Learn “Fearless Death” or Hear Poetry – Take Your Pick

By Vanessa Wolf

Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Courtesy image.

Wednesday, Nov. 20, take your pick of two very different offerings.

First up in the Castle Theater is The Spoken Word with Marc Bamuthi Joseph at 7:30 p.m.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a spoken-word poet, dancer, educator, playwright, activist, and environmentalist.

According to Wikipedia, in 1999, he was a National Poetry Slam champion and in 2006 he received the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. In the fall of 2007 he appeared on the cover of Smithsonian Magazine. Two of his works have been featured at the Humana Festival of New American Plays, Chicago, Sudan in 2011, and the break/s in 2007.

Through “choreo-poem” and the lens of hip hop, global travel and urban environmental health, Joseph articulates the story of achieving manhood in the United States.

He is a Broadway veteran, featured artist on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry on HBO and was featured on the cover of Smithsonian Magazine in the fall of 2007.

The MACC reports that Joseph’s work has been described as “electrifying” (Houston Chronicle), and “ever-elegant” (The Washington Post); while the New York Times declared his performance to be “eloquent… seamless… and remarkable.”

Tickets are $28 and please note that the show contains adult themes and language.

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Lama Ole Nydahl. Courtesy photo.

In contrast, on the same day and time join Ole Nydahl, also known as Lama Ole, in the McCoy Studio Theater.

Lama Ole has taught the Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice on conscious dying known as Phowa to over 90,000 people.

Considered one of the most experienced teachers in the world, his most recent book, Fearless Death, offers practical advice for approaching death without fear from both an experiential and scientific basis. The lecture will do the same.

Wikipedia reports that Lama Ole has traveled almost constantly for the last 40 years, teaching in a new city nearly every day.

Together with his wife, Hannah Nydahl , he founded Diamond Way Buddhism, a worldwide Karma Kagyu Buddhist organization of lay practitioners.

Nydahl is the author of 10 books in English, including The Way Things Are, Entering the Diamond Way, Buddha and Love and Fearless Death.

Tickets to see Lama Ole are $20.