At A Glance...
The School of Life: Brené Brown on Courage
3 Jul 2013
Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.
—Brené Brown
Brené Brown returns to The School of Life by hugely popular demand to give her first secular sermon. Our culture teaches us that the courageous are invincible and only the weak are vulnerable. But that state of indestructibility doesn’t exist, argues Dr Brown. It’s a damaging myth. In this profound and playful sermon, she’ll help us see why the ability to live with vulnerability is the “most accurate measure of courage”. It is, she argues, “the core of all emotions and feelings. To feel is to be vulnerable. To believe vulnerability is weakness is to believe that feeling is weakness. To foreclose on our emotional life out of a fear that the costs will be too high is to walk away from the very thing that gives purpose and meaning to living.”
To be open to uncertainty and hurt, and honest about our flaws, takes guts. But without it we would never have the bravery to take risks. We’d miss out on the depth of hope, joy and discovery that comes from living life wholeheartedly.
Join the congregation this weekday evening to find out how we can gain more courage to be vulnerable in ways that help us love, parent, collaborate and create.
Tickets £15.00
Sunday Sermon - Carol Dweck on Being Perfect
Sun 7 Jul 2013, 11.30
The School of Life presents...
Sunday Sermon - Carol Dweck on Being Perfect
Striving for self-perfection is considered a high virtue. And, as one of the world’s leading psychologists, we might be assume Carol Dweck is a paragon of self-perfectionism. She was, once. That is, until her lab studies revealed the irony that wanting to be perfect stops people reaching their potential.
Dweck discovered the desire to be perfect comes from having a fixed sense of what it is to be a viable person in the world. The person with the fixed mindset needs constant reassurance that they are fulfilling their set self-image. Anything that might crack that open is rejected. Anything less than flawless feels like too big a risk to their whole being. And that attitude closes the perfectionist off to growth.
On the other hand Dweck found that people with what she calls a growth mindset don’t fear failure and embarrassment in the same way. Where someone with a fixed mindset is afraid to persevere in the face of a setback or big challenge, the growth mindset person jumps in. They see it as an opportunity to develop and grow. That makes growth mindset people potentially more resilient and creative.
Dweck is here to deliver the good news through this secular sermon: the growth mindset can be learnt, and she’ll show us how we can start. We are not all doomed to be perfect.
ABOUT SUNDAY SERMONS
Since 2008 The School of Life has presented strictly secular Sunday Sermons exploring the values we should live by today. We ask maverick cultural figures to give us their take on the virtues to cling to or the vices to be wary of in our complex world.The Sermons take place at Conway Hall. Expect persuasive polemics, pop-song hymns, artist-made buns and biscuits and the possible appearance from the devil himself.
Sunday Lecture: Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde's Nemesis
Sun 7 Jul 2013, 11.00
Marquess of Queensberry
The Marquess of Queensberry is perhaps as famous for his role in the downfall of one of our greatest literary geniuses as he was for helping establish the rules for modern-day boxing. The imprisonment of Oscar Wilde following his romantic interest in the marquess' son, left Wilde a broken man and Queensberry labelled a spiteful and villainous bigot. In this talk Linda Stratmann paints a more complex picture of a man who suffered tragedies of his own and who at the time was considered a radical thinker and a champion of women's rights.
Linda Stratmann is the author of eleven books on crime, fiction and historical biographies including Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion,Notorious Blasted Rascal and Greater London Murders.
11.00, £3 on the door/free to members
Bottomless Tea & Coffee will be available.
Event Page
To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine
Sun 7 Jul 2013, 19.30
Was he “one of the most brilliant minds in human history” or merely a “filthy little atheist”? He was certainly one of the most misunderstood men in American history.
Thomas Paine is a man largely forgotten and greatly misunderstood yet his ideas about democracy, equality, slavery, social programs and morality were truly revolutionary. He changed the world, only to have the world he changed turn its back on him. He ignited revolutions but died largely ignored and distained, yet when he was writing he was at the epicenter of world events and literally transforming nations through his words.
