Bookshop West Portal is thrilled to host Rhonda V. Magee in conversation with Norman Fischer in celebration of the paperback release of Magee's book The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness.

Magee's book explores the idea that in order to have the difficult conversations required for working toward racial justice, inner work is essential. Through the practice of embodied mindfulness–paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way–we increase our emotional resilience, recognize our own biases, and become less reactive when triggered.

Magee is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco. Also trained in sociology and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), she is a highly practiced facilitator of trauma-sensitive, restorative MBSR interventions for lawyers and law students, and for minimizing the effects of social-identity-based bias. Magee has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society and a visiting professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley.

Norman Fischer is the former Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center.  Fischer is a poet and Zen Buddhist priest. He is the author, most recently, of When You Greet Me I Bow: Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen. His translation of the Hebrew psalms, Opening to You, is widely read in both Jewish and Christian circles. A former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, and founder of the Everyday Zen Foundation (www.everydayzen.org), he lives in Muir Beach, California with his wife Kathie, who is also a Zen priest.

Rhonda Magee: The Inner Work of Racial Justice