A Salon for Artists with Blanche Brown, Charlotte Gordon, and others November 14, 2009

Please join CIIS' Department of Writing, Consciousness & Creative Inquiry (WCC) for "A Brief History of Consciousness: A Salon for Artists with Blanche Brown, Charlotte Gordon and Robert McDermott, moderated by WCC faculty member and fiction writer Carolyn Cooke.

How can literature and the arts explore and embody consciousness? This conversation with three artistic and intellectual luminaries will probe how origin stories, myths, archetypes and ecstatic revelations can uncover the material given to us as artists, feminists, activists and earth-changers in the postmodern present. From Buddha and Mohammed, from the bible to the Bhagavad Gita, Mohammed to the Virgin Mary, from Sarah and Hagar to William James, from Nigeria to Haiti, from the spirituality of Green politics to the spiritual dimensions of radical art forms, this lively conversation will attempt to map the evolution of human consciousness while dismantling the political constructs of East and West, old and new, and expand boundaries of what we know about race, class, gender and sexual orientation.
The awakening ethnic consciousness of the late 60's propelled BLANCHE BROWN into an in depth study of African-American Culture and the possibilities of movement, from afro-Haitian, ballet, jazz, folk dance and tap. After graduating from San Francisco State with an emphasis in Dance, she worked with the Wajumbe Performance Ensemble, including African based dance forms in her repertoire. CHARLOTTE GORDON has published two books of poetry. Her biography of the 17th century poet, Anne Bradstreet won a New England Book Award for non-fiction. Her latest book, The Woman Who Named God retells the famous Biblical story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. ROBERT MCDERMOTT is professor of Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University and is president emeritus of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Official Website: http://www.ciis.edu/News_and_Events/Event_Calendar/Carolyn_Cooke_Salon.html