Lama Rod Owens- The New Saints

Lama Rod Owens, will be visiting from the USA offering insights from his newest book, The New Saints, on Wednesday, 8th May from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at Carnegie Library in Herne Hill, South London.

This event is being hosted by Dre Ferdinand and Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson. Canopés will be served by plant based chef Denai Moore of Dee Table during the first hour.

Event Details:

Becoming A New Saint: Exploring the Path of Emerging as Warriors from Our Broken Hearts Saints, spiritual warriors, bodhisattvas, zaddikim—no matter how they are named in a given tradition, they all share a profound altruistic wish to free others from suffering. Saints are not beings of stained glass or carved stone. “Each of us can be a new saint,” says Lama Rod Owens.

“In our pain, our trauma, and all our complexity, we all can—and must—awaken the virtue of our compassion for the benefit of our communities, our planet, and our own souls.”

Join Lama Rod as he shares personal stories, spiritual teachings, and instructions for contemplative and somatic practices from his newest book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors. This work reinforces the truth of our interdependency—allowing us to be of service to the collective well-being, and to call on the support and strength of the countless beings who share our struggles and hopes.

As part of the event, Light canopies will be served at the beginning of the evening by plant based chef Denai Moore of Dee Table’s during the first hour. And co-organiser Dré Ferdinand will open the space with a sound meditation offering.

Event Location:

The event location Carnegie library hub, is an outstanding heritage building serving the local community. We will be located in Room 3 on the main floor, a bright step-free space with tall grand windows.

Carnegie Library

92 Herne Hill Road, London, SE24 0DG

https://carnegielibraryhub.org.uk

Event Timings:

• 6pm Doors open and food made available.
• 6:30 - 8:30 pm Practice session.
• 8:30 -9pm Closing and goodbye chats.

Please make it your intention to attend the whole evening. However, should you need to step-out for a breather, or leave earlier due to unforeseen circumstances, please do so with care for yourself and others.

Chairs and a limited number of cushions will be provided. For extra comfortability, if you have a meditation seat, cushion, yoga mat or blanket - please bring

Ticket Info:

This is a FREE event. You are welcome to make donations through the event page. 100% of donations will go towards community action organisations supporting the people of Palestine, Congo, Sudan and Yemen.

This space is open to anyone across all communities who feel called to this work. We also recognise and honour the sacredness, importance and liberatory organising of what it means to gather in spaces like this, both historically and in the current social contexts of multiple structural oppressions we find ourselves living in.

Attendance and Registration: As this is a FREE event, we will slightly oversubscribe on ticket registration to accommodate on the day non-attendance. If you know you can no longer make it, please return your ticket via Eventbrite for it to be transferred via waiting list.

Needs and Collective Care:

Accessibility - Accessible and Gender-Neutral Toilets, Accessible Parking Spaces, Step Free Access, Wheelchair Accessible Venue

If you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or other infectious illness symptoms such as a cold or flu, we kindly ask you to stay home and rest. To both support your recovery and collective duty of care.

Teacher BIO

LAMA ROD OWENS is a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. An international influencer with over 11 years of experience and a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School. A leading voice featured by various national and international news outlets, he is the author of the bestsellers The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors and Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation. His teachings centre on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care. Lama Rod’s mission is showing you how to heal and free yourself. He activates the intersections of his identity to create a platform that’s natural, engaging, and inclusive. Learn more at lamarod.com and IG 

Host BIO’s

DRE FERDINAND is a licensed social worker, artist and therapist, whose practices include movement, energy, sound,  soil, and EMDR, modalities that have informed her approach which she refers to as ‘MESSE’. Dre’s practice framework is rooted in healing, social and restorative justice. Her journey involves aiding individuals and communities in processing and recovering from systemic harm and trauma as well as advocating for therapeutic support for social workers. Her teachings are centred on helping people navigate their internal landscape, collective care, and processing trauma. 

IG: idredferdi

LATEISHA DAVINE LOVELACE-HANSON is Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson is a Black queer eco-feminist performance maker, writer, community-builder/organiser, earthworker and embodied social justice facilitator. Working across art, community action, education, health and climate justice settings for the last 16 years. Lateisha weaves spiritual, somatic and nature-based approaches into socially critical praxis and pedagogy. Lateisha is guided by the principles of transformative storytelling as prophetic wisdom - creating space to meet through the applied lens of care and collective liberation 

IG: lateisha_lavine