The one-man show “To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine” written with a COLA Fellowship, leaps from the stage and captures the living essence of our nation’s brilliant, fiery and most radical Founding Father. It brings to life the wit, contradictions and contrariness of a man whose intellect and words shaped our national character, inspiring us always to be our better selves.
His pen sparked the American Revolution,
defined the French Revolution and championed the Age of Reason. He went from hero on the streets of Philadelphia to prisoner in Paris awaiting the guillotine. His books were the biggest best sellers in history and at his funeral… there were six mourners. Ten years later his bones were dug up and brought to England to raise money for a giant bronze statue. No money was raised and the bones…disappeared. This play takes you on an extraordinary journey of revolutions and of a world shedding its old skin and looking to ideas of freedom and democracy and above all, justice and equality! Today there is the Occupy movement, back then there was Thomas Paine.
“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion”
- Thomas Paine
Tickets Advance: £10 (plus booking fee), Concs. £5
Admission £15/£7 on the door.
Doors 18.30. Start 19.30
Ian Ruskin (writer/actor) trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. He has performed his other one man play From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks about labor leader Harry Bridges well over 200 times. The film version, directed by Haskell Wexler, has aired in America on PBS for the past 4 years. This is the London premiere of To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine which has been performed just over 30 times in the past two years.
Laughter Bootcamp
Sat 13 Jul 2013, 10.00
Joe Hoare presents
Laughter Bootcamp
Do you need to give your spirits a lift?
To remember what a hearty laugh feels like? To beat the blues?
To connect? To be playful again?
To come alive and feel gloriously empowered?
To awaken your laughing buddha within, even?
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these, this day is for YOU. This is a light-hearted, connecting, joyful day to nurture yourself and experience the healing power of laughter.
Come and laugh, release, energise, enjoy, connect, get ecstatic.
Hone your laughter skills.
Leave feeling energised, empowered, optimistic, connected and better resourced.
Tickets: £75, Earlybird £65 (before 31st May)
Sunday Lecture: Do Atheists have mystical-type experiences?
Sun 14 Jul 2013, 11.00
It is well established that between 30-50% of the population have had at least one experience that could be described as mystical, transformative or enlightening. These experiences frequently have some sort of religious association: they may contain religious imagery; they may be interpreted as having a religious message or they may be understood to come from a divine source. Given that atheists do not believe in supernatural agency and do not use a religious interpretive framework, do atheists ever have these types of experience, and if they do, how do they interpret them and how do they affect an atheist’s life?
Alice Herron is studying for a PhD in Psychology of Religion at Surrey University. She is currently researching the spontaneous, transformative, enlightening and/or mystical type experiences of atheists. In this lecture she outlines the background to her research and presents some preliminary findings.
11.00, £3 on the door/free to members
Tea & Coffee will be available.
Giving Offence: a Brief Guide to Visual Satire
Wed 17 Jul 2013, 19.00
The Central London Humanist Group presents
Giving Offence: a Brief Guide to Visual Satire - a talk by Martin Rowson
We are delighted that Martin Rowson has agreed to give a talk to the Central London Humanist Group. Martin is a multi-award winning cartoonist and writer and is also a trustee of the BHA and an honorary associate of the NSS.
In 2001 Ken Livingstone appointed him London’s first Cartoonist Laureate in exchange for one pint of London Pride per annum. This payment is still six pints in arrears, and despite being apparently reappointed by Boris Johnson, not a single pint has been forthcoming from the current Mayor either. The CLHG are happy to right this shocking injustice.
Door at 6.30 pm for talk at 7.00 p.m.
Please arrive early to have a glass of wine from our CLHG Charity Wine Bar find your seat and chat with other members.
All our talks are open to the general public and free to attend but we ask those who can to make a donation of what they can afford to cover the costs of room and equipment hire and help keep our talks free to all.
Martin's work has appeared regularly in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Mirror, The Spectator, The Morning Star and many other publications.
