All Power to the Developing

Check-out the Institute’s podcast series!

Welcome to the “All Power to the Developing” podcast. At the Institute, we work to advance social change efforts that reinitiate human and community development. We support, connect and partner with committed and activists, scholars, artists, helpers and healers all over the world, such as those you’ll hear from in this series.

Way back in 2003, Institute co-founders — the late Fred Newman and Lois Holzman — published a paper with the title All Power to the Developing! This phrase captures how vital it is for all people—no matter their age, circumstance, status, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation—to grow, develop and transform emotionally, socially and intellectually if we are to have a shot at creating something positive out of the intense crises we are all experiencing.

Our hope is that this podcast series will show you that, far more than a slogan, “all power to the developing” is a loving activity — a pulsing heart in an all too cruel world.

Ep.#47 Dr. Jame McCray, grew up in Brooklyn, “hanging out with the ants and caterpillars on my block.” Today she is the Managing Director of the Alliance for Watershed Education at the National Wildlife Federation, a member of the Board of Directors of Black Marine Science, and the founder and leader of Ecotonic Movement…

Ep.#46 Cissie Gool House was an abandoned hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, empty and decaying for 40 years, when homeless activists snuck past security on the night of March 27, 2017, and began an occupation that, seven years later, has transformed it into a vibrant self-governing community of 1,000 formerly homeless…

Ep.#45 The Homeless World Cup, founded in 2003, today brings unhoused people together in 70 countries to connect through the universal language of football, each year culminating in a World Cup tournament in a different city. Founder and leader Mel Young, and formerly homeless player turned referee Sarah Frohwein talk with…

Ep.#44 In this episode, Peter Harris, one of Israel’s major innovators of community-based theatre, shares the experiences and insights of fifty years of creating performances with marginalized communities. With the war raging in Gaza, he also talks about his work over the last decade in the Theatre Studies Department at the…

Ep.#43 In this episode of All Power To The Developing, Host Desire Wandan sits down with Murray Dabby and Carrie Sackett, the authors of “Social Therapeutic Coaching: A Practical Guide to Group and Couples Work.” Our conversation dives into the heart of their upcoming book, exploring the innovative approaches and…

Ep.#42 In 2020 with the pandemic ravishing Brazil and the country’s president doing nothing to combat it, a group of progressive Brazilian educators, led by Dr. Fernanda Liberali, of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and an East Side Institute Associate, found a way to move forward through play. Inspired by the Global…

Ep. #41 On the 30th Anniversary of the Taos Institute, co-founder Kenneth Gergen shares the birth of social constructionism, its challenge to the assumptions of modernism, and the impact it has had both in and beyond the academy. During this wide-ranging conversation with host Desire Wandan, Gergen discusses the practices…

Ep. #40 Francine Kilemann and Marcia Donadel are bringing their experience with site-specific, immersive theatre to elementary school education in Brazil. Through Plato Cultural they lead students and teachers in creating fictional worlds in which the children become “SOS Agents” from the future tasked with helping to save the…

Ep. #39 Nuyorican M.C., poet, and hip-hop educator Intikana shares his development as an artist, activist, and educator. He traces his journey through the economic poverty and cultural richness of the Bronx, the challenges of commercial co-optation, and bringing his revolutionary hip-hop educational techniques to young people in…

Ep. #38 The ASSIM (Like This) Institute in Florianopolis, Brazil is dedicated to bringing therapy free or at affordable rates to those who need it the most—the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized. Not only does ASSIM bring therapy to the people, it also provides poor people with free therapeutic training that allows them to lead…

Ep. #37 Darryl Heller, lifelong progressive political activist, shares his journey from grassroots organizing in Boston and New York to becoming a labor historian, a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Indiana University, and director of the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. “I don’t think we can realize our full humanity if we’re…

Ep. #36 Join host Desire Wandan in a conversation with Rivka Eckert—theatre maker, activist, and educator—about her creative work with homeless youth and police officers in Arizona and with prisoners, correctional officers, and community members in the prisons of upstate New York. Eckert, a professor in the Theatre and Dance…

Ep. #35 Steven Licardi spent most of his childhood and adolescence, in his words, “in-and-out of psych wards.” He emerged from our oppressive and brutal “mental health” system with his flame of creativity burning brightly. He now shares that creativity with his clients as a social worker, social therapist and innovative poet and artist. In this fascinating, delightfully surprising and moving conversation with host Desire Wandan, Licardi shares his commitment to helping people “play in their wounds” and use “performance to go beyond the social roles” imposed on them.

