Performing the World 2025

10:00 am

Opening Session

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10:30 am

Voices for Change: Creating a Global Choir for Social Impact

Michael Sample

Building on a pilot project during the pandemic—a virtual reality choir connecting musicians from Nepal, Mexico, Ghana, and the U.S.—Voices for Change has grown into a global choir producing an upcoming international visual album featuring young musicians and professionals
from Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

An initiative of the Playing for Change Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advances social change through a global network of music and arts education programs – currently 37 programs across 26 different countries and territories – the international choir demonstrates
how collaborative performance can transcend distance and culture to inspire communities worldwide.

Michael Sample, the Producing Artistic Director of Voices for Change will share the process of creating a cross-cultural ensemble, producing a visual album for social impact, and the stories of hope he’s experienced in this exploration of how music can empower and connect communities globally.

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1:00 pm

Filling the Gap: Equipping In-School and After-School Arts Programs in South Africa

Host: Alison Polley-Green; Panelists: Caryn Green, Thembile Tshuma, Tsholofelo Shounyane, Sibahle Mtimkulu

Although in 1997 South African law made Arts and Culture a compulsory subject in all schools, the reality is very different.  This panel, hosted by Alison Polley-Green, arts researcher, educator and manager, will feature leaders of Arts programs that work to bridge that gap, bringing theatre, dance, music, visual arts and performance to children and teenagers in South Africa’s communities most affected by structural inequality and poverty. They will share the work they do, the youth they reach and the impact that performance and the arts have on the young peoples’ lives and communities.  The panelists are: Caryn Green of the Sibikwa Arts Centre; Thembile Tshuma and Tsholofelo Shounyane of Assitej South Africa; and Sibahle Mtimkulu of the Windybrow Arts Centre.

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3:00 pm

Breakdance Project Uganda: Dancing Toward Human Development

Abraham “Abramz” Tekya

Breakdance Project Uganda (BPU) was founded in 2006 by Abraham “Abramz” Tekya to help young people in poor communities in Kampala and across Uganda develop pride in themselves as artists with “b-boy” and “b-girl” identities while building leadership skills, providing access to education and promoting positive social change. From the initial three students who turned up at the first class, the Project has grown through word of mouth, regular showcase performances, and exposure on the World Wide Web to become a thriving organization with over 1,000 members nationally and many more supporters around the world. The Project is sustained and has grown by members freely passing on their skills to new members, following the BPU belief that everyone is a student and everyone is a teacher with something positive to give.

In this interactive workshop, founder Abramz will share his story and the history of Breakdance Project Uganda; demonstrate its teaching and organizing methods; show short clips from the film Bouncing Cats, which documents his work and the workshops at BPU led by the legendry Crazy Legs of the Rock Steady Crew; and involve participants in sharing their experiences as performers, activists, educators and builders.

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6:30 pm

Global Play Brigade Presents: Playfest for Changemakers

Rita Ezenwa-Okoro and others

The Global Play Brigade (GPB) was founded during the pandemic in 2020 to connect people, isolated and scared, through play.

It has grown into an international online community of volunteer play and performance activists—improvisors, clowns, dancers, puppeteers—who believe that integrating play into everyday life is vital for creating hope, generating possibility, and sparking emotional well-being and development. The GPB approaches play as a powerful catalyst for change—particularly when facing difficult emotions and conversations, stuck or stagnant institutions, and polarized political environments. 18,000people from over 100 countries have participated in their free workshops, with its strongest presence being in Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Nigeria, India, Kenya and Japan.

This participatory workshop—especially designed for activists, organizers and other changemakers—will be led by experienced play facilitators from around the world and will explore the transformative power of play through improvisation, storytelling, movement and role-playing. It is designed not just to utilize play methodology for skills like communication, collaboration, innovation and leadership, but also to consider weaving play into the fabric of social activism— a field that also needs innovation and fresh thinking, now more than ever.

