WHAT HAPPENED?
The consummate wisdom teacher of the ages |
Candidate Dr. Cornel West |
There was another event in the auditorium, and the gift shop was open for buying books and other items. The main court is a lovely place to think under moonlit skies just yards from Griffith Park. PRS has a prime location on Los Feliz ("The Contented") Boulevard. The library was filled and opened to the public because its founder, Hall, wanted the people of the world to have a place for their "intuitive perusal" of its volumes on all the wisdom traditions of the world. The world may not use it, but Angelenos can. (I used to drive by ever since I learned to drive and wonder what the place could be, a giant think tank where a society of philosophers gathered to research ideas and occult secrets, mysteries, and paths to enlightenment. No one ever said it was open to the public before Mandy Kahn began her residency there. Even Lisa Garr (The Aware Show KPFK, Coast to Coast AM iheart.com, Gaia TV, Hey House Publishers), when she invited me to learn animal communication with a gifted psychic and author, didn't say, "Oh, yeah, come back for the library and to hang around philosophizing. I had probably outgrown that phase by then.
Mandy Kahn took to the podium, thanked the capacity crowd (after having thanked Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal and the various Dharma Buddhist Meditation Meetups around the county for helping fill the seats).
Kate Bonnici | Pepperdine | Seaver College |
Another introduction, another professor. He was meditative reading a book-length piece that talked about Reno as was quickly off the stage, a marvelous albeit staid voice that surprisingly used the f-word a bit much. Everyone else kept it clean (until for the headliner's closing piece, phallic cucumbers and honeymoon activities were underscored with subtle intimations of salad eating. No children were harmed in the declaiming of this verse as none were present).
Some words from a bio and a man with perhaps a tiny Oedipal complex and large glasses started to read from a book. His contribution to the night's poetry seemed like an impromptu letter to an ex, who one would think was not happy to receive it. But all literary appreciation is subjective, and one cup of tea does not sate all sippers. I am also no fan of Stephen King. But, go figure, most people are. Next.
Co-host Jane McCarthy stood to read, but now every reader was standing too much to the right, perhaps to look to the left into the warm, inviting pools of Kahn's eyes in the front row as she sat at her mother's side. The upshot of this shift is that the light behind them acted as a floodlight in our faces and cameras were of no use countering the glare. McCarthy gave an ode to Hall and his text Wisdom of the Ages then read, not from a book, but a flat viscose sheet of pulp. It was not a phone but some oldfangled invention in two dimensions.
With practice, achieve lucidity in dreaming. Astral travel and merge with others. |
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Poet, peace activist, lucid dreamer Mandy Kahn |
Teaching us about the musician Charles Ives, a polytonal, polyrhythmic musician ahead of his time, rather than seek acceptance by conforming, simply refused to share his . But he made music every day nonetheless. And that style eventually came into vogue. We might follow his example. Whether we do or whether we don't, her final piece came not from the book but was pulled from the latest headlines. Don't let Elon Musk's Neuralink technology anywhere inside your body. This beloved workhorse has grown, healed bone, knitted DNA, and brought us right where we are with experimental cyborg technology. Let's keep it that way and resist the lure of trying to improve something we are nowhere close to even beginning to understand -- these amazing brains wrapped in these wondrous bodies. It was unambiguously titled "Poem Against Implanting Technology Into Yourself. Stay organic. That is, choose the body. "What you do not, cannot understand, do not change." Someone in the middle of the hall broke protocol and loudly cheered her on. What would we do without our artists to remind us to stay true to ourselves?
She introduced Iranian born exile Annahita Mahdavi West, whom one could not be blamed in thinking was named Anahata Mahadevi East, were she originally from India. Future U.S. President Cornel West began to roll on his phone-camera duties.
She confessed to being a lot like Charles Ives when she began writing. After all, she explained, everyone in Iran is a poet. Her father was, her mother was, her sister...so what was the sense in showing everyone? Now with Dusty Relics in hand, she was ready to shake them off and show them to the world, personal poems of exile, war, grief, sweetness in the mundane and familiar. Just as Kahn remembered suckling honeysuckle flowers for half a drop of "golden sweetness," West recalled the sweet moments amid the bitter then welcomed her friend and fellow Iranian/Persian poet Sholeh Wolpé:
Sholeh Wolpe, who's famous enough to have her own Wiki page and more than a dozen books to her credit, intermingling lyricism and prose narrative.
Wolpe was the surprise of the night, laying down an example that, if retro-causality could be accessed at will, would have made for a much more moving show. She talked, she read, she waved her arm. She produced laughs from the crowd and oohs and ahhs. She translates the greats as well, but there was no time to read that kind of work tonight. Still, the audience was assured, go home and read The Conference of the Birds by Sufi mystic Attar and be guaranteed a life altering experience.
She read from her book, Abacus of Loss, a memoir partially in Farsi that is in no way chronological because neither is memory, reading from the "This Coffin" section of the book. She left us with one lasting impression, a line she uttered as she was handed the mic by West: "Home," she said, "is a missing tooth. The tongue reaches for hardness, finds only absence." That was the impression but, in fact, she left us with a story of discovering sex with a fellow virgin and the advice she received, the remembrance of it, and its similarity to eating a durian, which is the fruit with the most extraordinary taste. But, being shamed for not knowing what she was doing ahead of time, which would have been good to know, she had to purge.
Mandy Kahn closed the show with final comments, alerting us that this poetry series is ongoing, the last Thursday of every month at PRS in Hollywood. The next show is April 25, 2024.
Original event details
Mandy Kahn hosts and performs |
- Philosophical Research Society
- 3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Hollywood
- RSVP on Meetup.com:
- Disclosure: Deep Dive Poetry, PRS
- Nature Center: Deep Dive Poetry, PRS
- PasaDharma: Deep Dive Poetry, PRS
Peace Class teacher every Wednesday |
- Sholeh Wolpé (headliner shown above)
- Aaron Kunin
- Jared Stanley
- Kate Bonnici
- Annahita Mahdavi West (Dr. Cornell West's wife)
- Plus poetry by hosts:
- Mandy Kahn (Peace Class teacher every Wednesday)
- Ross J. Farrar (away on business)
- Jane McCarthy
The PRS has a history of artsy events. |
Ticketing for all PRS events are offered through the PRS Eventbrite page. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the PRS Bookstore. More
- Weekly "Peace Class" with Mandy Kahn
- Wed., March 27, 2024, 6:00 pm
- Zoom: https://us02web.zooom.us/j/84439689810?pwd=SVo2a3hsRVA1RWY5UW42YW1SaGJhdz09
- Meeting ID: 844 3968 9810
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