Blogging the World: An Online Stage for Activists a Smash Hit!

For those of you waiting with bated breath to find out how today's Blogging the World session for Performing the World --- it was a huge success -- and very hip!

More later -- I'm rushing out to catch the closing plenary in Brooklyn -- be back soon!

PTW 2008 Blogging the World from New York City, Friday Oct 3

There's a Picasa photo album at the top of The Hankster of snap-shots of a FEW of today's Performing the World conference/performance festival. There are so many wonderfully creative programs represented that engage social workers, youth, performance and progress in a world sorely in need of a new performance. Some of the sessions pictured here include:

• Irish National Youth Theatre - A Methodological Approach (Orlaith McBride)
• A Work in Progress: The Tools-and-Results of a Youth Group in Mexico and Their Process in Spite of Progress (Miguel Cortes, Diana Itzel Gonzalez and others; org headed by Teresa Almada Mireles) presented by the Centro de Asesoria y Promocion Juvenil A.C. (aka CASA)
• The Performance of Studying Performance: Building Bridges Between the Academy and Performance Communities (Richard Schechner, Jon Oram, Judith Marcuse, Paul Murray)
• Improvising Yesterday to Clarify Today and Illuminate Tomorrow: Performance for Conflict Resolution and Political Stability in Nigeria (Babafemi Babatope -- aka "Bicycle")
• (Outside) What's Your Problem? (Chris Dupuis) installation in progress!
• Performing Your Creative Self at Work (Carrie Sackett, Jennifer Ostrega)
• Community; Creativity; Change! Ethiopia's One Love HIV/AIDS Awareness Theater [aka Awassa Childrens Project] (John McKay, David Schein, Anteneh Tamrat, Tesfaye Tekele)
• Citizens as Actors in Urban Renewal Projects: Could Performance Make a Differenct? (Corinne Marseille, Karen Hemink)
• The (Re) Making Project: An Experiment in Democratizing the Creation of Theatre (Charles Mee with Marcia Ferguson, Jay O'Berski, James F. Schlatter, Jennifer Schlueter, Patrick Torres)

I was fairly "bowled over"! Tomorrow, more workshops of course, and midday plenary sessions of international youth performances. I'll try to interview some of the attendees.

Stay tuned!!! We're blogging Performing the World. And we're blogging the world.....

Hey! Did you know you're being blogged!?

PTW 2008 Blogging the World from New York City

PTW 2008 Blogging the World from New York City

PTW 2008 Blogging the World from New York City

PTW 2008 Blogging the World from New York City

Tonight's News from New York City's Performing the World

Tonight is the kick-off of Perfoming the World, the exciting international conference/ performance festival that has brought together over 550 from more than 40 countries to "create some new performances together," as Convener Lois Holzman says. "There is too much that is old -- war, poverty, HIV/AIDS, national and ethnic conflict, sexual abuse and oppression, and countless other ways of stifling human potential and destroying environments... We don't know where we're going, but we do know that we the people have to create how we're getting there. We're going to change the world by re-performing it!"

Over the course of the next few days you will see images and vignettes on The Hankster that hopefully capture some of the spirit and creativity that we are engaged in here in New York City. I already find it inspiring.

I just came from registration and the reception at the beautiful newly renovated All Stars Project on West 42nd St. ("We're not Disney, but we're not Mickey Mouse either!") where many of the presenters and attendees are gathering. Gabrielle Kurlander, President and CEO of the All Starts Project, Inc. says, "For us, play is the thing. We play and produce play everywhere: on our four stages on 42nd Street, in corporate boardrooms, and in inner-city communities...."

"Blogging the World" also starts tonight, with photos of my house guests from Toronto, Gloria and Jacqueline (and myself) on the 7 train going from my studio in Queens to Manhattan. PTW '08 for the first time is being performed in New York City and the performance community has opened its home -- literally -- to attendees.

Ok, that's the last "officialness" on this conference/performance. Without further ado, here is Performing the World! Please stay tuned!

