Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 1 PM Eastern
Presented as part of the forthcoming Faith in Arts Institute
Hosted by BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville, these conversations and interviews with a diverse group of artists, curators, faith leaders, and scholars explore the role of arts in spiritual practice and religious life and the role of spiritual practice and religious life in the arts.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer is an American poet, writer, and Soto Zen priest, teaching and practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a Dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, from whom he received Dharma transmission in 1988.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Norman Fischer has been publishing poetry since 1979. He holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a masters from the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California at Berkeley. Norman has been a Zen Buddhist priest for nearly 30 years, serving as abbot for the San Francisco Zen Center from 1995-2000. Founder and teacher of the Everyday Zen Foundation, he is one of the most highly respected Zen teachers in America, regularly leading Zen Buddhist retreats and events.
Norman is loosely associated with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets of the seventies and eighties, and maintains close creative and personal relationships with many writers from that movement. He spent five years living at Tassajara Zen Monastery in monastic Buddhist practice where poets Jane Hirshfield and Phillip Whalen were fellow students.
Black Mountain College Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center Faith in Arts UNC Asheville MC Richards
