Join us to celebrate the release of Rabbi Irwin’s collection of essays, poems, and memoir, Shechinah at the Art Institute: Words, Worry, Wonder. This celebration and reading will be emceed by poet and head of Blue Light Press, Diane Frank. The book will become available for order on Amazon on September 4, and copies will also be available for purchase at the event.
some advance praise for Shechinah at the Art Institute:
In Keller’s luminous writings, divine messengers reveal both the radiance within the everyday and the clouds that subdue the sacred. With this dazzling book, Keller takes his place among the messengers.
–Esther Schor, author of Emma Lazarus
Quirky, playful, steeped in classical Jewish learning, Keller unveils long-suppressed queerness in Jewish tradition and encounters the sacred miraculously appearing in the secular world.
–Rabbi Dr. Rachel Adler, author of Engendering Judaism
Absolutely wonderful, so refreshing, hopeful in a world so desperate for peace.
–Greg Sarris, author of Grand Avenue
This book makes my heart sing. Irwin reminds us that in this darkened world, there is still light. And there is love. It’s what makes this book not just entertaining, but important.
–Linda Ellerbee, journalist and author of And So It Goes
The wisdom, humor, and perspective in these stories will enrich you and gently bind you to other lives both ancient and modern. A good story heals the loneliness which is the hidden wound of our time. Bravo Irwin. What a gift you have offered to us all.
–Rachel Naomi Remen MD, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom
A few pages into reading Reb Irwin Keller’s luminous book, I began mentally compiling a list of people I wanted to give a copy to. My father. My stepmother. My sister. My aunt. This friend who is Jewish. That one who is not. This is what Irwin does in his writings and in his life; he enlarges the circle, invites everyone in, mingling the secular with the spiritual with the skeptical with the bawdy with the beautiful. It’s all there in this book, a record of a spiritual being having a very human experience and savoring the all in all of it. Pull up a chair, feast, enjoy.
––Alison Luterman, author of In the Time of Great Fires
In Shechinah at the Art Institute, the wondrous Rabbi Irwin Keller inhales all the world he inhabits and savors the details of all the miracles and realities of life. Rabbi Keller is one of the most kind, compas-sionate, brilliantly philosophical, thoughtful, and hilariously funny human beings. He understands that the past is always present. He understands that the past is part of us. This is something we should all understand.
––Lily Brett, author ofToo Many Men