Look Who's Coming to Performing the World:

Dzul Dance Brings Mexican Culture to Life in New York
Dzul Dance fuses dance with aerial arts as a means to communicate pre-Hispanic and Mexican culture and create dialogue between contemporary art and historical heritage. By transforming bodies into earthbound and airborne forces of nature Dzul breaks physical, cultural and political boundaries. Artistic Director Javier Dzul grew up in Mexico performing the ritual dances of his Mayan tribal community. He left his community to dance with professional companies such as Ballet Nacional de Mexico, Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, the Martha Graham Dance Company, Pearl Lang Dance Theater, and Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble...... (from Mexico Premiere)

Dzul Dance website here: http://www.dzuldance.com/_index.html

AND look who's writing about Performing the World:

Performing the World Conference - Starts Oct 2nd (in Extra Criticum)
Interesting thing just crossed my desk. I've never attended, but the concept sounds intriguing: A three-day "happening" of performances, workshops, panel discussions, lectures, community tours and improvisation. Performing the World 2008 (PTW '08) brings together activists, artists, educators, young people, practitioners... (from American Theater Web Newsclips)

MinC propõe mudanças na legislação de Direito Autoral (from Post Express)
No dia 4 de outubro, o Performing the World (PTW ’08) celebrará, em Nova Iorque, o “Dia Internacional da Juventude”. O evento reunirá organizações de jovens do mundo inteiro como Kainai High School, Blood Reserve (Kainai Nation), Canadá; Street Spirits Theatre Company, Canadá; Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, Louisiana, EUA; The Campeche Youth Initiative, México; Centro de Asesoria y Promocion Juvenil, México; Democracy Begins In Conversation, África do Sul; Justice for Children Trust, Zimbábue; Performing Life, Bolívia; Tears Group, Quênia e Aprender Brincando, Brasil. (in Cultura e Mercado)


Performing the World '08 To Get Global Participation
More than 300 artists, activists and educators from all over the world will gather in New York City, October 2-5, for Performing the World '08. Focused on "the emergence of performance as a new way of relating to, understanding and changing the world," the conference will present dozens of performances, workshops, panel discussions and lectures, by practitioners involved in performance work related to cultural, economic or psychological development, community-building, social justice, individual and social transformation and social entrepreneurship. (from API News, Community Arts Network)

Performing the World 2008 Conference
Elena Marcevska will Present at International Performance Conference in New York City. Elena Marcevska will be doing a lecture at Performing the World 2008, an international conference on performance and social development, being held in New York City, October 2-5. She will be delivering a paper entitled “Performing motherhood while working on the streets and intersection”. Elena Marcevska, recently a mother herself, for the purposes of this project, is working with Roma mothers who are begging with their children on the streets and intersections of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia... (from Elenaj's Weblog)

Jennifer Bullock’s Personal Growth Weblog
Build your life and community through creativity, culture and emotional growth (link)

Performing the World: Jackass go to New York!Posted on Wednesday, 4 June 2008 at 8:50 by
County Durham’s Jackass Youth Theatre have been invited to present “Sharp Practice”, their recent project about slavery, at Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, a Performing the World conference and festival in New York in October 2008. (from Youth Theatre News)

Domestic Crusaders: Must See In NYC Oct. 2 - 5
Wajahat Ali, a Muslim Pakistani-American playwright, journalist, humorist and writer, (and a former student of mine) will present excerpts from “The Domestic Crusaders” at Performing the World ’08 (PTW ’08), an international conference and festival that will take place from October 2-5, 2008 in New York City. PTW ‘’08 is expected to attract over 400 grassroots practitioners, activists, scholars and researchers from throughout the United States and around the world.
“The Domestic Crusaders” focuses on one day in the life of a modern Muslim Pakistani-American family who come together to celebrate the 21st birthday of the youngest child. Against the backdrop of September 11 and the scapegoating of Muslim Americans, the tensions and sparks fly among three generations, culminating in an intense family battle as each “crusader” struggles to assert and impose their respective voices and opinions, while still attempting to maintain and understand that unifying thread that makes them part of the same family...... (from ImmigrationProf Blog)

Performing the World 2008

ANNOUNCING:

Performing the World 2008 Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

A unique conference/festival of performance activists from around the world

New York City

Thursday evening October 2 - Sunday afternoon October 5, 2008

A three-day "happening" of performances, workshops, panel discussions, lectures, community tours and improvisation. Performing the World 2008 (PTW '08) brings together activists, artists, educators, young people, practitioners and scholars from dozens of countries, all of whom are involved in the emergence of performance as a new way of relating to, understanding and changing the world. Open to all.

In the midst of this exciting Happening, The Hankster will be hosting a workshop called "Blogging the World: An Online Stage for Activists (Or Performatory Blogging for Everyone)". "Blogging the World" will be both a session which addresses Performing The World's themes of community-building, performance and development, as well as a performance within a performance--a "happening within a happening", broadcast throughout the blogosphere. Stay tuned!