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Performance Works Miracles

17 May

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.

Over the course of 20 weeks the young people use techniques from improv theater to write the story, compose the music and lyrics, and choreograph a dance. The resulting 60-minute devised musical theatre production began with the calling to order of a meeting of the Genius Club, a ragtag group of 14 boys and girls who make decisions by expressing their complete disdain for any idea proposed and then going ahead with it anyway. One of the members has found a way to time travel and he cheerfully proposes that the club try it out. The group, which reminded me of my department meetings at Rutgers, meets his suggestion with grumbling, disagreement, and skepticism (and some concern for the disruption of the timeline). However, unlike my academic colleagues and I, the group jumps into a series of adventures that take them back in time to save Abraham Lincoln, hear FDR’s inaugural address, meet and sing with Michael Jackson, and pay tribute to Whitney Huston. As the young people sing in the final song, the time tour was a window into their interests and passions.

As a developmentalist I so appreciated the ways the kids were able to be who they are—they stared off into space, they had small repetitive movements, they spoke under their breath and at the same time they were able to perform as other than who they are—they said their lines, they sang the songs, and most movingly they performed as an ensemble. At times I could literally see them choosing to support the play, to bring it into existence rather than to just do what they “normally” do. That to me is the power of performance—we do not have to stop being ourselves, but we are freed up to be other than ourselves at the same time. Aaron Feinstein, the director of the Miracle Project in NYC (the program was begun in California by Elaine Hall and is featured in an HBO documentary Autism the Musical) and ActionPlay says that he has no interest in “fixing” the kids; he wants to give them an opportunity to create theater as the individuals that they are. I couldn’t agree more. We need more people like Aaron, and Elaine Hall, and my friend and colleague Social Therapist Christine LaCerva who do not let a diagnosis keep them from relating to all young people as being capable of development. On June 8th I will be moderating an event called The Human Cost of Diagnosis with Christine, Lois Holzman, an outspoken critic of the diagnostic model, and sociologist Gil Eyal, author of The Autism Matrix.

 
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Posted in Collaboration, Development, Improvisation, Uncategorized

 

08 Apr

I was immensely proud to be a guest speaker at the Development School for Youth (DSY) Orientation in February. Here is a video of the talk:

Carrie Lobman at DSY Orientation

I am a proud member of the Board of Directors of the All Stars Project, the performance based, outside of school youth development project that created DSY and other innovative and incredibly effective programs. The young people of the All Stars inspire me, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to share with them my passion for, and knowledge about, the importance of play in the lives of everyone!

 
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Serious Play at the Association for Childhood Education International

06 Apr

Last week I was invited by my colleague Debora Winewski, the president of the Association for Childhood Education International, to be an invited speaker at their Global Summit on Childhood in Washington, DC. It was a wonderfully organized conference with over 600 people attending from 70 nations. The conversation was exceptionally rich—with discussions on everything from the impact of poverty, to childhood sex workers, to access to outdoor play spaces, and issues of educational equity. I found the event to be a refreshing change from many of the academic conferences that I attend. Many of the participants were advocates, social-entrepreneurs, or scholar-practitioners, who are finding creative ways to support the healthy growth and development of children all over the world. I was particularly moved, for example, by the youth presenters from the I am Norm campaign—a leadership program where young people with and without special needs decided to take out a campaign that challenges our assumptions about what and who is normal. Rarely have I seen a presentation at an adult conference that is that professional and completely led by youth! Inspiring.

I was one of six presenters on two consecutive panels on Promoting Play in the Lives of Children: A Conversation with Supporters and Advocates. My co-presenters included Fran Maniella, president of the US Play Coalition and the former director of the U.S. Parks Service; Kwame Brown, the founder of Move Theory; Danielle Marshall, director of Community Engagement Programs for Kaboom!; Joan Almon from Alliance for Childhood; and Michael Patte from The Association for the Study of Play. What stood out for me from the panel presentations and the wonderful that discussion that followed with members of the 100+ audience, was the recognition that we are in the midst of a play crisis that is effecting children (and adults) all over the world. Here is an excerpt from what I had to say on that topic:

Poverty has a devastating effect on hope, particularly for young people, in part because it robs them of one of the most developmental and hope-filled activities of childhood–play. Humanity is in the midst of a play crisis. I am obviously and happily not alone among educators and play researchers to say this. In addition to economic, natural, educational, and political crisis, we are in the midst of a play crisis. A recent study of 16 countries, including the United States, India, Vietnam and Pakistan, found that children had fewer opportunities for free play than previous generations (Singer, Singer, D’Agostino & Delong, 2009). In public schools in the United States elementary school aged children are allowed a mere 26 minutes a day for recess and that also includes eating lunch. But this play crisis is not affecting everyone equally. The poorer you are the less time you are given to play. Poor children are twice as likely as middle class children to go to school for a longer day and to have less time for play. And even more critical is the 80% of their lives that are spent outside of school. While more affluent children often spend this time in creative endeavors like dance, or travel, or even one youngster I know who takes classes on inventing, poor children here in the United States are often in programs that attempt to mimic or imitate the school day—leaving even less time for play and children living in poverty the world over spend their time working to survive. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted in Creativity, Education, Learning, Play

