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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 29, 2008
CONTACT:
Gennady Kolker, Demos
Tel: (212) 389-1408
Email: gkolker@demos.org
"MAKING WAVES AND RIDING THE CURRENTS: ACTIVISM AND THE PRACTICE OF WISDOM," A NEW BOOK BY FOUNDING CUNY LAW DEAN CHARLES R. HALPERN
"This most creative of public citizens--lawyer, educator, philanthropist, catalyst of ideas and institutions--has put into practice what he writes in these pages. A nation wandering in the wilderness, as we are, could not ask for a better guide toward clarity and compassion."--Bill Moyers
New York--Amid a national dialogue of change, a leading legal scholar and prominent social activist argues that inner growth through the cultivation of wisdom can bring about a more just, compassionate, and sustainable world. In "Making Waves and Riding the Currents: Activism and the Practice of Wisdom" (published this week by Berrett-Koehler) Charles R. Halpern, co-founder of the public policy and advocacy center Demos, describes the evolution of a left-brain, aggressive attorney into an effective social entrepreneur-activist who brings a wisdom perspective to all his relationships.
With wit and self-deprecating humor, Halpern shares candid and revealing lessons from every stage of his life, from boyhood to his post-retirement activism, describing the landmarks and guideposts he discovered on his journey and the teachers and colleagues he encountered on the way--a cast of characters that extends from Barney Frank and Ralph Nader to Ram Dass and the Dalai Lama. "Making Waves and Riding the Currents" vividly demonstrates the life-enhancing benefits of integrating a commitment to social justice with the cultivation of wisdom. But this captivating memoir is about more than that. It's about the inner work that makes the outer work possible.
He started out content to accumulate knowledge, academic recognition, and professional success, relying on the considerable cognitive skills that he inherited and sharpened at Harvard College and Yale Law School. Later, in his years of public interest advocacy and institutional innovation, he had a growing intuition that something was missing, and he sought ways of developing wisdom that complemented the analytic, critical mode. These explorations--through meditation, vision quests, and interaction with wise teachers--began as an avocation, and led Halpern to the conviction that the practice of wisdom is critical if we are to address successfully the challenges of the 21st century.
Charles Halpern has been a catalyst for launching an array of enduring institutions dedicated toward enriching human lives and our world. Over the course of his remarkable career, Halpern founded the Center for Law and Social Policy, where he litigated landmark environmental protection and constitutional rights cases; was the founding dean of the City University of New York School of Law, where he initiated a program for training public interest attorneys; was president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, where he launched an innovative grant program, supporting new programs that drew together social justice advocacy with meditation and spiritual inquiry; and was a founding board member of the non-partisan public policy, research and advocacy center Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action.
Members of the Press: If you would like to obtain a schedule of events booked in New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Toronto, Chicago and Tucson, or to obtain a review copy of "Making Waves and Riding the Currents," please contact Gennady Kolker at Demos: gkolker@demos.org or (212) 389-1408. For more information, please visit www.charliehalpern.com
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