Workshops

Lectures, Workshops & Appearances

CONTACT:

For speaking engagements, lectures, workshops, write:  azaleapinkwater@gmail.com

For one on one dreamwork write: thenaturaldream@gmail.com

Literary agent: Stephen Hanselman, Level 5 Media: stevehanselman@gmail.com

Twitter: @Jewinthelotus Instagram: @rodgerkam

LECTURE TITLES

“What I learned about Judaism from the Dalai Lama”

“The Jewish Buddhist Dialogue from The Jew in the Lotus until Now.”

“Using Dreams to Heal Afflictive States of Mind”

“What if Jacob Forgot The Dream of the Ladder: WHY DREAMS MATTER”

“Natural Dreamwork and the Sacred Encounter”

“The School of Joseph and the School of Jacob: The Two Main Approaches to the Dream”

“The Jewish Parable in Talmud, Hasidism, Rebbe Nachman and Franz Kafka”

“The Case of the Disappearing Dream: Dreams in Torah, Midrash and Talmud”

“Burnt Books: The Secret Connection between Rabbi Nachman and Franz Kafka”


Workshops and Classes

DREAM POETRY WORKSHOP

A regular feature at the New Orleans Poetry Festival since 2017. I have also taught these workshop at the Santa Cruz Poetry, the C.G. Jung Center in Evanston and online for the NEw Orleans Writers Workshop.

Here’s a sample description from a recent event:

Both dreams and poetry have a common source in an experience of primary imagination. To understand their interconnection we must learn the language of images.  In the first hour we will talk about dreams. (If you like, please send a few dreams via e-mail to share ahead of time.) In the second hour we will look at poems inspired by the dream experience by such poets as Alice Notley, David Shapiro and Jean Valentine as models for our own work. We will talk about how to move from dreams to poems, and how understanding more about your dreams can help you edit your poems. At the end I will give you some suggestions for making new poems from dreams.

SPIRITUAL WRITING WORKSHOP

I pioneered a workshop on “Spiritual Writing” in the genres of non-fiction and poetry, for the Beyond Walls Program at Kenyon College, 2015-2017 and then taught the first spiritual writing classes in the Kenyon Review program, 2018-2019.

This workshop is primarily for people interested in learning how to write about their personal soul journey, their inner life and spirituality. The approach is generative: I give the students prompts for each assignment.

With a focus on the inner life, we reverse the usual creative writing workshop protocols that focus on style or technique. Instead we begin together, knowing each of us is “in the middle of life” on a search for deep inner meaning, for soul.. as we experience it in primary imagination. I provide prompts that take us to these places,
and give inspiring examples of writing that does the same.

Here are some comments from students who have attended these workshops:

  • Incredibly attentive, available, thoughtful
  • Very generous, kind, available, insightful. He brought literature & imagination.
  • Excellent organization, presentation, and discussion.
  • Very effective teacher! Rodger has the ability to see each student where they are, and give comments particular to that student. Very important in a class of such variety of writing experience, as well as diversity of participants (background, age). Class was completely interactive and he facilitated it perfectly. We all helped & supported each other’s writing, and this came from the way Rodger taught.
  • Rodger was so good we were in danger of turning him into our (unwilling) cult leader.
  • Rodger’s generosity & focus on getting past ego allowed this group to be one of the most forgiving, imaginative workshop groups I’ve been in.
  • Rodger’s way of interacting with the class was pretty amazing—the questions he asked, the directions he pushed us in, and the resources/framework he presented. It was wonderful!

 

Conference on Jewish and Buddhist Meditation, ECUJE, Paris October 2017

NATURAL DREAMWORK AND THE SACRED ENCOUNTER

This seven hour online course covers the basics of how we can use the images and encounters in our dreams to move away from afflictive states of mind and into deeper feeling. Originally presented on the Shift Network in 2019-2020.

https://theshiftnetwork.com/course/NaturalDreamwork

Comments from participants:

  • Rodger’s sensitive, deep, and thoughtful way of helping us navigate through the potency of our dreams, by deeply feeling them feels much more empowering and intimate, then dream interpretation. This has absolutely revolutionized the way I experience my dreaming life now, and I love how it seamlessly ties in with peeling away layers of ego to inform my waking life. I highly recommend this natural dream work experience. Krystal Dyan Vancouver, B.C.
  • I have struggled with sleep and fear of the night for more than half my life. Through the years I have tried many modalities in order to befriend the night again; some have helped, others not. With Rodgers approach to dreams, I have come to recognise the beauty as well as the healing properties that is built into the night. From treating dreams as distant and vague proofs of sleep, I now see them as intimate and sacred encounters with the creative spirit that is inherent in us all. – Grete, Oslo, Norway
  • As stated above, this course has been a life-changer for me. I am convinced that the information and teachings that Rodger Kamenetz offers are so important. I am now in touch with my dreams in ways I never have been before. I just wish I had had access to this information much earlier in my life. I plan to continue to study this natural dreamwork through Rodger’s book and his daughter’s book and another book by one of his staff members. I have only just begun this incredible dreamwork adventure. I’m enormously grateful. –Sandy Tillotson, Sedona, Arizona
  • Rodger removes the veil on dreams. The material in each session is carefully and beautifully conveyed. It is incredibly liberating to not interpret dreams, but feel into them–and to be ok with it when I don’t. It’s a journey and he is an amazing guide–knowledgeable, humble, and very much in his heart. This is dreamwork stripped down to what’s really important to the soul. –Anne Haug, Emigrant, MT, USA
Natural Dreamwork and the Sacred Encounter online class

