Helen Tworkov on Buddhism in America Across Generations with Oneika Mays & Cyrus Dunham

BPL Presents welcomes Helen Tworkov, the founder of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and the author of Lotus Girl: My Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America . Co-Presented with Tricycle: The Buddhist Review . In this ranging conversation, Tworkov and a group of writers and practitioners from different traditions and generations will gather together at Brooklyn Public Library for a lively and expansive conversation about the challenges and benefits of Buddhism in America today. PARTICIPANTS Helen Tworkov is the founding editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review , the first independent Buddhist magazine, and the author of Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers . With Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, she is the co-author of Turning Confusion into Clarity , In Love with the World , and A World of Difference , forthcoming in February 2027. Her memoir, Lotus Girl: My Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America , was a Library Journal best book of the year and received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly . She lives in New York City and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Oneika Mays is a yoga and meditation teacher rooted in Buddhist and yogic traditions. Her work lives at the intersection of carceral wellness and collective liberation. She spent over a decade at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, where she served as the first mindfulness coach and helped pilot and establish its wellness program. She leads retreats and speaks to groups nationally on the power and practice of love— specifically lovingkindness (metta) as a tool for transforming how we live and relate to one another. Her debut book, Sit With Me: A No-BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation (HarperOne, March 2026), explores that practice through the lens of her time at Rikers. Oneika believes no one should be left out of the conversation about what it means to get and stay well. Photo credit Keith Bratcher Cyrus Dunham is a writer from New York City. His first book, A Year Without a Name (2019), was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker , Granta , 4Columns , and The Intercept , among many other publications and anthologies. He is a Dornsife Fellow in Nonfiction at USC, where he is writing a book about the relationship between Buddhism and trans life and politics in the West.