Community Organizing

Being/Becoming an Activist Scholar: Lessons From Cultural-Historical Activity Research  This past week I participated in a symposium at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference held in NYC, along with two distinguished co-presenters, Kris Guitierrez and Anna Stetsenko. A diverse group of younger scholars served as interviewers, with many in the audience...

On March 3 I'll be in Puebla Mexico as a speaker at the Fifth International Conference on Consciousness and Spirituality, sponsored by the Transpersonal Instituto  Universitario of Puebla. To this organization, transpersonal postulates a paradigm shift and expands existing models related to human behavior. This year's theme is "The Consciousness of...

The tenth Performing the World (PTW) conference will be held in New York City, Friday, September 21 through Sunday, September 23, 2018. These are very uncertain days. So much is, or seems to be, falling apart – nations and government apparatus, norms of diplomacy and civil discourse, civil society, the glaciers...

The Future of Performance Psychology in Japan—what a privilege to be part of creating such a thing! In mid-August I made my third trip to Japan to share the methodology of social therapeutics with Japanese psychologists and educators. It was very exciting and gratifying to witness how people I had worked...

If you’ve ever taught or been a student (that's everyone, isn't it?), “Yes, and” as Teaching-Learning Methodology is a must read. It’s written by two University of North Carolina at Greensboro professors— Omar H. Ali, Dean of Lloyd International Honors College and Nadja B. Cech, Professor of Chemistry. In the article,...

The International Class is the signature program of the East Side Institute. I'm so proud to have taught and coached over 100 activists, educators, counselors, theatre artists and scholars over the years, and played a part in their development as leaders in a new kind of social activism. Read what one...

I just rewatched this wonderfully intimate and informative video of a plenary session at Performing the World 2012. It begins with some talented improvisors setting the scene, so to speak, for the conversation among five performance activists—Lin-Ching Hsia from Taiwan, Christine LaCerva from NYC, Charles Rozman from France, Lenora Fulani...

My last post, “Police and Teens, Connecting” (March 29, 2017 ) pointed to an article that appeared in The New York Times that same day. The article featured a unique kind of “connecting” of police and teens—Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids, a program of the All Stars Project in partnership with the...