 

Heading to The Association for the Study of Play

25 Jan

On February 15-18 I will be attending, and presenting at, the annual meeting of The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. TASP is a multi-disciplinary organization that includes researchers and practitioners, a rarity in the siloed world of academics. Members come from the fields of education, psychology, anthropology, biology, history, recreational therapy, playwork, and social work. In my opinion this is how the most interesting ideas get generated, when people who don’t think alike get together. The organization was founded in 195X by, among others, Brian Sutton-Smith, whose influential work on the cultural significance of play in human life, has shaped several generations of researchers (see The Ambiguity of Play (1997) and Play as Emotional Survival (forthcoming) and has helped shape how play is seen by the general public (See The PBS series The Power of Play). Since then its been the intellectual home (and sometimes sanctuary) for a number of influential scholars including Jim Johnson and James Christie whose seminal work on play and child development is required reading for early childhood educators and Dorothy and Jerome Singer who continue to advocate for the importance of dramatic play for literacy development in an age when didactic methods dominate.

My colleagues Tony Perone, Barbara O’Neill, and I have been working to expand the organization even more to include the important and creative playwork being done around the world by people who identify with performance more than play. One of our goals has been to introduce the long established world of play research to the growing and vibrant community of Performing the World. To that end I will be making two presentations at the conference, both in conjunction with my playful colleagues. Barbara O’Neill and I co-edited volume 11 of TASP’s Play and Culture Studies Series on the topic of Play and Performance and we will be presenting the book at the conference with Sally Bailey, Stacey DeZutter, Kristen French, Ruth Harman, and Debora Wisnewski, the authors of several of the chapters. Tony Perone and I will offer a session titled Co-create, Not Negotiate: An Improvisational Approach to Offering and Developing Play that shares how an improvisational “yes and” approach challenges our assumptions about disagreement, conflict, and negotiation.

I’m really looking forward to all the rich dialogues that happen at this conference and I will be sure to keep you posted.

 
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A Year of Revolutionary Conversations

01 Jan

For the past three years I have been the pedagogical director at the East Side Institute, a non-profit research and training center for new approaches to human development and learning. In that role I design and supervise the Revolutionary Conversations series on an array of topics (from creating humor to philosophical discussions on medicine) that highlight the Institute’s developmental and conversational learning approach. In 2012 we offered 28 classes to over 500 participants. As the year draws to a close I’ve been doing some reflecting on what I’ve learned about teaching and learning from helping others to do it.

I see at least two threads weaving their way through the Institute’s offerings this year. The first is a focus on mundane creativity and the joy of making things with other people. As children many of us enjoyed hours with our friends and siblings making stuff for no particular reason—potholders, forts, mud pies, and model airplanes—but as adults we are often so focused on getting things done that we are not able to see or make use of our creative potential. At the Institute this year we offered a number of Revolutionary Conversations that gave people an opportunity to create with others in a relaxed and emergent manner.

In September David Belmont, musical composer and arranger, and Sandy Friedman, the shop foreman of the Castillo Theatre teamed up in How to Make and Play a Guitar where participants (almost none of whom were musicians nor craftsmen) built real guitars and created a musical piece that was produced in a professional recording studio. And in What’s so Funny—All of us! Marian Rich, Mary Fridley and the participants collectively discovered that they could create humor with even their most painful life circumstance. And back in July I teamed up with architects Doug Balder and Alejandro Gonzalez for a three-week conversation called Dreaming New York. We led a diverse group of participants (some were professional architects and designers and others were laypeople) in an exploration of the Flatiron district of New York City that culminated in us collectively improvising a design presentation on our vision for the future of New York City. In Talking to People in Public Cathy Rose Salit, president and CEO of Performance of a Lifetime and Christine Helm, director of the Enterprise Center at the Fashion Institute of Technology gave participants a chance to make and perform their personal, professional, and fantastical stories in ways that allowed them to connect with their audience. And in one of the more interesting examples of creating, in the online seminar, Creating the World, Gwen Lowenheim teamed up with creativity expert Keith Sawyer to engage people in the activity of creating conversation about creativity!

Another growing strength of the teachers at the East Side Institute is our ability to help participants grapple with compelling, provocative, and challenging concepts and material. What I mean by grappling is the collective creating of philosophical, playful, inquisitive conversations that does not rush to conclusion or the making of a point. It is in these spaces that ordinary people with many different life experiences can slowly engage with material that is often left to academics and subject specific experts.

