[Xmca-l] Re: Love in the time of corona

Mon Apr 13 13:17:44 PDT 2020

Greg,
Thank you for asking.
Our Institute has been using virtual platforms for creating
learning-and-development environments for maybe ten years. Zoom and What's
app have transformed the work, the sociality, the learning and the
enjoyment exponentially, for everyone. Zoom allows breakout rooms and
ongoing written chats along with the everybody seeing and hearing each
other at the same time, lending itself to artistic, creative and group of
different size building activities.
Some really simple ways to build community and create connection—
at the beginning of a class session...
everyone invited to share two emotions they're feeling with a gesture one
by one
everyone asked to grab something in the room they're in and show it and
tell about it one by one (or grab something blue, yellow, etc.
everyone asked to make eye contact with everyone else (takes a minute or
two depending on how large the group is)

Resources — there's tons of stuff online and here's a few folks who do this
kind of thing in their university teaching and have many, many more ideas:
Carrie Lobman, who is here in xmca
Tony Perone, University of Washington Tacoma
Omar Ali, Univ North Carolina Greensboro and the entire Honors College there
Raquel Holmes, improvscience.org
Jim Martinez, NY Institute Technology

I'm sure any one of them would be happy to chat with you,
Lois

On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 1:21 PM Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Lois and others,
>
> Inspiring to see all that you and ESI are doing there in the midst of this
> whirlwind - and in the eye of the storm no less!
>
> This comment of yours seemed to resonate with Liz' and Annalie's comments
> about mental health:
> "people are realizing how they feel is not inside them".
>
> That seems to me to be a revolutionary thought.
>
> Also, I'd ask this to you but don't want to distract you from your
> important work, so perhaps others can talk about how activities can be
> transformed in these times to adapt to this new era (I'd like to call it a
> "moment" but it feels bigger than that).
>
> What got me thinking of this were the Zoom sessions that Lois mentioned on
> Creating Connection and Building Community. The fact is that there will be
> new possibilities to do these things (e.g., the possibility of truly GLOBAL
> communities and connections - perhaps to Andy's world-perezhivanie), but
> the activities that enable these things will also need to be transformed
> and different.
>
> [I'm a bit of an idiot about these things so I'm just realizing that
> online classes can't just be in-person activities that are taken online.
> They need online activities that can build connection and community among
> students. Still working on that.]
>
> So I'm wondering if anyone has had any success or even just suggestions
> regarding how to create online activities that can realize the
> possibilities and potential for connection and community in online spaces?
>
> [I'm thinking really practically/locally here in terms of what can be done
> in my classes to build connection and community in online spaces, but the
> answer will, of course, be relevant to forms of cross-national solidarity,
> granting that there may be other challenges as well - e.g., language].
>
> -greg
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 10:53 AM Lois Holzman <
> lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org> wrote:
>
>> Hello All,
>>
>> Following the lead of others, I'll jump in. While NYC and state are in
>> serious crisis and all its cultural and economic conflicts even more
>> glaring, the vibrancy and energy has not disappeared. It's
>> just different.
>>
>> As Vygotsky is purported to have said, "A revolution solves only those
>> tasks raised by history..." History has thrown us a monster.
>>
>> Different too are the forces working to shape this extraordinary
>> historical moment. Much of that shaping by those who are in positions of
>> political and economic, etc. authority—and the pandemic itself—are creating
>> fear and despair, both for now and the future. At the same time, the
>> shaping being done by so many thousands of people and organizations that
>> inspire and organize people to exercise their power and creativity for
>> connectedness are generating hope and possibility.
>> I feel that palpably all day long.
>>
>> We in the global development community are re-tooling and/or stepping up
>> our virtual activities, many of which involve play, performance and
>> ensemble building, not to take people's minds off what's happening, but to
>> involve them in some "non-knowing growing" and participation in creating
>> positive responses to what's happening that have the possibility to
>> continue to be transformative of individuals and communities. A few
>> examples—
>>      establishing a Global Play Brigade working across borders of
>> nation state, culture and economy (so far performance activists from about
>> 40 countries involved)
>>      offering Creating Connection and Building Community
>> <https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Play-Sessions-via-Zoom-Opened-Up--Free-online-social-gatherings.html?soid=1101246158194&aid=qweSrQdaUGo>free
>> play sessions via Zoom, each one originating in a different part of the
>> world (about 150 people per session so far)
>>      taking our Creating Our Mental Health conversation/workshop series
>> national and international in a moment when people are realizing how they
>> feel is not inside them, not merely socially produced and organized, but
>> social in its potential transformativity
>>       taking All Stars Project programs for poor youth and their
>> communities in NYC, NJ, Dallas, Chicago and the Bay Area virtual
>>
>> If you're interested in any of this and more, let me know. And you can
>> always check out the social media listed in my signature.
>>
>> Stay safe,
>> Lois
>>
>> --
>> *Access my latest article—**Why be Half-Human? How Play, Performance and
>> Practical Philosophy Make Us Whole **(written with Cathy Salit)—and read
>> the rest of this marvelous book, Social Construction in Action
>> <https://www.taosinstitute.net/product/social-construction-in-action-contributions-from-the-taos-institutes-25th-anniversary-conference>,
>> which you can download for free!*
>>
>>
>> Lois Holzman
>> Director, East Side Institute for Group & Short Term Psychotherapy
>> Chair, Global Outreach, All Stars Project, UX
>> Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Vygotskian Practice and Performance,
>> Lloyd International Honors College at The University of North Carolina at
>> Greensboro
>> Address: East Side Institute, Attn:Lois Holzman
>> 119 West 23 St, suite 902
>> New York, NY 10011
>> Telephone  +1.212.941.8906 x324
>> Mobile 1-917-815-2664
>>
>> lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org
>> Social Media
>> Facebook  <https://www.facebook.com/lois.holzman.5>| LinkedIn
>> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/lois-holzman-5bb0594/>| Twitter
>> <https://twitter.com/LoisHolzman>
>> Blogs
>> Psychology Today
>> <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/conceptual-revolution>| Psychology
>> of Becoming <http://loisholzman.org/> | Mad in America
>> <http://www.madinamerica.com/author/lois/>
>> Websites
>> Lois Holzman <http://loisholzman.org/> | East Side Institute
>> <http://eastsideinstitute.org/> | Performing the World
>> <http://www.performingtheworld.org/>
>> All Stars Project
>> <http://allstars.org/>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> WEBSITE: https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>

