“Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times” with Luis Rodriguez

Sunday, October 16 in the Rector's Forum.

Luis J. Rodriguez is convinced that a writer can change the world. Through education and the power of words Rodriguez saw his own way out of poverty and despair in the barrio of East LA successfully breaking free from the years of violence and desperation he spent as an active gang member. Achieving success as an award-winning poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more — until his 15-year-old son joined a gang.

He was one of 50 leaders worldwide selected as “Unsung Heroes of Compassion,” presented by the Dalai Lama. In 2011 he is to be presented the “Spirit in the Struggle” award from East LA’s InnerCity Struggle for his commitment to social justice and for his dedication to issues affecting youth, families and community members, both locally and nationwide.

Luis is one of the leading Chicano writers in the country with fourteen published books in memoir, fiction, nonfiction, children's literature, and poetry. Luis' poetry has won a Poetry Center Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, a Paterson Poetry Book Prize, among others. He is an inspiration to several generation of Angelinos and a recent visitor to Occupy Wall Street. His first book, the best-seller Always Running, is widely proclaimed as the definitive book on LA gang life.

“Rodriguez is a relentless truth-teller, an authentic visionary, a man of profound compassion… [In Hearts and Hands] he acknowledges the lessons we can learn from the social sciences, he scrutinizes what succeeds and what fails in the realm of public policy, but he never allows us to forget that the rescue of young people is also ‘a spiritual quest.’”— Los Angeles Times Book Review

Come be both informed and inspired in what is sure to be an unforgettable Rector's Forum. Sunday, October 16 in the Forum beginning at 10:15 a.m. | All Saints Church, 132 N Euclid, Pasadena 91101

For more information contact Maren Tompkins at 626.583.2711