This thought provoking activity is the aim of all of the Institute’s offerings, and is a particular hallmark of four of our most popular Revolutionary Conversations led by the Institute’s leading practitioners, methodologists, and teachers. In The Thought Leadership of Fred Newman, Institute director Lois Holzman, helps participants read and collectively understand the postmodern Marxist philosophy that is the hallmark of the work of her collaborator and mentor the late Fred Newman. And in Breakthroughs in Youth Development and Helping Clients Discover the Other Lenora Fulani and Christine LaCerva respectively take practitioners and others on a journey to explore the enormously successful work at the youth development programs of the All Stars Project and the performance based group therapeutic practice at The Social Therapy Group. And finally, in Where is the Magic in Medicine, medical doctor and educator Susan Massad has begun a critical exploration with healers of all types on whether and how to integrate the remarkable advances of medical science with the vital subjective experiences of providers and patients.

Overall, I am enormously proud of what the Institute has accomplished pedagogically in 2011. We have, in small but significant ways, helped hundreds of people rediscover the joy of learning in ways that lead development. And I can’t wait to discover what we create in 2012. Hope you will join us!

 
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Posted in Collaboration, Education, Learning, Social Therapy

 

Challenging the Dichotomy of Art and Science

10 Dec

My mentor, the late Fred Newman, once said that if he were to re-design schools he would teach young children nothing but the philosophy of symbolic (mathematical) logic and dance. A provocative idea from a radical guy. But it came to my mind this week when I read an article in Education Week STEAM: Experts Make Case for Adding Arts to STEM by Eric Robelen.

STEM has been a buzz phrase in education for several years—it represents, often in the form of increased funding for research and practice, the push to prepare students for participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. More recently however, there have been a number of articles that call for a move from STEM to STEAM—with the “A” representing the inclusion of the Arts. Those advocating for such a change rightfully point out that the creativity and outside-the-box thinking that are the hallmark of the arts are also a key part of scientific discovery.

“There is creativity in STEM itself, super genius in it, … but in arts education, it really is the raison d’etre to be out of the box, to accept the chaos,” said John Maeda, the president of the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence. Artists and designers, he said, are “risk takers, they can think around corners.” (Harvey Seifter, the director of the Art of Science Learning)

The addition of “A” to STEM is a hopeful sign that people in both arenas are questioning the dichotomy between art and science, a division that serves neither group. That division over the years has led to the teaching of science and math as set of ahistorical truths and to the teaching of the arts (when its done at all) as if there is no rigor required. But what about the enormous creativity and play that was required for the discovery of DNA and the precision and discipline needed to dance in Swan Lake? What is breathtaking and inspirational is that human beings have managed to create the fields of art and science and what would be developmental for students would be to relate to participate in activities where they come to see themselves as capable of such creations.

What seems exciting about a move from STEM to STEAM is that it could help shift the focus in all disciplines towards creativity, play, rigor, and collective imagining… something that is sorely needed in school and beyond.

 
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Posted in Creativity, Education, Learning, Play, Technology, Uncategorized

 

Seeking a Place in the World—Autistic or Not

21 Sep

The September 18, 2011 New York Times article Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World offers a captivating and fascinating story of the messy hard work that goes into human development. While the story focuses on Justin Canha, a young man who was diagnosed with autism at age 3, as a practitioner of Social Therapeutics and a developmentalist, I believe it has implications for a more humane and ultimately developmental way to support all children to grow up, whoever they are.

What was so moving to me about the article was the ways in which the people around Justin, particularly his teacher at Montclair High School, Kate Stanton-Paule, found ways to support Justin to do new things, and practice more “normal” social mores, without expecting him to completely fit in or adapt to the world. The adults in his life put demands on Justin, making sure he knew that if he is going to have the independent life he craves, he would have to develop. And that developing means being able to perform many of the social niceties that society expects. But the article also conveyed that these demands were inseparable from the people around Justin creating an environment where he can succeed.

The combination, the radical acceptance of who he is and the demand that he grow and continue to become is an incredibly powerful combination.

I have been patient and practitioner of Social Therapy, a non-diagnostic approach to group therapy for years. In Social Therapy we have come to call the dialectic between radical acceptance and a demand that people give and grow–performing as who you are and who you are becoming. And it has been enormously helpful for many, many people including families and children dealing with an Autism or Asperser’s syndrome diagnosis.

This methodology of becoming is also at the heart of the work of The All Stars Project, a performance based youth development program. While the All Stars does not work primarily with special needs children, its approach is focused on the overall human development of inner city young people, most of whom are living in poverty. After reading this article I shared it with Bonny Gildin, the Vice President for Education Initiatives at the All Stars. She was immediately struck by the parallels to what the relationships the All Stars builds between highly successful private sector donors and inner city youth living in poverty. In this case, the adults are helping to address the social and cultural underdevelopment that’s produced by poverty and they do this by welcoming the young people into their corporate environments, and relating to them a head taller than they are.

