. Please carpool! Check our rideshare page to offer or search for a ride to the event (password: thenewschool).
Fragrance-Free Events: Please refrain from wearing perfumes and colognes when attending events so that those who are sensitive to chemicals may also attend. Commonweal Gallery is not wheelchair accessible.
Getting to Commonweal
The New School events are held in the main Commonweal building at 451 Mesa Road, Bolinas, CA 94924, unless otherwise noted. A sign on the front door will lead you to either the Library or the Gallery, depending on the size of the event.
Download a map (PDF) with driving directions to Commonweal.
Click here for driving directions from Google.
We request that you carpool, if possible, to help with parking congestion (and pollution). Click here to get to our ride share page (password: thenewschool).