[xmca] Performing Hope

[Lois Holzman <lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org>]

Dear XMCA-ers,

We’re sad to share that our good friend, Volker Bunzendahl—a lurker and sometime XMCA poster—passed away last week. Volker was an exuberant and passionate psychologist and human being. He moved from Germany to Denmark decades ago and made a home for himself and his family in the north of the country—among school children and teachers, squatters, university students, hippies, the “maladjusted.”

Diagnosed with cancer in August, Volker continued to work until the end. He was teaching pedagogy and psychology to elementary school teachers, teaching a course about motives and intention for psychology students, and continuing to lead and develop a network of performance-inclined practitioners in Denmark, NetværkER.

As colleagues and friends, we would see Volker at least once a year at different events, including ISCRAT/ISCAR, the Institute’s Performing the World conferences, and the Annual Meetings of Zdravo da Ste in Bosnia and Serbia.

Volker was a complex man. His intellectual work was more mainstream than his anarchist politics. He loved to be silly, to sing, to dance, to make people play—so much so that you might think him frivolous. But you’d be wrong. He was a serious scholar of Vygotsky, Bakhtin, and much more in the realms of psychology, education, anthropology and cognitive science. He was an innovative teacher and counselor, inspiring scores of children and young people and infuriating the powers that be. He loved community and he was a loner. He passionately wanted people to be happy.

Volker was in/behind/ahead of/inside/outside of his/our time—a modernist and a postmodernist, a revolutionary and a reformer, a hippie and a family man, a serious player and a playful intellectual, outrageous and traditional. If you’d like to get acquainted, check out the videos, audios and writings on his site, Performing Hope in an Alienated World (volker.dk).

Lois and Leif


Don't forget to check out the latest at http://loisholzman.org

Lois Holzman, Ph.D.
Director, East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy
920 Broadway, 14th floor
New York NY 10010
Chair, Global Outreach for All Stars Project UX 
tel. 212.941.8906 ext. 324
fax 718.797.3966
lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org
www.eastsideinstitute.org
www.performingtheworld.org
loisholzman.org
www.allstars.org
http://esicommunitynews.wordpress.com/







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