9:30 am

EcoManka: From Garbage to Possibility: PlayDesign in the Moravia neighbourhood, Medellin, Colombia

Teddy Florea, Eline Charles, Fatima Zahra Elboussaidi, Jesica Gomez, Ranko Trifković

EcoManka is a globally oriented initiative working with youth that helps communities design sustainable grassroots programs, educational frameworks, and inter-community networks to meet the challenges of climate change and social fragmentation. Its name is derived from eco- (ecology) and manka in Quechua, meaning “container of abundance,” while also resonating with shamanka, the sacred feminine spirit of leading and healing. EcoManka, then, is a vessel for holding play, compassion, and co-creation in service of ecological and social transformation.

“From Garbage to Possibility: a PlayDesign Practical Workshop" will feature one of EcoManka’s early pilot programs developed in the neighborhood of Moravia, Medellín. Moravia, once Medellín’s open-air garbage dump and home to tens of thousands of displaced families, is today a complex community facing ongoing ecological and social challenges. In partnership with Corporacion Jarum (a local NGO running educational programs within the community) EcoManka ran a 15-week pilot program where 30 teenagers explored their territory through PlayDesign, a participatory methodology that combines play, storytelling, social-emotional learning, ecological awareness, and social entrepreneurship.

This participatory workshop will bring participants inside that process: exploring how young people identified challenges, prototyped solutions (such as urban gardens and storytelling projects), and developed as eco-leaders. The session will be led by EcoManka founder Teddy Florea and other EcoManka personnel, Jesica Gomez from Fundación Jarum, and a youth voice from the pilot, with breakout rooms designed for participants to experience PlayDesign methods and apply them to their own contexts.

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12:00 pm

Combatants for Peace: Breaking the Cycle of Violence

Chen Alon, Sulaiman Khatib

Founded in 2006, Combatants for Peace brings former members of the Israeli Defense Forces and fighters from the Palestinian resistance together to share their experiences, their grief and their determination to build a culture of peace amid the ongoing war that has wracked their peoples for 75-years. It is the only peace group in the world that was founded and is run by ex-combatants on both sides of an active conflict.

“Breaking the Cycle of Violence” will focus on the performance work of Combatants for Peace: how they use theatre as a tool for dialogue, conflict transformation, non-violent resistance to the occupation and the ongoing mass killing in Gaza—how they are nurturing collective imagination in the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian reality. They will share experiences from performances, workshops, and community interventions, highlighting both the artistic and activist dimensions of their work.

The session will be led by Combatants for Peace co-founders Chen Alon, Head of the Community Theatre Camp; Artivism Program at Tel Aviv University, and Sulaiman Khatib, who, arrested at the age of 14, spent ten years in Israeli prisons. In 2017, Alon and Khati were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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3:00 pm

Arts into Acts Performance: Migrant and Refugee Arts Crossing Borders and Building Bridges Across Europe

Host: Elena Boukouvala; Artists: Amir Ali, Antzela Tzoure, Elena Yaqubee, Joel Fabio Tunno, Lamprini Blatsiou, Lina Petrianou, Rouddy Kimpioka

As borders harden and policies divide, how do we connect with the world and each other? Arts into Acts is a group of artists from migrant and refugee backgrounds who met and began working together in refugee camps and communities in Greece in 2021. Led by Elena Boukouvala, drama therapist, participatory researcher, performance activist and founder of the Play Perform Learn Grow conference, this diverse artistic community—which includes artists originally from Afghanistan, Congo, Albania, Italy and Greece—has stayed connected as its members have spread out across Europe. The art they are creating is inextricably interwoven with their journeys across geographic, political and cultural borders. Among the projects that will be showcased are: “From War to Exile’s Road,” “34 Afghan Windows,” “RAD Music International,” and “Nostovia.” Attendees of the workshop will be encouraged to share their journeys and experiences of traversing borders and creating belongings across art and political action. Together we will ask the question: What happens after the performance ends? Can we create a world where the performance never ends?

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5:30 pm

Performing in the “Age of Stuck!”: A Developmentalist’s Approach to Building with Quicksand & Quandaries

Lois Holzman

What the heck is a developmentalist?

A person who examines—and invites others to examine—the taken-for-granted ways of the world. A person who helps us see not just products and outcomes but shines light on process and how we, as individuals, communities and as a species do what we do. A person who invites others to play with what irks us, confuses us, bewilders us, makes us feel ground down, lost, stuck, sad, hurt, and worse. A person with whom you can always create
new possibilities.

