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Holy Sparks: Cultural and Spiritual Fire

Thursday, November 18, 2021 | 5pm

ADMISSION: This online program is free with advanced registration.

2021-11-18 17:30:00 UTC2021-11-18 23:00:00 UTC America/Los_AngelesThe CJM - 736 Mission St, San Francisco, CAHoly Sparks: Cultural and Spiritual FireHow can spiritual practices transform our relationship to fire and land? As wildfires rage across the globe, this panel gathers to imagine alternative approaches to fire management. Julie Weitz, the artist behind GOLEM: A Call to Action at The CJM, poses questions to a group of wildland firefighters and spiritual leaders about how we might reframe our relationship to fire. Through personal stories, speakers will offer their unique perspectives on how to reshape our approach to confronting catastrophic fires. Gain a deeper understanding of our social responsibility to the well-being of frontline communities and the land we live on.

How can spiritual practices transform our relationship to fire and land? As wildfires rage across the globe, artist Julie Weitz has used her art to advocate for new ways of managing wildfires and fighting climate crisis—while exploring traditional Jewish conceptions of fire as a force for hope and positive change. Now, Weitz gathers with a panel of wildland firefighters and spiritual leaders to imagine how art and spirituality can spark new ways of thinking about and responding to fires. Through personal stories, speakers will offer their unique perspectives on how to we can collectively reshape our approach to confronting catastrophic fire and deepen the perceptual shift around addressing the well-being of frontline communities and the land, as we confront the worst wildfires seasons on record.

About the Panelists

Jackie Barry is an artist, wildland firefighter, and Master of Natural Resources candidate at Oregon State University with an emphasis on Forests and Climate Change. Her focus in both her art and forestry practice is to bring knowledge and clarity to empower communities looking to learn more about fire ecology and forest management.

Jackie is currently exploring how art as a science communication tool can be a more approachable way to disseminate information to towns and people affected by climate collapse.

Rabbi Zelig Golden’s vision for a thriving, earth-based Jewish tradition developed out of a lifetime of nature connection, Jewish leadership, and commitment to environmental advocacy. Zelig invokes mentorship, facilitation, and ceremonial tools to guide an annual cycle of land-based festivals, nature-based rites of passage, and mentorship for emerging leaders.

Zelig received rabbinic ordination from ALEPH, Alliance for Jewish Renewal, supported by the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and was previously ordained Maggid by Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi ztz”l. He holds a masters degree in Jewish Studies from the Graduate Theological Union. He previously worked as an environmental lawyer protecting food and farms and has long guided groups into the wilderness.

Brandon N. Smith is co-founder and chief director of The Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP). Smith is an advocate for those impacted by California's criminal justice system and environmental injustices, and previously worked for nine years as a wildland firefighter, forestry technician, and program director of FFRP.

Smith's experiences include being formerly incarcerated in camp, working professionally with the U.S. Forest Service, and working as a member of NewProfits Unlocked Futures Cohort 2, JustLeadershipUSA’s 2020 Leading with Conviction, and REDF’s Accelerator programs.

Julie Weitz is a queer Ashkenazi video and performance artist living on Tongva/Gabrieleño land. Through a poetic reinterpretation of Yiddish folklore and Jewish mysticism, Weitz’s work uses humor and ritual to propose ethically-grounded and intersectional reconsiderations of pressing contemporary issues.

In 2019, she completed online coursework and a field day of wildland firefighter training through the U.S. Forest Service and National Wildland Coordinating Group as part of an artist residency program organized by UC Berkeley’s Sagehen Creek Field Station. Sagehen has become well-known for their implementation of prescribed burns as a method to correct for fire suppression, as well as their advocacy for Indigeous cultural burning as a regenerative tool for cultivating healthy forests and preventing megafires. The residency generated the artworks currently on view in Weitz’s solo exhibition, GOLEM: A Call to Action, now on view at The CJM.

An image of My Golem lying in a clearing of burnt trees

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Supporters

GOLEM: A Call to Action is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum and is co-curated by Qianjin Montoya, Assistant Curator, and Heidi Rabben, Senior Curator. Leadership support is generously provided Grants for the Arts.

Golem v. Golem by Julie Weitz is produced by Asylum Arts, made possible with the generous support of CANVAS. The project is presented at the Vilna Shul, Boston's Center for Jewish Culture in partnership with the Jewish Arts Collaborative. A companion literary collaboration, "What We Talk About When We Talk to the Golem," by Moriel Rothman-Zecher, is produced by Jewish Book Council. Additional digital partners include the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. The work is part of a North American project—Dwelling in a Time of Plagues—a coast-to-coast Jewish artistic response to contemporary plagues. To see the other works on display, visit plaguedwelling.com.

Holy Sparks: Cultural and Spiritual Fire

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