Ep. #34 Playworlds are a performatory approach to early childhood education that brings children and teachers together to create an imaginary world where they can all develop emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Dr. Beth Ferholt of Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York is one of the world’s…

Ep. #33 This special episode, originally released by Laugh Box, the podcast of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, brings humorists Katy Bee and Jim Bob Williams together with East Side Institute director Dr. Lois Holzman to talk, joke, and giggle about the importance of humor, fun and happiness…

Ep. #32 Based in Mexico City, Lorena Elizondo is a free-lance consultant and feminist activist who works with corporations, NGOs and community groups, using play, improvisation and performance to explore conflict and structural barriers. “Play is efficient — it may not be fast — but through play, far more voices can be heard,” she…

Ep. #31 Ralph Casanova, aka King Up Rock—hip hop dance pioneer, international teacher, and a community organizer with deep roots in his neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn—shares his life, art, and love for his community with host Desire Wandan. His father was a noted conga player, his mother an expert salsa dancer and Casanova…

Ep. #30 In 2022 the conflicted and shifting relationships between Taiwan, China, and the United States have gained worldwide attention. Within that global frame, this intimate political conversation between East Side Institute co-founder and director Lois Holzman and Taiwanese social worker, activist, and political…

Ep. #29 Founded in 1996, Performance of a Lifetime (POAL) has pioneered bringing play and improvisation into corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Working with clients as diverse as the Bank of America and the United States Olympic Committee, Jet Blue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, POAL has…

Ep. #28 Meet East Side Institute Associate, Nicola Pauling, whose Wellington, New Zealand-based Voice Arts builds community through play and performance. Most recently, bringing performance workshops into nursing and retirement homes for the elderly, Voice Arts takes theatre games and exercises used by actors to prepare for…

Ep. #27 Dementia, for most of us, is associated with stigma, fear and dehumanization. What if, instead of approaching it as a dreaded medical disease that we had to fight, we collaborated with it and found ways to help those diagnosed—along with those around them—to continue to be creative and grow? That’s exactly what John…

Ep. #26 Can music be developmental? Probably not. However, the creation of music—particularly when done in ensemble through improvisation—most certainly can. Ursel Schlicht, an innovative music maker based in Kassel, Germany, shares her approaches to creating music across political and cultural borders. Her “Sonic…

Ep. #25 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…

Ep. #24 How do Social Therapeutics Impact Our Lives? 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?

Ep. #23 Spiritchild. 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. Spiritchild 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 oppressed.

Ep. #22 ActionPlay. 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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

Robyn Stratton-Berkessel works with groups large and small — non-profit and corporate — to grow supportive, relationships and build with all that’s working well. In this lively chat with Performance of a Lifetime’s Maureen Kelly, Robyn introduces an Appreciative Inquiry approach to helping groups “grow their positivity,” as producers of all that “we want to see in the world.”

Raquell Holmes is a Harvard-trained cell biologist, computational scientist and social activist. Founder of ImprovScience and Cultivating Ensembles in STEM Education, Raquell is recognized for her organizing prowess in bringing improvisation, performance and social therapeutics to fellow scientists and educators. In this intimate conversation with Dan Friedman, she recounts her innovative approach to introducing the wonders of physics and biology to working class adults, and describes her most recent project — Uncomfortable Independent Conversations — a series she’s organized with friends and colleagues shaken by racial injustice in America and seeking new ways to come together to develop.

There is a remarkable development project for young people happening in Africa’s most populous nation. Rita Ezenwa-Okoro the Founder and Chief Visionary of Street Project Foundation in Nigeria, shares her work of building environments where young people can use the creative arts to foster their own development—and that of their nation and world. As Ezenwa-Okoro often tells the youth she works with, “Talent is not just talent. There must be more to the song you sing. … You have to learn how to lead.” Hosted by Jan Wootten.

