All Power To The Developing!

Continue the exploration of “Let’s Talk About It,” the daily social therapeutic drop-in group led by Barbara Silverman at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, NYC between 1994 and 2009.  Join early participants in the program— Chris Allen, Marcus Barton, Patricia Bendidi, Fabiola Desmont, Kepriece Lindsay, and Desire Wandan, along with the program’s founder Barbara Silverman—as they recall how they got involved and how it continues to impact on their development.  As one participant recalls, “Let’s Talk About It,” “…was the only time we were free to be who we were or who we thought we were, and after a while without even noticing it, we evolved into who we thought we might become.” Hosted by Desire Wandan.

What does social therapeutics look and feel like on-the-ground?  How does it develop throughout a person’s life? Join a group of young adults— Darnelle Cadet, Chauncey Espada, David Pierre-Louis, and Desire Wandan—all of whom grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn and participated in “Let’s Talk About It,” a daily social therapeutic drop-in group at Erasmus Hall High School led by the ESI’s Barbara Silverman.  How did “Let’s Talk About It” impact their lives and the development of their friends and families?  How are they using social therapeutic methodology today?  As one of the participants puts it, “Group didn’t end when we left that room; it’s stayed a part of my life to this day.” Barbara Silverman joins the conversation, hosted by alum Desire Wandan. 

Meet Spiritchild—creative rapper, innovative educator, radical organizer—as he shares his work with young people on our streets and in our prisons from the U.S. to Europe, from Africa to Southeast Asia.  Spirtchild describes himself as a “revolutionary freedom artist conducting the energy and frequency of the people.”  He works to foster creative environments in which music and art open up conversations about the injustices facing the poor and the oppressed, inspires action, and, in his words, “develops young revolutionaries.”  Hosted by Desire Wandan. https://linktr.ee/xspiritmental https://linktr.ee/maroonparty http://www.urbanartbeat.org/

Meet ActionPlay, a bold and brave performing arts program empowering young people on the autism spectrum. Carrie Lobman talks to founder Aaron Feinstein and his creative collaborators, Jackson Tucker-Meyer and Edison Weinstein, about the wondrous ActionPlay zone where neurodiverse ensembles (mentored and cheered on by their friends, family and professional theatre and film supporters) sing, dance and perform their hearts out to create a playful space where no one must conform and all can belong. “It’s my social spot…my happy place! A place to feel new emotions." https://actionplay.org/ https://www.today.com/video/how-actionplay-is-empowering-actors-with-autism-112455749808

Meet Ben Fink and Tiffany Turner— virtuoso community organizers mining the rich heritage of communities from the coalfields of East Kentucky and the ash pits of Alabama, to the sidewalk stoops of Baltimore and Milwaukee — and helping working class Americans tell their stories of hard work, love and abandonment. Their Performing Our Future empowerment coalition (spearheaded by the famed Roadside Theatre along with Black Belt Citizens United, Arch Social Club and Rural/Urban Flow) organizes diverse, cross-community ensembles in which locals can create with strangers and, in so-doing, re-imagine themselves and their communities. “Performance builds trust and power — it helps us own all we are and all we make.” Ben and Tiffany talk to cultural/political historian Dan Friedman about a tradition of community organizing tracing back to the populist movements of the 1890s. https://www.performingourfuture.com/ https://roadside.org/asset/secular-communion-coalfields-populist-aesthetic-and-practice-roadside-theater 

All Stars Project CEO Gabrielle L. Kurlander and Dallas City Leader Antoine Joyce join Lois Holzman for a wide-ranging conversation about the All Stars’ latest bridge-building initiative, Operation Conversation—how it came into being; how it works to help adults from different backgrounds, cultures and belief systems perform conversation, discover each other, and explore the constraints of identities of all kinds; and how directing Operation Conversation is helping the two of them to grow.   https://allstars.org/ https://allstars.org/locations/dallas/

Mauricio T. Salgado  (Artists Striving to End Poverty & New York University professor of Arts and Applied Theatre — has shaped a myriad of powerful social justice initiatives. In this intimate conversation with Castillo Theatre Artistic Director (Emeritus) Dan Friedman, Salgado, born in the US to proudly subversive Colombians and raised in the migrant camps of South Florida, recounts how dance, storytelling, community-based performance and ritual are indispensable to cultural healing. “Performance helps people embrace who they are and who they want to be." www.mauriciotsalgado.comwww.remember2019.org

John Opdycke, democracy activist and president of Open Primaries, talks to ESI faculty Jan Wootten about how he sees the dawning of a new day in American politics: millions are on the move, demanding a meaningful role in shaping policy and institutions. "Yeah, it's also a mess. The professional political class won't lead; the American dream of progress is dying. But our people are fighters. They're stepping up to topple the barriers that leave them frustrated, divided and disempowered.”   www.openprimaries.org   https://twitter.com/jbopdycke?lang=en

What if young people ruled the world? What would that world look like? Applied Theatre educator and ESI Associate Alex Sutherland talks to Dan Friedman about a performatory, whole-body, arts-based approach she and colleagues have developed at the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education in Cape Town that helps young social activists find their social and political voice.  http://www.tshisimani.org.za https://www.ru.ac.za/search/?q=Alex+sutherland https://eastsideinstitute.org/about/our-people/institute-associates/alexandra-sutherland/

Can improv make it harder to hate?...make it easier to be (and create) with others in all our diversity? Communications professor and improv aficionado Don Waisanen -- author of Improv for Democracy -- talks (and has some fun) with fellow performance activist Marian Rich, to show how improv can help us find our voice, unlock the politics of gridlock, and make us better citizens of the world. https://www.sunypress.edu/p-6960-improv-for-democracy.aspx  (book) https://twitter.com/donwaisanen?lang=en  (Twitter) https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-waisanen-99bb0816/ (LinkedIn)