CIOP

Tuesdays@2pm:

A Desert Hike Gone Wrong In Joshua Tree

with Ed Rosenthal

December 7 @ 2-2:45 pm

A Southwest desert hiker and nature lover, Ed Rosenthal took solo hikes at Black Rock Canyon in Joshua Tree National Park for years, as a refuge from his life in commercial real estate. But after decades of the same hike, he made a wrong turn in 2010 and nearly died after six waterless days during a heat wave. His survival of the harrowing near-death experience turned his perspective towards the spiritual realm.

 

He wrote about the experience in his poetry collection, “The Desert Hat – Survival Poems,” published by Moonrise Press in 2012. A review said “We gain an insight into what it means to be truly lost and found, to survive the strangest of desert nights and return to the heart of the city.” And wanting to make the details of the event more accessible, he worked for eight years and finally completed the very well-received prose memoir, “Salvation Canyon,” published by Doppelhouse Press in 2020.

 

Ed Rosenthal, also known as “Poetbroker,” will share with us in our Tuesday@2 zoom session the brutality and beauty he experienced during his experience in the desert. He will read some passages from his memoir “Salvation Canyon,” describing critical turning points during his journey, the self-discovery process of writing the memoir, and the research undertaken to learn the truth of his heroic rescue.

​

ABOUT Ed: Ed Rosenthal, the “Poetbroker” of Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA), has been instrumental in completing very large redevelopment deals in the Historic Core of Downtown L.A., but is better known as a commercial real estate poet who uses art to influence deals and social policy.  

 

A whole spectrum of urban issues constitute Ed’s muse. The Wall Street Journal published a series of his rhyming couplets in which he admonished short-sighted developers. L.A. Times cited his “Poetic Request for an Extension of Escrow” as an important contributor to DTLA redevelopment. He is the only poet to be published in the prestigious Urban Land Magazine where he penned two poems raising the concerns of minority contractors and the needs for affordable housing. His tribute to Lula Washington Dance Theatre, delivered at the Orpheum Theater in DTLA in 2002, was his favorite public poem, delivering social justice concerns in a restored historic building. (His website is www.Poetbroker.com.)

 

Ed joined our camping group in Joshua Tree and shared some of his journey with them. Whether or not you missed that, you have an opportunity to hear his story on December 7!