Fulani and Frazier: Postmodern Freedom Riders

Alvaader Frazier, Esq, and Lenora Fulani, Ph.D.

Faculty and longtime community organizers Lenora Fulani and Alvaader Frazier completed a four-week Revolutionary Conversation entitled Postmodern Freedom Riders, which brought together 45 participants from across New York City to discuss the history and evolution of the fight for civil rights and democracy.  The multi-racial class included high school students from the Congo, college interns, middle-aged people—some of whom had participated in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and others who knew little about it. All wanted to do something about social injustice and poverty.

Said Fulani, Black people cannot change America by being ‘right’ on race — we can’t do it by ourselves. We have to say to white people, ‘We’re poor.  Now what are we going to do about it?’….We have to create circumstances where all kinds of people can come together and grow…We don’t have to wait for the [official] ‘creators’….We can build something ourselves….That’s powerful.

Gwen Lowenheim helps staff play like kids at Brooklyn’s Children’s Museum

Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Crown Heights

Faculty Gwen Lowenheim led a play workshop for the staff of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Part of their Altman Foundation PlayNet series, the workshop (entitled, Play, Perform, Grow: Building a High Functioning and Creative Team), was organized by Juliet Gray Moliere, director of Early Childhood Education, and attended by program directors, after-school educators and the security team. Gwen reports that staff played in the developmental way that young children do and explored some practical tools for performing anew with co-workers and museum visitors.  

Students at St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf perform “Annie”

Carrie Lobman at ImprovisationalLearning.org reports on a youth theatre performance that she attended at the invitation of colleague Anne Alexis at St Francis de Sales School for the Deaf. Anne has studied social therapeutics for years and has creatively incorporated a performance orientation in her work as a speech therapist at St. Francis de Sales. The young people performed Annie, the Broadway classic, using American Sign Language – and the audience responded in kind when it came time for the applause.  Says Lobman, “I’m more convinced than ever of the value of theater for going beyond remediation…” READ MORE

Performing “Annie” in ASL

Otto Award Winner Hector Aristizábal explores therapeutic power of performance

Lois Holzman greeted 2012 Otto Award winner Hector Aristizábal at a reception for the honorees at the Castillo Theatre (above).  Aristizábal, a Colombian psychologist and founder of Los Angeles-based ImaginAction, uses performance and theatre games to help people deal with trauma. In accepting his award, he shared with the Otto crowd his sense of closeness to social therapy founder Fred Newman, and his understanding that performance is key to emotional development.  Aristizábal will be a presenter at the Performing the World  conference in October

The Otto Awards, named after Guatemalan poet and revolutionary Otto René Castillo, recognize the achievement of individuals and institutions who conceive, produce and foster the development of innovative and socially challenging theatre.  Other winners this year were the Ajoka Theatre, John O’Neal, the Sistren Theatre Collective, and Urban Bush Women.  Grace Jones, president of Audelco, was presented with the Aimé Césaire Lifetime Achievement Award. (See some of the coverage in UPTOWN Flavor.)

The Miracle Project — Not Acting Normal

Carrie Lobman reports on meeting The Miracle Project…

The Miracle Project performs “The Genius Club”

Last night I saw a funny, touching and creative piece of theater called A Brief History of All Things performed by the Miracle Project Players, a theater group made up of children and teens with autism, special needs, learning disabilities, and their siblings….[their] devised musical theatre production began with a meeting of the Genius Club…. As a developmentalist I appreciated the ways the kids were able to be who they are—they stared off into space, they spoke under their breath — and at the same time they were able to perform as other than who they are…At times I could literally see them choosing to support the play, rather than to just do what they “normally” do….

The Miracle Project is headed by Aaron Feinstein in NYC, was founded by Elaine Hall in California, and was featured in the HBO documentary Autism the Musical.  READ MORE

Alex Sutherland leads prison performances in South Africa

Andile rehearses with the Ubom drama company at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa

Alex Sutherland reports on her work in the local prison in Grahamstown South Africa, where she leads weekly theatre-making workshops. Andile (shown above rehearsing with the Ubom drama company) had been a member of the prison performance ensemble since the group formed in January, 2010, and instrumental in leading and motivating others in the program.  Currently on parole after serving half his sentence, he continues to do so from outside prison.

Alex is a senior lecturer specializing in theater for social change at Rhodes University.  A graduate of  Social Therapeutics Online, an Institute certificate program, and part of the Performing the World community,  Alex uses theatre games and improvisation to help participants create collaborative spaces in which they can develop stories.

“Discursive Perspectives in Therapeutic Practice,” alternatives to medical psychiatry

Andy Lock and Tom Strong’s new book, Discursive Perspectives in Therapeutic Practice is hot off the presses. It includes a chapter by Lois Holzman and Fred Newman, Activity and performance (and their discourses) in social therapeutic method. Other featured authors include: Kenneth J. and Mary Gergen, Sue Levin , (International Class alumna) Saliha Bava, Lois Shawver, and John Shotter. 

The book makes the (philosophical) case for a discursive and relational approach to therapy — juxtaposing it to the diagnostic approach of the DSM-5 and medical psychiatry. It presents a range of innovative discursive methods, showing how each can be applied in real therapeutic situations. 

Says Holzman in a video message to the authors: 

Congratulations Andy and Tom!….Protestors who are occupying the American Psychiatric Association meetings in Philadelphia are saying that they want other voices. Other voices mean other choices…and it’s in the spirit of that demand that the publication of your book is very significant — so let’s get people to read it!