Within Conversations: Sarah Shourd and Others

Please join us in an intimate gathering at Øgaard in Oakland as we host a conversation between four local luminaries. Drinks provided by Fort Point Beer and Scribe Winery.

Jim Denevan creates temporary drawings on sand, earth, and ice that are eventually erased by waves and weather. These drawings range in scale from smaller beach compositions to large scale land works the size of a city. Jim’s artwork is performed primarily outside in California but also many other locations around the world. Documentation of Jim’s work has been exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, MoMA/PS1, The Museum of Arts and Design, Parrish Art Museum, Peabody Essex Museum and Laguna Art Museum. Jim is also well known as the founder of the traveling culinary feast Outstanding in the Field.

Paul Discoe is a renowned Japanese master builder and Zen Buddhist teacher. Paul studied architecture as a Buddhist temple builder in Kyoto, Japan for five years during the 1970s. Upon returning to the United States, Paul founded Joinery Structures to continue pursuing his passion for Asian architecture. By personally training his team in Japanese techniques and representing the architectural process as an embodiment of Zen practice, Paul has helped introduce Asian architecture to the Western world. Joinery Structures is locally and globally recognized for its ability to design and build beautiful spaces and innovative structures. With thoughtful project management, the Joinery Structures team exhibits exceptional skill and knowledge in design, wood milling, construction, and eco-sustainability.

Dr. Nick is the owner of Judah St. Clinic. His practice is rooted in the notion that every human is endowed with the ability to heal, and that healing can only be done by the intelligence within us. Many people do not understand what healing is let alone how to stimulate and coordinate that power within. Dr. Nick’s role in the healing of his clients is to wake up that power within and to educate them on what that power is, and how to help it express at a higher level in their life. He does this through chiropractic adjustments, conversations, and study groups. Once the individual understands who they are and how to let life flow through them they can take their health into their own hands.

Sarah Shourd is a journalist, author and educator. For the last five years, her work has focused on exposing the cruelty and overuse of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, which she views as a key component to ending mass incarceration. To this end, Shourd has traveled the country extensively as a public speaker and UC Berkeley Visiting Scholar; conducing over 75 interviews with prisoners in isolation across the country. Out of this extensive research emerged several works: The BOX, a play about solitary confinement; an anthology, Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement; and numerous articles and op-eds. Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt published the memoir she co-authored about her own imprisonment (from 2009 to 2010 Shourd was held as a political hostage by the Iranian government), A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran, in 2011. Shourd was awarded the 2016 Community Hero Award by San Francisco’s GLIDE Memorial Church and is now developing a podcast called Of Two Minds in her new position as a #LoveArmy Fellow at #Cut 50.