Words, Worry, Wonder: Conversation with Irwin Keller
Past Event
December 10,2024
Join Mesa Refuge Alum Rabbi Irwin Keller for a conversation about his new book. Commonweal’s Michael Lerner hosts Irwin at The New School at Commonweal in Bolinas. The conversation will also be live-streamed via Zoom.
A former lawyer and drag queen, Irwin has released a long-awaited volume of essays, memoir, and poetry, entitled Shechinah at the Art Institute: Words, Worry, Wonder. In this book, Irwin, most recently known for his viral protest poem, “Taking Sides,” leads us on dazzling journeys into Jewish mysticism, love, loss, memory, gender, AIDS, and the Milky Way itself.
Register to join in person or via Zoom
Rabbi Irwin Keller
Irwin has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Sonoma County since 2008, a post he took while still writing and performing with the San Francisco-based Kinsey Sicks, known as America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet. His legal advocacy work included authoring the City of Chicago’s first comprehensive human rights law, in effect since 1989, and serving as the Executive Director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area. Photo: Adam Shemper
Host Michael Lerner
Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press).