In-Person and Online: Practicing Hope – An Embodied, Heart-Based Retreat
with Leslie Booker and Dara Silverman
Saturday, November 23rd & Sunday, November 24th, 2024 | 10:00am – 4:00pm ET
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
Many of us are engaged with the world as activists or organizers. But even if you don’t identify that way, you probably deeply care about the world and want to help change it. For those of us with a regular meditation or embodiment practice, we might wonder how we can align the tools we use to find ease, ground, refresh, and stay connected with our most deeply-held values. Without learning how to align our practice with our beliefs, it can start to feel like escapism. But how do we move forward?
In this two-day non-residential retreat, we’ll explore “hope” as a way through. What does it feel like to hold hope as an embodied practice in a tumultuous world? How do we cultivate love without spiritually bypassing? Is there a way to connect to our own sense of well-being and joy while remaining fully present to injustice and violence?
Join long-time friends and collaborators Booker and Dara as they weave together somatic (body-based) practices and the heart practices of the Buddha’s Brahmaviharas (expressions of love). Together we’ll cultivate these capacities in ourselves, and nurture a fuller understanding of the body and heart.
Everyone is welcome to participate, regardless of experience with meditation or body-based practices. Please wear comfortable clothes you can move in.
In-Person Registration:
Please register below. If you are able, registering at the “Supporter” level enables others to attend at the “Subsidized” level. Thank you for your generosity! (Please note that the registration price includes a base level of teacher support, and you will have the opportunity to donate more after the program.)
If you are registering via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, you can scroll right and left and up and down within the below form if it is partially obscured or cut off.
CLICK HERE to open the registration form in a new browser window.
Online Registration:
Please register below. If you are able, registering at the “Supporter” level enables others to attend at the “Subsidized” level. Thank you for your generosity! (Please note that the registration price includes a base level of teacher support, and you will have the opportunity to donate more after the program.)
If you are registering via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, you can scroll right and left and up and down within the below form if it is partially obscured or cut off.
CLICK HERE to open the registration form in a new browser window.
Volunteering
All of our programs rely on volunteers to support our teachers and staff with various tasks and responsibilities. Volunteering allows you to participate in our programs at no cost. To inquire about volunteering opportunities, please fill out our inquiry form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Teacher(s)
Leslie Booker
Leslie Booker is a Guiding Teacher at New York Insight. She brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation. Using this framework, she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care.
After training as a yoga teacher in 2007, Booker was drawn to Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation training which she completed in 2012. Supported by her teacher Gina Sharpe, she continued her formal teacher training at Spirit Rock through their Community Dharma Leaders Training, graduating in 2017, and their Retreat Teacher training program which she completed in 2020. Throughout these years, she worked as the Director of Teacher Trainings for Lineage Project, where she shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with incarcerated and system-involved youth for over a decade. She also worked with the youth population on Rikers Island through the LionHeart Foundation and at the National Institute of Health for two years.
Booker has spoken at venues including the Mind & Life Institute’s International Symposium, Contemplative Minds in Higher Education, the Fetzer Institute, and Vassar Colleges. She is a co-author of ‘Best Practices for Yoga in a Criminal Justice Setting’, and a contributor to Sharon Salzberg’s book ‘Happiness at Work’ and Dr. Rima Vesely–Flad’s book ‘Black Buddhist and the Black Radical Tradition’. Her writing and other work can also be found in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle Magazine, Yoga Journal and Ten Percent Happier. She currently lives in Philadelphia with her partner and pup.
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Dara Silverman
Dara Silverman is a white, queer Jewish consultant, somatic coach and trainer with 25 years working with organizations and in movements for social, racial, economic and gender justice. Previously, she was the founding Director of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and the Executive Director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) in New York City.
Dara has had a meditation practice for the past 20 years. She will complete the Dedicated Practicioner Program at Spirit Rock in May 2024 and will be beginning the Community DHarma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock in January 2025. She is certified through the International Coaching Federation as a Professional Certified Coach. Dara has been studying Somatics with the Strozzi Institute and Generative Somatics since 2011. In 2013, Dara became a certified Somatic Coach and taught at the Strozzi Institute from 2017-2023. She lives on Wappinger and Lenape land in Beacon, NY where she grows nine kinds of berries.