He won the Cartoon Art Trust’s Political Cartoonist of the Year Award in 2000 and 2004 and Caricaturist Award in 2011, and the Political Cartoon Society’s Cartoon of the Year in 2003 and 2007 (and was runner-up in 2012) and was their Cartoonist of Year in 2010. He’s also won the prestigious Premio Satiri de Forte di Marmi International Satire Award in 2006.
His books include comic book versions of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land and Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, as well as “Snatches”, a novel, and “Stuff”, a memoir about his late parents and his adoption which was long-listed for the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize. His other books include “The Dog Allusion: Gods, Pets and How to be Human” and “Fuck: The Human Odyssey” and his updated comic book adaptation of “Gulliver’s Travels” was published in March 2012. Meanwhile, Volume III of “The Limerickiad,”, collected from his long running series retelling world literature in limerick form on the books pages of the Independent on Sunday, is due out in the Autumn of 2013.
In addition to being chairman of the British Cartoonists’ Association, Rowson is also a trustee of the Cartoon Museum, the British Humanist Association and the Powell-Cotton Museum of Natural History, an honorary associate of the National Secular Society and a former Vice-President of the Zoological Society of London.
He lives in South-East London with his wife and, occasionally, their two children, both now in their twenties.
UZIMA - Natural Holistic Expo
Sat 20 Jul 2013, 12.00
UZIMA - Natural Holistic Expo is an annual event that promotes Health & Lifestyle, Hair & Beauty, Fashion & Culture.
UZIMA –(pronounced oo-zee-mah) is a Swahili phrase meaning – springs of life, energetic, vitality, wholeness, healthiness and wellbeing.
We believe that, the potential exists for such event to achieve a public profile as an innovative and creative pathway for sustaining the holistic lifestyle in the UK.
AFRICAN MARKET
An abundance of exhibitors providing goods and services in health & wellbeing, natural hair & skin care, arts & crafts, jewellery & adornment, books & education, fashion wear.
PRESENTATIONS/ WORKSHOPS Presented by professionals and leading experts in Health Awareness, Hair and Skin Care, Raw Food and Nutritian, Holistic Lifestyle and Natural Remedies.
CULTURAL SHOWCASE Live stage performances by artists showcasing their talent in Traditonal Music, Spoken Word, Comedy, Fashion Design, African Drum & Dance, Drama, Youth Empowerment, Hair Show.
COMPLIMENTARY THERAPY Indulge, relax and treat yourself with a massage, reflexology, body and skin treatments.
Entry price: Various (See website for details)
Sunday Lecture - Unnatural Predators: More Folklore of Fear
Sun 21 Jul 2013, 11.00
The Vampire has fascinated Western Europe from the early 1700s, but the tradition was a real part of Eastern European lives for a considerable time before that. In the last three centuries, the icon has been taken up by art of all kinds - literature, film and graphics - and it has had a lasting effect on fashion and culture. But what is the authentic story behind tales of the predatory, living dead and can we understand a little more about being human by studying these accounts?
We will look at recent attempts to understand the folklore and try to work out how an Eastern European ritual made its way to late nineteenth century New England, USA.
Deborah Hyde writes, lectures internationally and appears on broadcast media to discuss superstition, religion and belief in the supernatural.
She uses a range of approaches and disciplines from history to psychology to investigate the folklore of the malign and to discover why it is so persistent throughout all human communities and eras. She is currently writing a book 'Unnatural Predators' and is the Editor-in-Chief of The Skeptic Magazine.
11.00, £3 on the door/free to members
Tea & Coffee will be available.
Earthy - An Ecosexual Adventure
Wed 24 Jul 2013, 19.30
Earthy - An Ecosexual Adventure
by Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens
When two queer San Francisco women join the environmental movement and try to make it more sexy, fun and diverse in order to help save the planet, drama and humour ensue.
They shift the metaphor from Earth as mother, to Earth as lover, fight corporate greed - and get real dirty.
Legendary queer performers Sprinkle and Stephens in the European premiere of their new show. In London for one performance only at Conway Hall.
Very limited seating so early booking advisable.
Part of the European-wide First International Ecosex Symposium.
Produced by Luke Dixon
Directed by Patty Gallagher
Tickets £15 (plus booking fee)
