All Power To The Developing!

Myth Breaking, Bridge Building: The Art of Akim Funk Buddha

In this episode of All Power to the Developing, host Desire Wandan sits down with genre-defying performance artist Akim Funk Buddha for an exploration of creativity, culture, and transformation. From beatboxing and Mongolian throat singing to reimagining the Japanese tea ceremony, Akim shares how he uses art as a bridge across traditions, identities, and generations. This is a conversation about movement, myth-breaking, and the liberating power of performance.
https://www.funkbuddha.net/

Ep.60 Bringing Magic to the Forgotten Places of the World

Magicians Without Borders has brought free magic shows to 40 countries and approximately a million people, and it provides free three-to-four-year education programs in magic to thousands of young people in “the forgotten places of the world.”  Carlos Lopez, a leader of Magicians Without Borders, unpacks the developmental power of magic when it is taught to young people in impoverished communities. “If your situation seems impossible,” he says. “If you see and experience wonder, it might awaken hope that the impossible can become possible.” Chatting with host Desire Wandan, Lopez shares his journey from a privileged life in Bogota, Colombia, to teaching magic in slums and refugee camps worldwide. In the process, he has, in his words, helped to create “social tissue that is weaving lives together that were not supposed to be intertwined.”
Website: https://www.magicianswithoutborders.com/ https://www.carloslopez.co/
Instagram: @carloshlopez @magicianswithoutborders

Ep.59 What Are We Making Together?

Host Desire Wandan talks with Abbie VanMeter, Executive Director of Collaborative Innovation for the Coordinated Management of Meaning Institute, and Don Waisanen, Professor at Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Their conversation focuses on Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM)—a communication theory and a lived practice—which approaches human communication as how we together create meaning.  “CMM and social therapeutics have a shared understanding of human beings as builders of the social world,” says VanMeter. This conversation provides a concise and clear introduction to this important social constructionist approach to interpersonal communication, and its potential impact on our weary and wounded world stuck in age-old communication traps.
Everything CMMi: https://linktr.ee/cmminstitute
Everything SLST: https://linktr.ee/storieslivedstoriestoldpodcast
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigail-vanmeter/
Direct to Podcast: https://cmminstitute.substack.com/s/podcast OR https://www.storieslivedstoriestold.com/podcast
Newsletter sign up: https://don-waisanen.kit.com/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/donwaisanen/
@DonWaisanen (on both Instagram and X)
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/donwaisanen.bsky.social 

Ep.58 Let’s Learn: A Free International Learning-Teaching Community

Dr. Omar H. Ali, the Dean of Lloyd International Honors College, Professor of Comparative African Diaspora History and a Research Associate in the Medicinal Chemistry Collaborative at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro sits down with host Desire Wandan to discuss the importance of play, performance and improvisation to teaching and learning. They focus on the innovative online global educational community Let’s Learn!, a joint project of Lloyd Honors College and the East Side Institute. Dr. Ali also shares his personal journey from a community organizer to world renowned historian and college dean—remaining a play revolutionary throughout.

Ep.57 Holistic Homes, Empowering Women

For over 25 years, Angela Coleman, the author, most recently, of The Art of Chilling Out for Women and the founder of the Sisterhood Agenda, an international network active in 36 countries, has been working to support and empower women and girls.  In this discussion with host Desire Wandan, Coleman focuses on PARKS (Positively Affirming Reality & Knowledge in Sisterhood) Holistic Housing, through which she hopes to provide eco-friendly, supportive housing for over 100 women in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
https://amzn.to/404vkQP  
https://sisterhoodagenda.com/
https://angeladcoleman.com/
https://youtu.be/OJjefIYnE40?si=LgkcYYqNR6HsHS2S
https://www.instagram.com/baltimoresun/reel/DA3_tWePsZN/
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-d-coleman-mba-cnm-ibiyinka-oyewola-ms-adc-4b02426/

