For more information, or to sponsor a presentation or workshop, please contact Jennifer. Below are some examples of events she has presented both alone and in collaboration:
The Language of Sophia…
An Evening of Poetry and Sacred Dance
In this intimate gathering, poet ⁄ artist Jennifer Ferraro shares her own
never-before heard poems exploring the heart's mysterious pathways,
interweaving poetry, song, and sacred dance in a fluid offering.
Poetry can be said to be the language of Sophia–the feminine divine wisdom, in that it is a bridge between silence and word, between earth and heaven, between inner and outer worlds. It is the language our hearts speak when deeply moved by feeling – its very existence reaffirms the value of that which is unknown, mysterious, difficult and tender in us. Jennifer shares her understanding of the “pathless path” of the divine Feminine and invokes Her beauty and wisdom through heart–felt words, songs and dances.
Love's Mysteries: Mystic Songs of the Dervishes of Turkey
A lively presentation of poems from the Sufi dervish poets of Turkey, most translated for the first time ever in English in her book Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey (with Latif Bolat).
Presented with frame drum, music and sacred dance, she also discusses basic tenets of the Sufi path, whose poetry reaches pinnacles of beauty and wisdom, and the richness and uniqueness of this little-known tradition of Sufism.
Intimate Distance… The Poetry of Longing and Ecstasy
What does the poetry of ecstatic Love have to teach us in our own lives? Can it heal our awareness from certain cultural wounds, showing us hidden pathways to wholeness and passionate embodiment in our lives?
In this workshop participants feast on the ecstatic, impassioned, tender hearted words of poet-lovers from the Sufi tradition, the Bhakti and Tantric traditions of India, and poets of love both sensual and divine such as Neruda and Rilke. We attune to the consciousness of the poems each day and write from our most potent authentic intimate voice. This writing workshop explores the burning point of intimacy sacred and personal to each one of us, allowing the texture, form and voice of our central longing to come alive in our poems.
Erosophia… Poems and Dances of Mystical and Erotic Love
In this soulful collaboration, poet Jennifer Ferraro and dancer Myra Krien explored the wise and sensuous depths of the heart voiced through poetry and sacred dance, expressing Love's mysteries through an interplay of the earthly sensual and the ethereal.
The evening featured an experience of bardic word-magic married to embodied
movement and voice, invoking the remembrance of beauty and the fiery
passionate wisdom of the Divine Feminine- Sophia. With special guest
vocalist Meagan Chandler.
Invoking the Body’s Wisdom through Creativity, Movement and Inquiry
Presented with Pasha Hogan. Our bodies hold our dreams, fears, sufferings, inspiration and sources of passionate and wakeful existence. Yet many of our spiritual and psychological ideas reinforce a separation of body and mind, spirituality and sensuality, soul and sex.
Healing the sense of alienation and apathy prevalent in our time involves a deep inquiry into the innate wisdom of the body and the senses as thresholds of the soul. In this day-long workshop, join us in sensing, feeling, moving and sharing toward a place of deeper authenticity and embodiment. Together we create a safe space for sharing and creative revelation, invoking the wisdom of the sacred feminine in order to heal ourselves and the larger culture.
Poetry and the Awakened Heart: From the Mythical to the Mystical
Presented with Martin Shaw and Jay Leeming. This exuberant inspiring two-day workshop deeply explored how poetry and the development of poetic imagination can help preserve the wild places, both without and within.
Through sharing of poetry and stories, through writing and discussion, the workshop deepened the sense of how the awakened heart and word can transfigure awareness. It was a cutting edge exploration of the power of language to awaken, heal and transform.