 

 

 
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Posted in Development, Education, Social Therapy

 

Improv with Alzheimer’s Patients–Yes lets!

30 Aug

I was tremendously moved to hear the National Public Radio report Improv for Alzheimer’s: A Sense of Accomplishment. The show shared a research partnership between Northwestern Hospital and the Chicago based Looking Glass Theatre to study the value of improv comedy workshops for improving the lives of people living with Alzheimer’s. When I heard about it, I immediately thought, “Of course!” As the developers of the program say, improv does not require memory, or experience, or the following of a script. It’s about saying yes to each other and embracing and using “mistakes” to create something new. What could be more fun or joyful for people who are finding themselves having to face “getting things wrong” more and more frequently. The whole report validated one of my life missions—to bring joyful, pointless, play to EVERYONE. It seems to me it cannot be said strongly enough, loudly enough, or more often—we (meaning human beings) must, must, must play more. If we do, there is growing evidence (as in this report), that we can keep living, keep growing, keep building and creating relationships even when we don’t know how. If we don’t, the consequences appear to be equally extreme—for individuals and for the world.

The report also made me think about the limitations of the prevailing understanding of memory, intelligence, and relationships. As I myself have experienced, one of the saddest aspects of Alzheimer’s or dementia is the fear that we are loosing our relationship. After all relationships, we believe, require shared memories, recognition, and consistency. All things that appear to be “taken away” by Alzheimer’s and dementia. And while I do not deny that there is sadness and loss in going through these illnesses, there are also, as this piece shows, opportunities. As I listened to the workshop on the radio I was struck by the ways that the participants were creating memories, creating relationships, and creating with the unexpected and the emergent. The participants shared the total joy they had gotten from discovering they could still be creative when they were freed from the constraints of worrying that they were going to be forgetful or make a mistake.  As one participant said, “We made music I never knew I had in me.”

 
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Playing Around with Taking Pictures

12 Aug

This past Saturday Cathy Stewart, an impassioned photography enthusiast and community organizer, and I led a workshop called Playing Around with Taking Pictures as part of the East Side Institute’s Playground series.

Armed with digital cameras of every size and shape, including a few cell phones, smartphones, and one revamped Polaroid camera, the 20 participants, most of whom said they were novice photographers, headed out onto the streets of the Flatiron District. We played around with the tips we had gotten from Cathy, as well as some new ways of looking that had come out of a joint exploration of the work of some of the worlds most accomplished urban photographers (i.e. Gordon Parks, Walker Evans, Helen Levitt, and Manuel Alvarez Bravo). We explored changing the angle of the camera, of ourselves, looking up, through windows, standing at intersections, looking for relationships, shooting the light, the shadows, the garbage, the familiar, and the odd. The group’s pictures are, not surprisingly, remarkably playful and very good. Take a look at our album at playingaroundpics

For me one of the more enjoyable aspects of the day was teaching alongside Cathy. I love discovering things about the people I teach with. I’ve known Cathy for years, primarily in her role as the Manhattan chairperson of the Independence Party of New York City, of which I am an active member. I was fascinated to discover that there is a strong relationship between the playfulness that Cathy brings to her teaching of photography and the attitude she brings to her political organizing. In both she is working to LOOK (and help others to do the same) at seemingly familiar territory with new eyes. As Cathy said, “I am interested in what is at the edges, the borders, on the outside, the fringes…”

 

 
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This is Your Brain on Play!

30 Jul

In This is Your Brain on Summer, an OpEd that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times, Jeff Smink of the National Summer Learning Association states:

A study from Johns Hopkins University of students in Baltimore found that about two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income ninth graders could be explained by summer learning loss during the elementary school years.

This comes as no surprise to me. I am a member of the Board of Directors of The All Stars Project, one of the nation’s leading youth development programs. Fred Newman, Lenora Fulani, and Gabrielle Kurlander (the co-founders and current president of the All Stars) have written for years that the achievement gap is seriously misunderstood as being primarily about school, when it seems obvious that it is outside of school time that accounts for the biggest difference in what its like to grow up poor in America.

Smink goes on to recommend “All students in high-need schools should have at least six weeks of full-day summer school that is comprehensive and engaging.”

While I applaud Smink’s effort to address the varying life experiences of poor children and their more well off peers, I think he is missing the point.

My recent article, Democracy and Development, shares research that shows that what makes the difference for inner city young people is not more school, but more and different kinds of play. Performance, sports, and arts-based programs like the All Stars, most of which look nothing like school, creatively develop inner city youth as active, creative, and responsible citizens of the world. And it turns out that if you become more of a citizen of the world, you become a better and more efficient learner—something you can use when school reopens in the fall!

 

 
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Posted in Development, Education, Play

 
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