Wednesday, April 23rd, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom
Meals Served With Love
When Ariel Pliskin experienced a Zen Peacemakers Bearing Witness Street Retreat, he noticed that when they ate at a soup kitchen, the staff would treat them with love, but not with dignity. As a result, Pliskin, Bernie Glassman, and others worked to create a model of community building and hunger relief in which people of all socio-economic backgrounds are treated with dignity. Join a Talk with Ariel to learn more about his life as a practitioner of socially engaged spirituality and a dedicated student of mindfulness.
About the speaker:
Ariel E. Pliskin, MSW, LICSW (they/them) is a longtime practitioner of socially engaged spirituality and a dedicated student of mindfulness. Ariel is an ordained minister in the Zen Peacemaker Order and formerly served as assistant to its founder Roshi Bernie Glassman, helping facilitate global Bearing Witness retreats and managing communications. In 2012, they founded the Stone Soup Café, a pay-what-you-can community meal in Greenfield, MA, built on the Peacemaker tenets. Under Ariel’s leadership, Stone Soup grew from a few dozen attendees to over a hundred weekly, and helped catalyze similar efforts across the U.S. through the One World Everybody Eats network. Stone Soup Café continues today.
In the years since, Ariel earned a Master of Social Work, became a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, and is now a Certified Sex Therapist and Certified Sex Educator through AASECT. At Advance Psychotherapy Practice in Amherst, MA, Ariel serves as Program Manager for the Relationship & Sex Therapy (RST) Program and specializes in the intersection of sexuality, gender, neurodivergence, and spiritual well-being. Ariel teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Springfield College. They continue to integrate mindfulness and social justice values into their work with individuals, couples, and groups.
With gratitude,
The Zen Peacemakers Team