Ep.56 Amplifying Voices: Fighting State Violence with Jazz

Albert Marqués is a skilled jazz musician from Barcelona, Spain, a public-school music teacher in Brooklyn, New York, and a creative social justice activist.  In this episode, he and host Desire Wandan focus on his program “Amplifying Voices” which brings musicians together with victims of state violence to create platforms for them to tell their stories to the wider world.  “Amplifying Voices” has worked with, among others, death row prisoners, Holocaust survivors, and Jason Fulford, the cousin of Eric Garner who was choked to death by New York City police officers in 2014.  “Music creates an atmosphere, a vibe, that allows walls to come down and for people to connect and listen to each other as human beings,” says Marqués.  “I want to use music against power to create power.”
Albert's website www.albertmarques.com/amplify
Book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/el-jazz-suena-en-el-corredor-de-la-muerte-albert-marqu-s/1143693137

Ep.55 Imagine Brave Spaces

The San Diego, California-based Imagine Brave Spaces does just that—imagine brave spaces.  This performance activist organization, founded in 2021, uses play, performance, theatre, and other arts to help children, young people, and adults create spaces and engage in activities through which, in the words of Co-founder and Director of Programs Catherine Hanna Schrock, they can, “see what is not yet there, to picture the possibilities of what can be.”  In this in-depth interview conducted by Desire Wandan and Dan Friedman, she asks, “Isn’t it a courageous thing to dream, to hope that things could get better?” and shares how Imagine Brave Spaces uses Forum Theatre, Playback Theatre, Interview Theatre, and creative community conversations to empower people to ask, “What if?”
www.imaginebravespaces.com
Instagram- @imaginebravespaces

Ep.54 “First You Say Yes, Then Your Figure It Out”

Katie BEE (aka Kate McGlynn) is a remarkable human being who has lived her life saying “yes” and then figuring it out.  She has been a teen peer counselor, taught improv, laughter yoga and meditation.  She worked for 12 years as a street performer in Europe, as a circus performer all over the world, and as a performance-inspired community organizer in Detroit and other cities. 
In 2021 with the pandemic raging, Katie founded the Joy First Foundation and spent the next three years living in a trailer traveling the U.S.A. bringing joy to the nation’s front-line workers—retail workers, nurses, airline employees—who gave so much with so little appreciation during the pandemic. Her mission soon broadened, and she spent her days visiting dinners, hospitals, bars, airports, shopping centers, etc. talking to strangers, thanking everyone she met for waking up that morning.  “Appreciation, Recognition, Acknowledgement, and Gratitude” are, she says are windows that let the joy in.  “You can lift a person up so easily because no one else is appreciating them.”
In this conversation with host Desire Wandan, Katie BEE shares her life story, the relationship between humor, appreciation and development, and welcomes all to travel the road of joy she helping to build.
 
Co-host of therapeutic humor podcast: Laughbox.aath.org
Host of Joy First Foundation podcast: https://katyem.podbean.com/
 
Sign up for the Joy First Foundation Newsletter http://eepurl.com/idPhCL
 
Check out my new album! You Matter! https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nJbbY-gAe3Ds1c53WEoaM5_P3jUlOigtI&si=URUHN0xeiREKQIS2
 
Subscribe to my Youtube Music channel:
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCqdCe0cvDmVNIXmehvCfItw
 
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/foam-city/1756235965
 
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/78ogT2SMjjsXeSogWRgPjh?si=4e8p6urXSWWP8ze57jVWpQ
 
Website  https://joyfirst.org
Website  https://katybeellc.com
Youtube     /joyfirstfoundation 
Youtube     / @katybeee   - Katy BEE Coach and Facilitator
Youtube     /norma-lacy
Instagram    /joyfirst  
Instagram    /joyfirstfoundation  
Facebook    /joyfirstfoundation 
Facebook    /katemcglynn16
Podcast  https://laughbox.aath.org
Podcast  Joy First Foundation - link coming soon
 
 
Katy BEE Joy Activation  https://youtube.com/@KateMcGlynn23
  
LINKTREE
https://linktr.ee/katybee_joy
 
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/KatyBEEJoyful
Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/katemcglynn/

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