-- 
*Access my latest article—**Why be Half-Human? How Play, Performance and
Practical Philosophy Make Us Whole **(written with Cathy Salit)—and read
the rest of this marvelous book, Social Construction in Action
<https://www.taosinstitute.net/product/social-construction-in-action-contributions-from-the-taos-institutes-25th-anniversary-conference>,
which you can download for free!*

Lois Holzman
Director, East Side Institute for Group & Short Term Psychotherapy
Chair, Global Outreach, All Stars Project, UX
Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Vygotskian Practice and Performance, Lloyd
International Honors College at The University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
Address: East Side Institute, Attn:Lois Holzman
119 West 23 St, suite 902
New York, NY 10011
Telephone  +1.212.941.8906 x324
Mobile 1-917-815-2664

lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org
Social Media
Facebook  <https://www.facebook.com/lois.holzman.5>| LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/lois-holzman-5bb0594/>| Twitter
<https://twitter.com/LoisHolzman>
Blogs
Psychology Today <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/conceptual-revolution>
| Psychology of Becoming <http://loisholzman.org/> | Mad in America
<http://www.madinamerica.com/author/lois/>
Websites
Lois Holzman <http://loisholzman.org/> | East Side Institute
<http://eastsideinstitute.org/> | Performing the World
<http://www.performingtheworld.org/>
All Stars Project
<http://allstars.org/>
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