Ep.42 Building Play Ensembles to Change the World

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 Play Brigade, which was (and is) bringing play and performance out around the world through Zoom, they organized the Brincadas, which have taken play into the schools and streets of São Paulo.  In this episode, a group of Brincadas share how play gave them a way to breathe during a suffocating moment and to go beyond traditional education to, “play with serious injustice. We’re not teaching, we’re building ensembles for social change and play is the means for building the ensemble." This episode features the voices of Bianca Sgai, Franco Medeiros, Barbara Manja Daniela B. Pioli Pellossi, Fernanda Liberali,Joyce Dias,Luciana Kool Modesto-Sarra Marina Daniela Tiso,Thiago Lázaro,Sandra Borges Viviane Carrijo. https://www.instagram.com/projeto.brincadas/   https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjetoBrincadas ----more---- Welcome to All Power to the Developing, a podcast of the East Side Institute. The Institute is a center for social change efforts that reinitiate human and community development. We support, connect, and partner with committed and creative activists, scholars, artists, helpers, and healers all over the world. In 2003, Institute co-founders Lois Holzman and the late Fred Newman had a paper published 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’re all experiencing. We hope 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. ----more---- The East Side Institute is a hub for a diverse and emergent community of social activists, thought leaders, and practitioners who are reigniting our human abilities to imagine, create and perform beyond ourselves—to develop.  Each episode will introduce you to another performance activist or play revolutionary from around the world.   To learn more about the East Side Institute you can go to https://eastsideinstitute.org/   Made possible in part by Growing Social Therapeutics: The Baylah Wolfe Fund.