Grow, reflect, act together.
The New School is Commonweal’s learning community and podcast. Together, we explore life’s big questions, offering events and publications in Commonweal’s areas of focus: finding meaning in a changing world, growing inner and community resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world.
Conversations for meaningful change
Be in the room during conversations with inspiring thought- and action-leaders of our time. Explore life’s big questions in a “slow conversation” setting, reflect on different worldviews, and find connection in a welcoming community.
Art for Our Common Good: Creativity, Health, and Civic Life | Part 2
Dr. Catherine Olweny and Host Lisa Simms Booth
Part of the Art and Healing Series
What role can art play in helping us meet this moment? As communities face growing loneliness, burnout, environmental anxiety, and civic division, the arts can create spaces for healing, connection, and hope.
In this podcast, Commonweal Board Member Lisa Simms Booth continues the conversation with the New School’s summer visiting scholar Catherine Olweny. Her many life experiences and training led her to work as a paediatric anaesthetist, and also to work as a therapist helping clinicians develop a greater ability to look and listen closely, to attend to patients and their family, to be curious and attentive, and to be fully present. Cultivating this presence—in part using art, narrative, and imagination—is a gift she found in her own life, one she shares with other clinicians, and one we can learn from as well.
Co-presented with Visual Thinking Strategies, Collaborations: Teachers and Artists, California for the Arts, Flight School, Fordham University Creative Writing Program, Jasper Inclusion Advisors, Kularts, National Organization for Arts in Health, Panta Rhea, Power of Hope, ILALI, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, Stanford Arts, and University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine. | Artwork credit: “River Braid” by Jon Marro
Events that bring us together
Join live gatherings—online or in person—to share stories, reflect, and build community. From famous to quietly fabulous, our speakers and hosts are doing inspiring things in the world, and every voice is welcome.
Eternal Song: Echoes of Resilience Across Indigenous Worlds
Saturday, August 15
1 pm – 3 pm PDT
In Gallery Commonweal and on Zoom
$25 ticket price
Maurizio Benazzo and Zaya Ralitza Benazzo with Host Susan Grelock Yusem
Join us for a conversation and film screening of Eternal Song, the first in a series of award-winning films that explore the devastating impact of colonization on indigenous people and lands, and cultures--and how our collective future depends on remembering the eternal song of existence which calls us back to our original sense of belonging. Co-presented with SAND (Science and Non-Duality) and Bolinas Film Festival.
The Rematriation of Science: Restoring Balance through Indigenous Knowledges
Tuesday, Sept 29
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm PDT
Join us in Gallery Commonweal or on Zoom
$15 suggested donation, no one turned away
Melissa Nelson and Host Jaune Evans
As an Anishinaabe ecologist, Commonweal New School's fall Visiting Scholar Melissa Nelson is working to find ways to return to and revitalize the Indigenous and feminist roots of science. Meet Melissa and find out more about her worldview at this event—first in conversation with Host Jaune Evans, and then in an experiential process around her new work.
Medicine for the Long Dark: Conversation, Listening, Ritual
Sunday, November 8
1 pm – 4 pm PST
In Gallery Commonweal and on Zoom
$25 suggested donation, no one turned away
Francis Weller and Host Jaune Evans
Join Francis Weller and Host Jaune Evans as we explore the medicine we need for the Long Dark, the medicine we bring to the Long Dark, and surprisingly, the medicine we find in the Long Dark. The event will include conversation with Francis, time to listen, and a community ritual to allow for receiving and “risking revelation.”
Lines of inquiry that expand your worldview
Immerse yourself in a line of thought or inquiry at your own pace—building resilience and sparking new insights. Follow the journey of our Visiting Scholars, our favorite topics, and our favorite guests at Commonweal’s New School.
Words that inspire action
From thoughtful articles to creative zines and published books, the spirit of our community is captured in the sharing of ideas, stories, and practices that nurture resilience, wisdom, and care for the world.