All Power To The Developing!

Ep.53 Black 47, Paradise Square, and Green Suede Shoes: A Conversation with Larry Kirwan

Larry Kirwan, the creative force behind Black 47, the Irish American political rock band, which for 25 years brought its energetic, joyous hybrid of rock and roll and Irish traditional music to the world, joins co-hosts Desire Wandan and Dan Friedman for an expansive conversation about his life, his creative evolution and the politic that informs them both. 
In addition to leading Black 47, Kirwan is the author of 21 plays, 3 novels and a memoir.  One of his musicals, Paradise Square, was nominated for 10 Tony Awards during its Broadway run.  Kirwan is also a columnist for the Irish Echo, host of the “Celtic Crush” show on SiriusXM Radio, the President of Irish American Writers and Artists, and the winner of the 2022 Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award.  Don’t miss the chance to hear from this great storyteller and one of the most prolific artivists in the U.S.A.
www.black47.com
Facebook Larry Kirwan
For Books:  Amazon Author's Page Larry Kirwan
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Larry-Kirwan/author/B001K8NX96?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Ep.52 Capoeira— A Way of Connecting to History and Building Community

In this episode of All Power To The Developing, host Desire Wandan sits down with Silvio Dos Reis, a maestro of capoeira and a dedicated teaching artist at the Union Cultural Center in Seattle. Silvio shares his journey of embracing capoeira not just as a martial art but as a powerful tool for community building, cultural expression, and personal transformation.
Together, Desire and Silvio dive deep into the roots of capoeira, exploring its Afro-Brazilian heritage and the unique blend of music, movement, and play that make it a dynamic practice for all ages. Silvio reflects on the challenges and joys of teaching capoeira in diverse communities, his passion for mentoring the next generation, and the impact of art in fostering resilience and connection in today’s world.
Join us as we explore how capoeira transcends the boundaries of a traditional martial art and becomes a bridge for cultural dialogue, empowerment, and social change. Whether you're a seasoned capoeira enthusiast or new to this vibrant practice, Silvio’s insights and stories will inspire you to think about movement and community in new, transformative ways.
https://www.unionculturalcenter.org
https://www.instagram.com/unionculturalcenter
https://dance.washington.edu/news/2021/08/11/silvio-dos-reis-capoeira-angola-mestre-silvinho
facebook:silvio dos reis
Instagram mestresilvinho86

Ep.51 Giving Youth the Courage to Speak their Hearts

Toiya Taylor, the Executive Director and Founder of Speak With Purpose (SWP), tells her story and the story of SWP, which is bringing the power of public speaking to students in Seattle and beyond to challenge prevailing narratives, uplift their cultures and communities, forge self-authored identities, and become forces for change. To Taylor and the educational innovators she has trained, public speaking is “not a powerpoint, it is not text on a page, it is connecting to people at the deepest level.”
https://www.speakwithpurpose.org/

Ep.50 America Makes It Very Hard To Be Well

Malia Gilbert-Neal, the executive director of ArtWell, grew up in Philadelphia and has been creating community empowerment organizations her entire adult life. In conversation with host Desire Wandan, she shares her life story and the work of ArtWell, founded in 2000 in response to chronic community violence in Philly.  Today ArtWell partners with over 400 organizations to bring arts-related activities to schools, libraries, and health and social service organizations throughout the Philadelphia area.  In all her work Gilbert-Neal strives to focus on the wellness of individuals, communities, and the earth. “America makes it very hard to be well.  We’re all experiencing the same capitalism that is overworking and underpaying people, expecting them to make huge sacrifices of themselves for the sake of profit and dollars. We’re all experiencing the same racism, sexism, and challenges to our human rights,” says Gilbert-Neal. “We’re all swimming in these systems of oppression, so it’s really important to talk about wellness and how to sustain it.”
www.theartwell.org
Instagram: @Maliaknowsthings

Ep.49 Through Play You Find the Kid in You

La Transplanisphère, based in Paris, France, has been doing cutting-edge political theatre for two decades bringing artists, students, and “ordinary people” together to explore the political and cultural challenges facing Europe as it becomes more diverse.  In residence, since 2018, at the Lycée Albert Schweitzer in Le Raincy, a working-class suburb of Paris, La Transplanisphére has, among many other things, developed methods for teachers who want to use play and performance to explore political issues and the challenges of cross-cultural dialogue with their students. In this episode, Bruno Freyssinet, founder and artistic director of La Transplanisphère, shares the theatre’s history and discusses how, “through play you find the kid in you, you find the openness, the lightness which has the power to totally change your relationship with the ‘Other.’” This episode is hosted by Desire Wandan and Dan Friedman.
https://latransplanisphere.com/https://www.instagram.com/latransplanisphere/https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruno-freyssinet-55200062/