In this interactive session Lois Holzman, co-founder and director of the East Side Institute, and founder and co-convener of Performing the World, will introduce you to the conceptual framework and share four features of a developmentalist’s practice. You will be invited to try these on and have ample time to practice performing as developmentalists alongside Lois.

9:30 am

From Stage to Street (and back again): Generating Power Through Performance

Anuradha Marwah, Arham Sayeed Quadri, Meinka Sharma, Grace Sukanya, Lourdes Supriya

Pandies Theatre—one of India’s most impactful politically-engaged theatre companies—has a history stretching back four decades. Starting as a university drama club under the leadership of the late Sanjay Kumar, they moved away from the limitations of a college-controlled society to an independently registered theatre producing progressive plays from around the world. Soon the pandies stepped off the stage into the streets, bringing the empowerment of play and performance into the lives of poor, oppressed and marginalized people. The “workshop theatre” they developed created the tools that allowed them to create skits and plays with children in the slums, homeless youth who live on railway platforms, women who have been victims of gender-based violence, and communities divided by generations of violent conflict. All along, they continued to produce longer, “proscenium” productions, most recently, Nang Dhadang/Bare and Exposed, a searing critique of sectarian sentiments that created the tragedy of the Indian Partition and the horrors that followed.

Leaders involved in various aspects of this rich and ongoing history will share the mosaic that is the pandies theatre.

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12:00 pm

Listening from the Heart: American Friends of the Parents’ Circle

Terrance McMullen

This workshop is deeply rooted in the painful and loving work of the Parents Circle-Family Forum, which brings together bereaved Palestinian and Israeli family members to share their grief and humanity amid ongoing, brutal war.  American Friends of the Parents Circle has developed “Listening from the Heart” as a means of empowering others around the world to engage in meaningful dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and other seemingly intractable conflicts. “Listening from the Heart” will equip participants with the tools to foster empathy, bridge divides, build respectful communication skills, and create inclusive spaces for difficult conversations. Come prepared to listen with an open heart and engage in difficult but meaningful conversations. www.parentscirclefriends.org/listening

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3:00 pm

Bakondo Peace Camp: Healing the Wounds of Civil War through Play and Performance

Daniel Buritica

After fifty years of bloody civil war in Colombia between communist guerrillas on the one hand and government soldiers and right-wing militias on the other, a peace treaty was finally negotiated in 2016. However, decades of hate, fear and trauma don’t just disappear when the guns stop firing. In the years since, many individuals and groups have been working on the healing process, among them is the Bakondo Peace Camp. Founded by Daniel Buritica, the camp brings young people from poor urban neighborhoods together with former guerrillas and militia fighters to play games, learn magic, create and perform skits and talk about how to resolve conflicts without violence. Since it was founded in 2006 the Bakondo Peace Camp has hosted 1,500 young people. Buritica will share how and why it was created, what goes on at camp, how it is impacting on those who have participated and their communities and why it is essential in a moment where the world is getting more polarized.

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6:00 pm

Zip Talks: Short Sessions Presented with Zeal, Intimacy, and Passion

Host: Viviane Carrijo; Video presenters: Mieke Lippstreu, Joleen Sheldon and Sinisa Rudan, Mitchel Abrams, Eva Brenner, Danna Abraham, Samuel James, Lorena Rodriguez, Mustafa Shet,
Sadaf Vidha and Aryan Somiaya

Today as crisis follows crisis, it is easy to forget (or never know) that around the world people are making things—beautiful, unexpected, deeply human things. They are creating—with what’s available, with who shows up, and with the mess we’re all living in. To make more of these creative, playful and powerful activities known, this year, for the first time, Performing the World is presenting Zip Talks, short six-minute introductions to some of the creative sparks now dancing in the ruins.  We can never have too much good news.