5D Natural Dreamwork workshops

This is a hands on approach to your dreams, suitable for groups of 10-12. We treat the dream in five dimensions: the four of space and time, and the fifth of feeling. Using your dreams as prompts and scripts, we learn how to experience the feelings by acting them out. I offer guidance, slow the dreams down, give the dreamer an opportunity to feel more deeply. Participants who act out other parts of the dream learn a great deal about themselves as well. I have been leading these workshops for the past ten years in a variety of settings.


Octavia Books reading of Yonder with Kezia Vida

Poetry Readings

I have read my poetry at the Kisufim Conference in Jerusalem, the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, at the Prague Summer Program, the Deep South Writers conference, The Tennessee Williams Festival, the Words and Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival, the Kenyon Review Summer Program and at Yale, Harvard, Tulane, NYU, and dozens of other campuses, as well as on PBS and NPR.

I have a special focus on Jewish poetry, drawing on my work in The Missing Jew and The Lowercase Jew, and have presented at Hillels, synagogues, JCC’s, CAJE, Limmud and internationally in Montreal and Toronto, Paris and Jerusalem.


Recent Appearances

“THE MEDICINE IN DREAMS: Healing Afflictive States of Mind”, Insight Meditation South Bay, Mountain View, CA Tuesday December 15, 2020
Keynote, The Jew in the Lotus – A 30th Anniversary Retrospective Coastside Jewish Community, Half Moon Bay, CA Oct 24, 2020
Dream Poetry Workshop, New Orleans Writers Workshop, August 15, 2020.
“Exploring Dreams” “REVELATION” JW3 London, UK. May 27, 2020.
“NATURAL DREAMWORK AND THE SACRED ENCOUNTER” online workshop on Shift Network, December 19, 2019- February 3, 2020.
Scholar in Residence, “Jacob’s Ladder”, “Dreams in Judaism” The Jewish Studio, December 6-8, 2019, Rockville Jewish Community Center, Rockville MD.
Lecture: “What I Learned About Judaism from the Dalai Lama”, Haberman Institute of Jewish Studies, Rockville, MD. December 8, 2019.
“On Poetry and Dreams”, Louisiana Book Festival, November 2, 2019.
Host, Shift Network Dreamwork Summit 2019, October 29-November 1, 2019.
“Spiritual Writing Workshop”, Kenyon Review Summer Program, Kenyon College, Gambier OH, June 16-22, 2019.
Lecture: “Pour Like Smoke: The Dissolving Dream Ego and the Poet’s “I”, Jung Center, Evanston, IL May 17, 2019.
Dream Poetry Workshop, Jung Center, Evanston IL May 19, 2019.
Poetry Reading: YONDER The Book Stall Winnetka IL May 19, 2019.
Dream Poetry Workshop, New Orleans Poetry Festival, April 20, 2019.
Poetry Reading: YONDER, AWP Portland Marcy 28, 2019.
Poetry Reading: YONDER, Wolfman Books, Oakland, CA March 19, 2019.
Yonder and The Dreaming I: Reading and signing with Kezia Vida at Octavia Books, New Orleans, January 9 2019.
Healing Images in Dreams, Mountain Cloud Zen Center, Santa Fe, NM, August 21, 2018
Scholar in Residence Beth Tikvah Synagogue, Naples FL March 9-11, 2018.
Lecture and Panel, Jewish and Buddhist Meditation, ECUJE: Espace Culturel et Universitaire Juif d’Europe, Paris France, October 2, 2017.
• “Keynote: The Shattering of the Vessels and the Personal Essay” Beyond Walls: Kenyon Institute for Spiritual Writing, July 10,2016
• “Dreams In Between: Workshop” Aleph Kallah, Fort Collins, July 11-17, 2016
• “The Jew in the Lotus: 25 Years After the Journey” National Museum of Jewish American History, Philadelphia October 28, 2015
• “After The Jew in the Lotus: American Jews, Eastern Religions and a New Culture of Jewish Spirituality”Panel: Association for Jewish Studies 46th Annual Conference, December 15,2014
• “Why Poetry Matters” Ryterband Lecture, Wright State University, November 17,2014
• “ What if Jacob Forgot the Dream of the Ladder?” B’nai Jeshurun, New York, May 17,2014