The 6 Pāramitās and The Black (W)Hole: Socially Engaged Art to Cross Over to The Other Shore
January 13 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm PST
Engaged Buddhism Speaker Series
The 6 Paramitas and The Black (W)Hole:
Socially Engaged Art to Cross Over to The Other Shore
With Brett Cook
Order of Interbeing member Brett Cook shares The Black (W)Hole project as an innovative new model for addressing grief and as an embodied path for liberation.
Through a guided meditation, multimedia presentation, and question and answer session with Deer Park Monastery Monastic Brother Phap Luu, Brett will share transformational expressions of Art and Buddhism in the world.
The Black (W)hole was a healing, celebratory experience that mourned and honored the lives of six young people who died in and around Oakland California before the age of 32.
Developed by artist Brett Cook, spoken word artist and playwright Marc Bamuthi Joseph and former Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) Artistic Director Sarah Crowell, this process-based project combined action research, installation, and performance to create public rituals for mourning and healing.
We hope you will join us for this special virtual workshop and interview.
Monday, January 13, 2025
4:00pm – 5:30pm
U.S. Pacific Time
Held on Zoom
This workshop is a part of our ongoing Monthly Engaged Buddhism Series featuring Lay Dharma Teachers and Order of Interbeing (OI) Members in the Plum Village Tradition. This series is for mindfulness practitioners around the world who want to learn more about engaged practice and how to build service-based mindfulness communities. We hope you will join us.
About the Facilitator
Brett Cook (Lineage name Bodhisattva Aspiration of the Heart, Dharma name True Powerful Virtue) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who uses storytelling as a vehicle to distill complex ideas and creative practices to transform outer and inner worlds of being. Using inquiry-based approaches he designs inclusive processes and products that promote awareness and embody the complexity of loving communities. His objects feature painting, drawing, photography, and elaborate installations to tell pluralistic stories with broad representation. His public projects typically involve community workshops featuring arts-integrated pedagogy and contemplative strategies along with music, performance, and food to create fluid boundaries between art making, daily life and healing.
Teaching and public speaking are extensions of his social practice that involve communities in dialogue to generate experiences of reflection and insight. He has received numerous awards including the Lehman Brady Professorship at Duke and the University of North Carolina, the Richard C Diebenkorn Fellowship at the San Francisco Art Institute and a Rainin Arts/United States Artists Fellowship. Recognized for a history of socially relevant, community engaged projects, he was selected as cultural ambassador to Nigeria as part of the US Department of State’s smARTpower Initiative. His work is in private and public collections including the Smithsonian/National Portrait Gallery, the Walker Art Center, and the Studio Museum of Harlem. Brett is currently A California Arts Council Legacy Artist Fellow and a trustee of A Blade of Grass, an arts nonprofit dedicated to social engagement.
760-291-1003