The Forum at Grace Cathedral Grace Cathedral

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players is performing the Bay Area premiere of Raven Chacon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning composition, Voiceless Mass, at Grace Cathedral on November 11, with a preshow talk with Chacon on how music is made.  

Chacon is a composer, performer, and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. His mesmerizing, original work for organ and ensemble, Voiceless Mass, considers the spaces in which we gather, the history of access of these spaces, and the land upon which these buildings sit. In exploiting the architecture of the cathedral, Voiceless Mass considers the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space is never an option for those in power.   

At The Forum the next morning, join Malcolm Young for a conversation with Chacon about his career as an artist and mentor; and how his heritage influences his work.   

Become a GraceArts Member 

Love engaging dialogue? We offer a special cultural membership program, GraceArts, focused exclusively on the arts and well-being. GraceArts allows a wider community to belong to and support Grace, with discounts and benefits on a robust schedule of events. Learn more and join! gracecathedral.org/gracearts 

Give to Grace 

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give. 

About the Guest  

Raven Chacon (b. 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, performer, and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. Currently, he lives in Red Hook, New York and Albuquerque, NM. A recording artist over the span of 22 years, Chacon has appeared on over eighty releases on national and international labels. He has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Whitney Biennial, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, SITE Santa Fe, The Kennedy Center, and more. As an educator, Chacon is the senior composer mentor for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP). spiderwebsinthesky.com 

About the Moderator  

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.     

About The Forum   

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  More about Grace Forum Online:   

gracecathedral.org/the-forum. 

Edmund G. Brown Jr. is the son of Governor Pat Brown and great-grandson of August Schuckman, a German immigrant who settled in California during the California Gold Rush. He is the longest serving governor in California history, first elected at 36 years old and again at 72. He has served as Secretary of State, chairman of the state Democratic Party, Mayor of Oakland, and California Attorney General. Brown has spent over five decades in public service, tackling climate change and inequality, among many other issues.    
Join Malcolm Young for a conversation in the Nave with Brown about his long career, protecting the earth and serving the people.  

Become a GraceArts Member 

Love engaging dialogue? We offer a special cultural membership program, GraceArts, focused exclusively on the arts and well-being. GraceArts allows a wider community to belong to and support Grace, with discounts and benefits on a robust schedule of events. Learn more and join! gracecathedral.org/gracearts 

Give to Grace 

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give. 
 About the Guest  

Jerry Brown was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1955 and entered Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit seminary. He later attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1961 before earning a J.D. at Yale Law School in 1964. Brown was elected Trustee for the LA Community College District in 1969, California Secretary of State in 1970, and Governor of California in 1974 and 1978. After his governorship, he lectured and traveled widely, practiced law, served as chairman of the state Democratic Party, and ran for president. Brown was elected Mayor of Oakland in 1998 and California Attorney General in 2006. He was elected Governor again in 2010 and 2014. Brown currently serves as chair of the California-China Climate Institute at UC Berkeley; executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; chair of the Oakland Military Institute College Preparatory Academy, a public charter school he founded more than 20 years ago; and on the boards of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and Council on Criminal Justice. Jerrybrown.org 

 About the Moderator  

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.     

 About The Forum   

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  More about Grace Forum Online:   

gracecathedral.org/the-forum. 

How do we overcome polarization in American society? How do we advocate for justice when one side won't listen to the other and cycles of outrage escalate?  

These questions have been pressing for years, but the events of January 6, 2021 and the emergence of a vocal, virulent Christian nationalism have made it even more urgent that we find a way forward.   

In her incisive new book, The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide, Pamela Cooper-White uncovers the troubling extent of Christian nationalism and explores its deep psychological roots.  

Join Malcolm Young for a conversation with Cooper-White about the ways in which advocates for justice can safely and effectively attempt to talk across the deep divides in our society.  

Give to Grace 

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give. 

Experience the Exceptional  

GraceArts connects a wider community of people through art and cultural events held in our awe-inspiring space. If you have a passion for the arts, become a GraceArts member and enjoy discounts and benefits while supporting our cathedral. Sign up today to be part of GraceArts! gracecathedral.org/gracearts. 

About the Guest  

Pamela Cooper-White is the Christiane Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychology and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She holds PhDs from Harvard University and the Institute for Clinical Social Work, Chicago, and is the author or coauthor of five books and over seventy scholarly and professional articles. An Episcopal priest and pastoral psychotherapist, Dr. Cooper-White is a certified clinical fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, a national board-certified counselor, and a licensed clinical professional counselor in the state of Illinois.  

About the Moderator  

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.     

About The Forum   

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  More about Grace Forum Online:   

gracecathedral.org/the-forum. 