Ep.48 Reviled, Mocked, Ignored

Desire Wandan and Dan Friedman co-host this episode with guest Ramsey Kanaan, publisher of PM Press, the most impactful publisher and distributor of anarchist, Marxist, and radical literature in the United States. The conversation touches on the history of anarchism (“reviled, mocked, ignored”) Kanaan’s own embrace of radical politics at the age of 13, his years touring Europe with the punk band, Political Asylum, his founding of AK Press in the UK and PM Press in the USA, the general crisis in publishing, and how PM has been able to survive and thrive in a hostile political and economic environment. “It is important,” Kanaan emphasizes, “to build structures and institutions to control the means of production and distribution of our ideas.”
www.pmpress.org
https://www.tiktok.com/@pmpress
https://twitter.com/PMPressOrg
https://www.instagram.com/pmpress
https://www.facebook.com/pm.press/
https://www.youtube.com/user/PMPress

Ep.47 Dancing Toward Better Futures for the Planet

Dr. Jame McCray, grew up in Brooklyn, “hanging out with the ants and caterpillars on my block.”  Today she is the Managing Director of the Alliance for Watershed Education at the National Wildlife Federation, a member of the Board of Directors of Black Marine Science, and the founder and leader of Ecotonic Movement, an organization that facilitates conversation about climate change with people from all walks of life through dance and movement. Join her in discussion with host Desire Wandan about the possibilities that open when science and the arts meet.   “Tree branches and leaves dance in the wind. Water trickles across the rocks, the rhythm of the waves of the ocean, all of that is movement,” she points out, “and dance can help us to envision better
 https://www.ecotonicmovement.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jame-mccray/

Ep.46 “Land for People, Not for Profit” How Unhoused People in Cape Town Turned an Abandoned Hospital into a Community

Cissie Gool House was an abandoned hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, empty and decaying for 40 years, when homeless activists snuck past security on the night of March 27, 2017, and began an occupation that, seven years later, has transformed it into a vibrant self-governing community of 1,000 formerly homeless, evicted, and displaced people. Two leaders of Cissie Gool House, Karen Hendricks and Fagmeedah Ling, join host Desire Wandan to discuss how the residents themselves renovated the building, set up working committees to deal with elder, youth, maintenance and security issues, and expanded their occupation into a movement that now convenes “Peoples’ Assemblies” to teach others about tenants’ rights, fights evictions, monitors the housing courts, and agitates for enforcement of South Africa’s constitution, which declares that, “everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing.”
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4iG4wYQeu0&t=12s
This 6-minute clip explains the occupation and features Karen
 
This is the website link to Reclaim The City: https://reclaimthecity.org.za/
 
An NPR article about the three occupations part of Reclaim the City.
https://news.wjct.org/2022-12-24/inside-south-africas-hijacked-buildings-all-we-want-is-a-place-to-call-home
 

Ep.45 Homeless World Cup

The Homeless World Cup, founded in 2003, today brings unhoused people together in 70 countries to connect through the universal language of football, each year culminating in a World Cup tournament in a different city.  Founder and leader Mel Young, and formerly homeless player turned referee Sarah Frohwein talk with host Desire Wanden about why and how the Homeless World Cup was born, spread across the planet, and is bringing dignity and community to those without a home. “How on earth have we created a system that leaves millions of people living on the streets?” asks Young. “It’s crazy.  We don’t have to have it.  We sent men to the moon, we invented the internet, and we can fix it.  The aim of the Homeless World Cup is not to exist because there will be no homelessness.”
 www.homelessworldcup.org

Ep.44 Performing Peace in the Wake of War

In this episode, Peter Harris, one of Israel’s major innovators of community-based theatre, shares the experiences and insights of fifty years of creating performances with marginalized communities.  With the war raging in Gaza, he also talks about his work over the last decade in the Theatre Studies Department at the Western Galilee Academic College bringing Arab and Jewish students into “the aesthetic space where memory and imagination can come together,” and painful but developmental dialogue becomes possible through performance. 
 
https://www.facebook.com/peter.harris.94849410
 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG8pl5_zhxyg_hTVzqVM4Kg