Jewish ecopoetry is an expanding tool for spiritual resilience in the face of climate disaster and ecological collapse. Join JCAN co-founder Rabbi Katy Allen and ecofeminist writer Thea Iberall, along with other area ecopoets such as Carla Schwartz and Laurie Rosen for an evening of poetry, reflection, and response. Through prompts during the event, you will also write your own poem, no experience required.
Katy Z. Allen is a rabbi, chaplain, poet, and eco-chaplain whose lifelong love of the outdoors shapes her spiritual and creative work. From her early days exploring fields and streams in Wisconsin to decades of teaching, writing, and leading in Massachusetts, she draws wisdom from the natural world and helps others discover meaning there too.
She founded Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope, an outdoor congregation, much of whose programming has since moved to Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, and she co-founded the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA. Katy has also served as a hospital and hospice chaplain, bringing care and nature-based spirituality to those she served.
Her recent book, A Tree of Life: A Story in Word, Image, and Text, reflects her love of weaving poetry, story, text and image. She is also the editor of Earth Etudes for Elul and other works, and she previously shared reflections at www.mayantikvah.blogspot.com.
In her retirement, Katy has turned her focus to poetry and her work has appeared online at New Verse News and in The Jewish Poets Collective Journal. Forthcoming, her work will be included in the Art on the Trails chapbook and online at Bluebird Word.
Thea Iberall has been called ‘a shimmering bridge between heart and mind.’ She’s performed poetry and storytelling since 1998, representing LA at the National Poetry Slams. An inductee into the International Educators Hall of Fame, she is featured in the documentary GV6: The Odyssey – Poets, Passion and Poetry. OC Weekly said Thea “tells narrative stories using simple words that mask hidden layers of meaning and emotion.” The host of Expresso Yourself Coffeehouse, she has performed in Massachusetts and Southern California at Story Space, Limmud, Menino Arts Center, Rozzie Reads, Ugly Mug, to name a few. Her book of contextual poems, The Sanctuary of Artemis, traces the roots of patriarchal domination. Her musical We Did It For You! Women’s Journey Through History tells the story of how women got their rights in America. And her ecofeminist novel The Swallow and the Nightingale is a way to wake people up to the real moral issue of today: not who you love, but what we are doing to the planet. She has a Master’s Degree in Writing and a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience. www.theaiberall.com