Thirteen New Emerging Leaders

19 Jun Thirteen New Emerging Leaders

Back: Mayari Perez Arroyo , Mike Pickering, Bashiru Lasisi, Guillermo Terisotto, Francisco Estefogo, Laura Sonnino, Martha McCoy, Eva Brenner. Front:  Andre Liberali, Mieke Lippstreu, Oscar Lozoya, Drazen Horvatic, Annie Rose Stathes. 

This past Saturday (June 15, 2019) the happy group pictured above graduated as the 15th International Class of the East Side Institute (joining 130 past graduate as International Class alumni). You can read their bios below but, like all official bios, they tell you little about who people are—and less on who they’re becoming. And throughout the ten months of working- studying-learning-playing together, these people kept using who they “are” to continuously grow as unique individuals and as a developmental learning ensemble.

Many of the members were in transition—leaving long-term positions in the business world, leaving their country of origin, starting up organizations, refocusing their existing organizations. All wanted to contribute to desperately needed social change and had come to the Institute and this program in particular to learn some new ways. The most experienced and established among them were, delightfully, as enthusiastic as the ones just starting out. Over the program’s ten months of Zoom calls and written text individually sharing their responses to readings and creating collective performatory responses to them, and three residency periods in NYC totaling 22 days, they built the group that made it possible for them to become budding group building-social therapeutic methodologists. What they do with this new skill in their own cities and countries remains to be created, as it should be.

Some of the activities the International Class took on—

• a playful study of Wittgenstein, including writing theatrical responses to Fred Newman’s play Outing Wittgenstein and viewing Derek Jarman’s film Wittgenstein
• conversations and experiential activities with All Stars Project’s program directors, founder, youth, volunteers, and Board member
• “tasting” social therapy through their social therapy group and observations of other groups
• community organizing on the streets of Brooklyn
• exploring creativity by making music in a professional music studio
• training in improvisation, especially performing curiosity, listening to build, snd performing “other”
• exploring the social therapeutic approach to dementia
• deepening their understanding of history, politics and culture of their countries
• playing at Coney Island

As a group, they brought their deep pain to us —- the pain of the world and of the planet, the pain of violence and cruelty. of isolation and not being seen, of disappointment and frustration, of fury at institutions that right off masses of people, at the inhumanity of so much of our world culture. They brought their pain and they many different ways they respond to it. We hope that by encouraging them to play, perform, learn and grow, they  broadened and transformed their responses .

Eva Brenner (Austria) Ma. Mag. Art., Ph.D., is a political theater artist with a focus on experimental theater, performance art, political and community theater. She is also a cultural reporter for independent magazines, and a long standing theater scholar trained in Vienna and New York (NYU, Ph.D. under R. Schechner). Since 1991 she has been running her own theater company Project Theater/Fleischerei in Vienna/Austria, and has directed widely as well as lectured and given workshop throughout Europe, Israel, the US and China.

Francisco Estefogo (Brazil) has a post-doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, and works since 2017 as a Professor at Universidade de Taubaté. He has been been involved with teacher development for about 20 years, with his last research project focused on developing English teachers as transformative agents and creators of their own teaching culture. The core of the research was to intervene in school contexts, based on vulnerability, humility, crisis, mutuality, deliberation and creativity.

Drazen Horvatic (Serbia) currently studies towards his Master in Applied theater at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia, and holds a Bachelor in Scandinavian Studies. He is a drag performer and a performance activist, who co-founded the Wyrd Sisters in 2016, with the purpose of building a healthy drag community that can heal, inspire others and have social impact.

Bashiru Lasisi (Nigeria) holds a ph.D. in Theatre Arts/Media Studies from the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria, and has worked as a Senior Arts Fellow at the same university since 2011. As a teacher producing graduates for the creative industry in Nigeria, a country with an unemployment rate above 40 %, he is concerned with the need to widen the scope of opportunity for his students, including knowledge of how you can use performance to impact positively on your own life and community.

Andre Liberali (Brazil) has an MBA with the concentration Business Ethics in Companies, as well as a Master’s in Mechanic Engineering. He has over fifteen years of experience as a director/manager within the corporate sector, and is currently undergoing a shift from business executive a usual to one of business advisor/board member/ consultant proposing activities that develop solidarity, connection and community sense among the participants.

Mieke Lippstreu (South Africa) has a BSc in Occupational Therapy from the University of Cape Town. She has a particular interest in the forensic mental health service user population with whom she has had the opportunity to work over the past two years. Her vision for occupational therapy focuses on mental health, the arts, and social transformation, embracing the potential of the ties that bind these three elements together for individual and collective healing and development.

Oscar Lozoya (Mexico) has a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Anthropology and a Bachelor’s in Music Theory and Composition, both from the University of Texas at El Paso. He currently works as a case worker with teenagers with a visual impairment and other disabilities, and also has fifteen years of experience as a professional percussionist playing Latin, Brazilian and Middle East rhythms. His vision is to develop a more holistic approach to the work with his customers, incorporating sound, verbal/non-verbal expression and movement.

Martha McCoy (CA, USA) has a Master’s of Education from Touro University in California, a Master of Health Sciences from Duke University, and a BA in Biology/Latin American Studies. She worked for 13 years in migrant health care, clinical research, and as a preceptor for family medicine residents. In 1996 she became a teacher, a career that has evolved into a critical study on pedagogy, institutional leadership and innovative transformational teaching. This included designing a play-based Transitional Kindergarten and taking on leadership roles in her school for transformative school change based on growth and development.

Mayari Perez Arroyo (Costa Rica) has Bachelor ?s degrees in Psychology and English from the University of Costa Rica, and works as an English teacher and psychologist at the Colegio Ilppal school. She has had an interest in alternative educational methodologies involving expression and transformation since 2013 when she discovered psycho drama. Since then, she has explored Participative Methodologies, Psychodrama and Art-therapy in different schools across Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Chile, with one of her most important interests being the psychology of the group as an enhancer of creativity and transformation.

Mike Pickering (GA, USA) is business professional who has been a part of the broad development community since 2002/2003. This engagement includes multiple independent theater productions, founding and building of the Atlanta All Stars Talent Show Network, organizing independent voters in Georgia, and participation in a social therapy group since 2001. He is interested in possibly pursuing either a therapist or coach role, as well as developing as a social entrepreneur and performance activist in Atlanta. He has a Bachelor’s in Biology from The State University of New York in Binghampton.

Laura Sonnino (Italy) has a Master ?s degree in art theater counseling from the European Theater Institute, and a Bachelor in Tourism. She has worked with theatrical counseling in prisons since 2017, with the dream to create relationships and different life choices through theater, music, art, and crafts.

Annie Rose Stathes (CA, USA) has 20 years’ experience of guided personal development work and leadership training in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. Her experiences include designing curricula and teaching writing classes at Fort Lewis College Writing Program, working as a professional artist, teaching yoga, and coaching authors. In 2015 she founded Be Authentic, with the purpose of creating a safe, intentional space for healing, connecting, thinking critically, and effecting change. She has a BFA in International Affairs with an emphasis on Africa, culture, and economics, and an MA in Political Science with an emphasis on public policy.

Guillermo Terisotto (Argentina) is composer and lead singer of the band After the Storm, and the musical artistic director of Ecodanza of VIDA in Lima, Peru. His studies include audio perception, percussion and vocalization in the Crei of Santa Fe, Institute of Music for children and young people, as well as courses in the Superior Institute of Music. His engagements include participating as a musician in UN conferences in Istanbul and Johannesburg. He also works as a computer systems analyst and holds a Bachelor’s degree from ICOP in Santa Fe.