The Zip Talks that will be presented are:
“Sparking the Heart of Humanity” — Mitchell Abrams
“Holding the Ambivalence and Polarities of a Country in Distress and Denial” — Sadaf Vidha & Aryan Somaiya
“All Africa Deaf Arts Festival 2025″ — Samuel James
“Therapy Tales: Re-framing the Story” — Danna Abraham
“Making Gender Trouble: Drag as Delicious Disruption” — Mieke Lippstreu
“Cultures for Peace: Art, Fermentation & Resistance” — Lorena Rodriguez
“Cultural Resistance” — Mustafa Sheta
“UBU white & black – A Theater Against War!” — Eva Brenner
“Performing Emotional Growth” — Joleen Sheldon & Sinisa Rudan
www.emotionaltheater.com:

9:00 am

From the Margins to Center Stage: Bringing Play and Performance to Nairobi’s Schools

Host: Wycliffe Barasa; Headteachers: Pascalia Nanga, Otieno Wandera Fred, Mildred Odhiambo, Moris Oduor, Grace Okochi Truphena; Teachers Heading Performance: Jacklyne Juma, Otieno Wandera Fred, Abetta Milka, Emmanuel Mulama, Maryam Juma

Wyclffe Barasa, the CEO and Co-founder of Kosi Africa—a non-profit organization focused on education, leadership development, Pan-Africanism and community volunteerism—will share his recent work introducing play and performance into the public schools of Nairobi, Kenya.

Over the last year, Barasa has reached out to some 60 elementary and high schools about the developmental value of play and performance in education—and many of them have taken his message to heart.  Barasa will be joined by teachers and students from schools throughout Nairobi to present samples of their performance work—dance, drama and storytelling—and share the impact that playing and performing have had on their educations and their lives.

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11:00 am

From Silence to Signature: Crafting Power Through Performance

Gift Chikere, Chekwube Isaac Eze

ARTvocacy was born in 2020 during massive protests by young people across Nigeria. They were protesting ongoing extrajudicial killings by the police. Many demonstrators were killed and injured.  Seeking a positive and sustainable way for young people to express their views without being killed, Street Project Foundation, gave birth to ARTvocacy.  It has grown into a political/cultural movement of young people using the arts—and performance in particular—to express their grievances against a system characterized by corruption, violence and indifference toward its people. To date, ARTvocay has produced five original stage plays, four short films, a twenty-episode podcast series, two photo story books and numerous skits on social media.

In this session Gift Chikere (The Gift), Mobilization Lead of the ARTvocay Movement in Lagos and a member of the United Nations Youth Advisory Board, will lead an exploration of how ARTvocacy empowers young people at the grassroots to reclaim their voice through artistic expression. From spoken word to street theatre, they’ve been transforming silence into presence, and performance into power. Learn how they are not only navigating the mess of the world — but rewriting it.

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3:00 pm

Performing In and With the Mess: Here, There, and Everywhere

Lea Csikós, Jessie Fields, Thecla Farrell, Elyse Mendel, Melissa Meyer, Rachel Mickenberg,
Hugh Polk

The statement for this year’s Performing the World invites us to meander together. Why meander? Because, the invitation continues: “The beauty of meandering is that we don’t know where we’re going. We don’t even know what we’re doing. It’s a fumbling, bumbling, risk-taking activity. Meandering is how we fall on our faces, how we get dirty and frustrated. It’s also how we discover and create qualitatively new processes and activities.”

This session focuses on the collective creation of new emotional activity, on how groupings of people, meandering and bumbling, create/perform their “mental health.” This is the hallmark of Social Therapeutics which, along with Performance Activism, is the East Side Institute’s approach to transforming the world and its societies and cultures. You are invited to take a close look at two recent social therapeutic initiatives— Creating Our Mental Health and Developing Across Borders. Across ages, languages, and life experiences—from poverty and privilege, sickness and health, hope and despair, new emotions emerge through the art of conversation and the art of art.

Creating Our Mental Health uses poetry, improv, and movement to create social therapeutic groups in homeless shelters, food pantries, churches and community centers in poor working-class neighborhoods, as well as ongoing virtual groups on Zoom and WhatsApp. Developing Across Borders consists of virtual groups that bring people from a wide variety of nations, class, and cultural backgrounds together for weekly social therapeutic groups in which their diversity plays a key role in creating new emotional activity as they perform their therapy.

Join facilitators and participants from Creating Our Mental Health and Developing Across Borders in conversation about the what and the how of this beautifully awkward empowering activity.

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4:30 pm

Closing Session