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Press Release
Naropa University Announces Two Initiatives
in Support of Its Special Collections Preservation Projects
Receives the Only "Save America's Treasures"
Federal Grant Awarded in Colorado
For Historic Special Collection in Literature
Forms Partnership with Yesod Foundation
to Preserve
the Works Of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
BOULDER, Colo. (January 21, 2004) - Naropa University today
announced two important initiatives supporting its work to
preserve special collections in literature and spiritual studies
for greater public accessibility and use by scholars. Naropa
University received a $100,000 "Save America's Treasures"
federal grant in support of preservation of its special audio
archive collection in the literary arts. The university has
also formed a partnership with Yesod Foundation to preserve
the legacy of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, whose works
are integral to the deepening and strengthening of Jewish
spirituality. Both of these initiatives support Naropa University's
goal of making important, unique and original source works
in 20th and 21st century literature, culture and spirituality
more broadly available.
Naropa University President Thomas B. Coburn stated, "Both
of these special collection preservation initiatives reflect
Naropa University's unique contributions to modern culture
and support its aspiration to nurture the creative arts and
promote the study of world wisdom traditions for greater understanding
of ourselves and of how we engage with our world. They are
a cornerstone in our becoming a premier center for facilitating
broad public access to and scholarly research on some of the
most profound trends affecting our lives and the communities
in which we live."
The "Save America's Treasures" federal grant to Naropa University
is one of 63 projects in 29 states and the District of Columbia
to be awarded and the only such grant awarded in Colorado.
The grant will be used in support of Naropa University's preservation
of its unique collection of audio recordings of American literary
figures. One of the leading collections of its kind in the
United States, this archive represents 30 years of American
literature and cultural criticism that is renewed and revitalized
each year by the poets and writers who participate in Naropa
University's Summer
Writing Program.
Naropa University is working with nationally recognized experts
in digital audio preservation and access and library cataloging
to provide an index of the archive's holdings to thousands
of libraries throughout the United States. The ultimate goal
is to provide public access to thousands of hours of performances,
lectures and seminars via the web. The university also plans
to generate curriculum packets for public school teachers
in collaboration with Teachers and Writers, a New York-based
organization that places writers in the public schools.
With the "Save America's Treasures" federal award, grant
funds given for preservation and public dissemination of this
unique collection total $340,000. Other grants have been received
from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National
Endowment for the Arts and the National Academy of Recording
Arts and Sciences. The collection includes the Beat writers
Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Philip
Whalen, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder and Diane diPrima; the
San Francisco Renaissance writers Robert Duncan and Robin
Blaser; the Black Mountain School writers Robert Creeley and
Ed Dorn; the Black Arts Movement writers Amiri Baraka and
Lorenzo Thomas; the New York School poets John Ashberry, Kenward
Elmslie, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, Bill Berkson, Ted Berrigan,
Anne Waldman and Bernadette Mayer; the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets
Charles Bernstein and Lyn Hejinian; and more than two generations
of their poetic descendants. These groups transformed American
literature in the post-World War II period and had an impact
on U.S. society arguably unequaled by any arts movement of
the past.
Naropa University's partnership with Yesod Foundation is
a milestone in its goal of preserving and disseminating the
works of spiritual leaders having a profound influence on
American life and religious traditions. Yesod Foundation's
mission is to bring the deep wisdom of the Jewish tradition
to contemporary culture and to advance a viable and vibrant
Jewish spirituality. Integral to this mission is the Rabbi
Schachter-Shalomi archive project to preserve and make publicly
available more than 50 years of Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi's
teachings on the restoration and renewal of the deepest levels
of Jewish and world spirituality and mediation.
Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi, a professor of religious studies
at Naropa University who has also been on the faculty of Temple
and other universities, has been a major presence in 20th
century religion. Drawing on his deep roots in spiritual mysticism
and Jewish practice, as well as a vast wisdom that branches
out to cover most of the world's religious traditions and
modern ideas such as multiculturalism, feminism and ecology,
Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi has dedicated himself to creating
a spiritual framework, in the aftermath of the Holocaust,
that honors the integrity of Jewish tradition, while infusing
it with new life, through renewing and broadening the accessibility
of the mystical dimensions of Judaism.
The goal of the Naropa University and Yesod Foundation partnership
is to complete the work of preserving the legacy and archive
of Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi. This archive project will gather,
edit, catalog and label hundreds of articles and translations,
thousands of photographs, over 2000 cassette tapes and nearly
500 video tapes with the objective of making these resources
widely available to any who would access Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi's
work for their own personal and spiritual development.
Naropa University is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian
liberal arts institution whose core mission is contemplative
education. Contemplative education is an approach to learning
that integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational
traditions, creating and implementing a new paradigm in higher
education. This model seeks to help students know themselves
deeply so that they can engage constructively in a world of
individuals who are not like themselves. The university comprises
a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in
the arts, education, environmental studies, psychology, religious
studies, and creation spirituality. It offers BA, BFA, MA,
MFA, MDiv and MLA degrees, as well as professional development
training and classes for the community through its School
of Extended Studies. In addition, the university runs study
abroad programs in Sikkim, the Czech Republic, South India,
Bali and Costa Rica. For more information, visit www.naropa.edu.
Contact:
Sigrid Badinelli
Director, Marketing & Communications
Naropa University
Tel: 303-245-4822
Email: sigrid@naropa.edu
Click here to read Naropa University Receives Grants from
The NEH, The NEA & The National Association of Records Arts & Sciences to Preserve Preeminent Cultural Archive
Released on April 29, 2003
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