In 2018, the great behavioral scientist Robert Sapolsky came to The Forum to discuss his bestselling book Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad. That program has over 221,000 views.  

Now, in his new book Determined, Sapolsky mounts a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do. 
One by one, Sapolsky tackles all the major arguments for free will and takes them out, cutting a path through the thickets of chaos and complexity of science and quantum physics, as well as touching ground on some of the wilder shores of philosophy. Sapolsky applies the new understanding of life beyond free will to some of our most essential questions around punishment, morality, and living well together.   

Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Sapolsky about his insights into free will, the monumental task of living our daily lives recognizing that we have no free will, and how that could make for a much more humane world.  

Give to Grace 

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give. 

Experience the Exceptional  

GraceArts connects a wider community of people through art and cultural events held in our awe-inspiring space. If you have a passion for the arts, become a GraceArts member and enjoy discounts and benefits while supporting our cathedral. Sign up today to be part of GraceArts! gracecathedral.org/gracearts. 

About the Guest  

Robert M. Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate’s Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, and Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. His 2017 book, Behave, was a New York Times bestseller and named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of biology, neurology and neurosurgery at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.” He and his wife live in San Francisco.  

About the Moderator  

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.     

About The Forum   

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  More about Grace Forum Online:  gracecathedral.org/the-forum. 

In the famous photograph of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of Memphis’s Lorraine Motel, one man kneeled down beside King, trying to staunch the blood from his fatal head wound with a borrowed towel.  
This kneeling man was a member of the Invaders, an activist group that was in talks with King in the days leading up to the murder. But he also had another identity: an undercover Memphis police officer reporting on the activities of this group, which was thought to be possibly dangerous and potentially violent. This kneeling man is Leta McCollough Seletzky’s father. 
Marrell McCollough was a Black man working secretly with the white power structure, a spy. This was so far from her understanding of what it meant to be Black in America, of everything she eventually devoted her life and career to, that she set out to learn what she could about his life, his actions, and his motivations. But with that decision came risk. What would she uncover about her father, who went on to a career at the CIA, and did she want to bear the weight of knowing? 
Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Seletzky about her book, The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and her quest for the truth about her father. 
“Get comfortable, because once you start reading you will not be able to put this book down. The Kneeling Man is a spellbinding account of a daughter piecing together her father’s mysterious role witnessing the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. With gorgeous prose and emotional honesty, Leta McCollough Seletzky brings us on her journey to uncover deeply hidden family secrets and better understand our own.” —Jennifer Taub, author of Big Dirty Money and Other People’s Houses

Lee Herrick is California’s 10th Poet Laureate, and the first Asian American to serve in the role. A former Fresno Poet Laureate, Herrick’s work explores the diversity and vitality of the California experience. Born in Daejeon, South Korea and adopted as an infant, he writes eloquently on the immigrant experience – bringing to life the smell of chapchae and the sound of mariachi trumpets, the farmers market at midnight, and the small talk of Armenian neighbors. Herrick’s work is a Whitmanesque celebration of the best spirit of our state, the vibrancy of the Central Valley, and ourselves.  
  
Every year Grace Cathedral chooses a theme to help provide focus and create new ways to grow as a community. In 2023, our theme is the Year of Poetry. During this year we will explore the walls that separate us from each other and the words that help connect us.  

  

Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Herrick about poetry as a bridge to social justice, and its enduring power.  

 

Give to Grace 

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give. 

 

Experience the Exceptional  

GraceArts connects a wider community of people through art and cultural events held in our awe-inspiring space. If you have a passion for the arts, become a GraceArts member and enjoy discounts and benefits while supporting our cathedral. Sign up today to be part of GraceArts! gracecathedral.org/join. 

  

About the Guest  

Lee Herrick is the California Poet Laureate. He is the author of three books of poems: Scar and Flower, finalist for the 2020 Northern California Book Award; Gardening Secrets of the Dead; and This Many Miles from Desire. He is co-editor of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (Orison Books 2020). His poems appear widely, in The Poetry Foundation, Academy of American Poets, The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed, Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice with a foreword by Common, HERE: Poems for the Planet, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, and Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, among others. Herrick serves on the advisory board of Terrain.org and Sixteen Rivers Press. He co-founded LitHop in Fresno. He has taught in Qingdao, China, and for Kundiman. He was born in Daejeon, Korea and adopted as an infant. He lives with his family in Fresno, California and served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. He teaches at Fresno City College and in the low-residency MFA program at University of Nevada Reno at Lake Tahoe. He is the 10th California Poet Laureate, and the first Asian American to serve in the role.  

  

About the Moderator  

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.     

  

About The Forum   

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  More about Grace Forum Online:   

gracecathedral.org/the-forum.