Her novel alternates between late medieval Spain and Portugal during the traumatic time of the Inquisition, and a very small town in New Mexico in 1992. The modern New Mexican characters are Catholics with peculiar habits. Nobody in town eats pork but they don’t know why. It is likely they are the descendants of conversos, Jews who converted during the Spanish Inquisition. The story weaves a connecting thread from the Iberian Peninsula to Mexico City and then on to the original settlers who moved into what is now the American Southwest. Five hundred years later, a young amateur astronomer wonders about the secret of the town he grew up in: Entrada de la Luna, or Gateway to the Moon.
Morris’ previous work, The Jazz Palace, won the Anisfeld-Wolf Book Award for important contributions to the understanding of racism in 2016. She also writes short stories and travel memoirs. Her many novels and story collections have been translated into six languages. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.
Doors open at 4:00 PM to meet and greet the author. A one-hour author reading and discussion will follow beginning at 4:30 PM. Light refreshments will be served. Admission is free.
Co-sponsored by the Beit Am Jewish Community and the MJCC. Grassroots Bookstore will be there with copies of the paperback edition of Gateway to the Moon for sale and author signing.
SilentHikes are a new form of meditation in motion, combining music, verbal guidance, silence and nature to help participants find purpose and connection. While traditional forms of meditation are an isolated experience, and constitute a sort of retreat, this one is an exercise in exploring and being present in the evolving world around us. Participants have described their experiences as “transcendent” and “rocking their world.”
Hidary is a composer and concert pianist and a former tech guru with a passion for physics. His MindTravel concept draws on his expertise across all these disciplines. He loved music from an early age, but truly discovered its powers when it was the only thing that helped him heal after the tragic loss of his sister in a motorcycle accident.
July 15, 2019, article in the JERUSALEM POST described Hidary like this:
The 47-year-old Jewish-American multidisciplinary artist has performed the fruits of his creative continuum to all sorts of audiences in all sorts of locations. The concept of “release,” of relinquishing control and preconceptions about our lives and the physical world around us, is central to the thematic ethos.