In-Person and Online: Free Urban Retreat Info Session and Q&A
with Leslie Booker and Dalila Bothwell
Friday, June 20th, 2025 | 6:30pm – 8:30pm ET
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
In July, New York Insight is holding its first ever non-residential retreat, designed to help integrate practice into your daily life and life into your practice.
We often think of retreat as a chance to get away—traveling to a quiet meditation center in a serene natural setting. But for those of us who live in cities, this can create a split: retreat happens there, life happens here. Practicing together in the same city where we live, work, and navigate daily challenges creates a powerful opportunity: we can begin to carry the clarity and presence of retreat into the rhythms of ordinary life.
During this live Q&A session, teachers Leslie Booker and Dalila Bothwell will explain the format of this summer’s retreat and answer any questions you may have about embarking on a weeklong commitment to meditation practice.
Reserve your spot now for a special sneak peek into a New York Insight’s first-ever weeklong retreat!
Attendance at this event is encouraged but not required to register for July’s retreat.
You can learn more and register for the retreat itself here.
In-Person Registration:
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Online Registration:
If you are registering via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, you can scroll right and left and up and down within the below form if it is partially obscured or cut off.
CLICK HERE to open the registration form in a new browser window.
Volunteering
All of our programs rely on volunteers to support our teachers and staff with various tasks and responsibilities. Volunteering allows you to participate in our programs at no cost. To inquire about volunteering opportunities, please fill out our inquiry form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Teacher(s)
Leslie Booker
Booker is a heart – centered, spirit – driven activist and meditation teacher committed to creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing. She completed Spirit Rock’s 4 year Retreat Teacher Training in 2020, and shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with New York City’s most vulnerable populations for over a decade. Booker has co – authored and contributed to several publications including the trauma – informed anthology Practicing Liberation and its accompanying workbook, for folks working towards social justice. She is a co-founder of the Yoga Service Council at Omega Institute and the Meditation Working Group of Occupy Wall Street. In 2020 she was invited to be a Sojourner Truth Leadership Fellow through Auburn Seminary and was voted by her peers as one of the 12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement.
Booker moved to Philadelphia in August of 2020 to vote in a swing state, and currently serves as the Guiding Teacher of New York Insight.
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IG | TheRealBookerProject
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Dalila Bothwell
Dalila Bothwell’s (she/her) Dharma-meditation practice lives at the intersection of love for community, land, wholeness, and 12-step recovery. The granddaughter of Claudia and Gussie Pearl, she finds refuge and hope in the liberation teachings of revolutionary lovers – from the Buddha to bell hooks. During her nearly decade-long tenure as a director for New York Insight Meditation Center, she learned the priceless value of sangha and the role relationships play in embodying the teachings and in creating kinder human beings.
Dalila is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Program, formally educated in nutritional science and food studies and has served with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Insight Meditation Society, and Dharma communities throughout the US. She loves dancing furiously in her kitchen and taking long walks in the desert with her handsome pup, Brisco. Dalila believes freedom is a holistic art. Learn more about Dalila at www.dalilabothwell.com.