What if young people weren’t required to go to school? What if we could invent other ways for them to learn and grow that worked just as well, or better? Meet Ken Danford, former middle school teacher, who in 1996, frustrated by the coerciveness of traditional classroom environments, founded the North Star in Sunderland, Massachusetts. There he invited teenagers to self-direct their learning experiences – without required classes, grades, or tests. In this fascinating conversation with Carrie Lobman, Danford discusses the history, methodology, practice and challenges of the North Star experiment.

Dr. Jennifer Carson, Director, Dementia Engagement, School of Community Health, Univ. of Nevada, Reno; Eileen Moncoeur, Exec. Director, Sabal Foundation, and social therapist; and Claire Molyneux, senior lecturer in Music Therapy, Anglia Ruskin Univ., UK, are on the front lines of reimagining dementia. Rejecting the biomedical “tragedy narrative,” they have embraced a playful, performatory, social-relational approach that focuses not on what is lost, but on the co-creation of possibility. They work with people with dementia, friends and families to co-create inclusive environments where all can live well and develop. Hosted by Mary Fridley.

When the pandemic hit and tens of millions were forced into lock-down, improvisers, clowns and performance activists of all stripes stepped up to address the crisis. They organized the Global Play Brigade to bring (therapeutic) play, via Zoom and WhatsApp, into communities around the world. The Brigade now involves 160 performance activists from 50 countries — and still counting! This intimate conversation with chief organizer Cathy Salit (USA) and founding brigadiers Rita Ezenwa-Okoro (Nigeria), Jeff Gordon (Israel) and Fernanda Liberali (Brazil) explores the revolutionary power of play and performance to open doors to new ways of seeing, being and building with strangers.

Institute co-founder and director Lois Holzman reads her talk, ‘The Performance Movement: The Obvious and Outrageous Way Out of the Epistemological Fly Bottle’ — presented to the “Alive in the Anthropocene” virtual conference in January 2021. Curious about the fly bottle? Listen and find out what it means!

Gloria Strickland, S.V.P. and Chief Youth and Community Development Officer of the All Stars Project, Inc., shares her decades of work helping young people from poor communities of color exercise their creative muscles in all kinds of life situations to generate their own development and exercise power—and how the All Stars kept it going during the pandemic. Hosted by Carrie Lobman.

Makiko “Mako” Kishi — educator, professor, international aid worker and performance activist — has worked in Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia, Central America and her native Japan with refugee communities and special-needs students to build stages for development. Mako shares her passion for creating learning environments in which everyone — even the most “needy” — are related to as capable of giving, building and growing. Hosted by Lois Holzman.

There’s a growing movement afoot in higher education, shaking the canons of traditional pedagogy. Meet play revolutionaries Carrie Lobman, associate professor, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers Univ., and ESI’s Leader of Education and Research, and Tony Perone, asst. training professor of educational psychology at the Univ. of Washington, Tacoma, who share their pioneering efforts to bring developmental play into higher education. Hosted by Janet Wootten.

Long-time community organizers and performance activists, Allen Cox, Thecla Farrell and Sheryl Williams, share how performing with New York City’s Castillo Theatre — on-stage and off — impacted their activism and development.  Hosted by Jessie Fields, MD.

Isita Sanyal, the founder of Turning Point, in Kolkata, India discusses her work with people shunned and outcast because of their mental illness, work which demonstrates that psychosis need not mean the end of development. Hosted by Dr. Lois Holzman.

Chantelle Burley and Brian Mullin, co-founders of the All Stars London, share their work with young people from London’s poorest boroughs, encouraging them to perform their way to new possibilities they never imagined possible. Hosted by Dr. Carrie Lobman.

Five participants with Developing Across Borders—Lea Cikos, Mariamalia Cob, Juan David Garzon, Steven Hart, and Morgane Masterman—hailing from five different countries, share how their Zoom-enabled weekly social therapeutic conversations help sustain their activism and develop their social and emotional skills. Hosted by Dr. Lois Holzman.

Murray Dabby, founder of the Atlanta Center for Social Therapy and co-founder of both The Couples College and Curtain Up, Anxiety Down, discusses his forty years of bringing play and improvisation to emotional growth and development.  Hosted by Janet Wootten.