Bo Lozoff is an American writer, musician, and interfaith humanitarian.
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Lozoff, with his wife Sita Lozoff, founded the Human Kindness Foundation.[1] He started the Prison-Ashram Project with Ram Dass in 1973. The Prison-Ashram Project (operated by Human Kindness Foundation) sends free interfaith books, compact discs, and correspondence to prisoners around the world, and has over 40,000 inmates on its active mailing list. Bo Lozoff retired from Human Kindness Foundation in 2011; Sita Lozoff and a small staff continue the work of Human Kindness Foundation.
Lozoff also founded an environmental non-profit, Carolina Biodiesel, for the dual purposes of promoting biodiesel and creating jobs for ex-cons. Lozoff's music sales and performances supported Carolina Biodiesel, along with donations, including a large bequest from Fred Rogers. Benefit concerts and a newspaper article about Lozoff generated a great deal of interest in the biodiesel movement in the Raleigh/Durham area.[2] Carolina Biodiesel is still operating in Durham.[3]
Lozoff is the author of We're All Doing Time, It's a Meaningful Life: It Just Takes Practice, and other books, including a children's book, The Wonderful Life of a Fly Who Couldn't Fly. Lozoff is also a singer/songwriter with several CDs, who performs throughout the U.S.
Paul Harvey received an overwhelming response when he read Bo's "An Impatient Letter To All Of Us From God" on his radio program in 1998.[4] In this "Letter," Lozoff writes about his radically interfaith spiritual views in a down-to-earth, humorous way typical of his style.
Lozoff has an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1994, Bo and Sita Lozoff were awarded The Temple Award for Creative Altruism from the Institute of Noetic Sciences[5] for their lifelong work in the fields of peace and justice. “For their longstanding contribution toward bridging the principles of all major faiths” Bo and Sita were honored with the “Partners With God” award in 2003, by New York’s One Spirit Interfaith Seminary.[6] Additionally, their compassionate service work has drawn the attention of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar; in 2007 the Lozoff’s work received the Art of Living Foundation award "for uplifting human values."[7]
Lozoff has drawn fans as diverse as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who wrote forewords to two of his books, We're All Doing Time, and It's a Meaningful Life; it just takes practice, to Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, who in his final interview in Pittsburgh Magazine named Bo Lozoff, along with Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer, as one of his personal heroes.[8]
In 2008, several ex-parolees and volunteers said in interviews with a reporter that Bo had been sexually and emotionally abusive at a residential community and parole program affiliated with the Human Kindness Foundation called Kindness House. Lozoff denies ever being abusive but has stated that his radical beliefs and unconventional lifestyle made him a "terrible choice by God" as leader of the community. He has publicly apologized for periods of deceit and secrecy at Kindness House, which closed in 2006; Human Kindness Foundation continues to operate the Prison-Ashram Project. Bo Lozoff is currently retired from Human Kindness Foundation.