Previous Offerings
SPRING 2023
We All Could Use Some Emotional Support: Can we play and create with all of our emotions—including the most painful?
Jennifer Bullock
Sunday, February 12, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Eastern U.S. Time; 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Lagos Nigeria Time
VIEW RECORDING HERE
Join social therapist Jennifer Bullock for an interactive presentation of the unique emotional support sessions offered as part of the Global Play Brigade movement. She will share the origins and practices of the Brigade’s emotional support sessions which sprung from young people in Nigeria and around the world requesting mental health support in the face of fighting against injustices and police brutality. The program quickly expanded to anyone of any age around the world wanting to experiment with creative ways to develop our emotional and social wellness with all of life’s struggles and experiences.
Remote Theatre: Devising Theatre Across Borders on Zoom
Maria Teresa Continanza
Saturday, February 18, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Palestinian Time; 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm, Argentina Time; 11:00 am – 12:30 pm, Eastern U.S. Time
VIEW RECORDING HERE
Among the creative possibilities opened up by the pandemic lockdown have been new ways of using Zoom to create theatre across national borders and cultural divides. Theatre artist and English teacher Maria Teresa Continanza, working the British-based Hands Up Project, has brought together, on Zoom, elementary school children from her native Argentina with students from Gaza in Palestine to create and perform new theatre pieces. In this participatory workshop she will teach some of the remote theatre techniques they used, share a short play the children created, and have class participants improvise and perform a play your own.
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder What You Are”: Questioning the Stars: Discussions with New Researchers in Astronomy
Dr. Nick Gross, Allison McCarthy, Eric Powell, and Emma Lovett
Saturday, February 25, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm, Eastern U.S. Time
Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered about the planets, the stars, the galaxies and the vastness of the universe? Join Dr. Nicholas Gross, senior research scientist at Boston University, as he leads a discussion with graduate researchers from the Astronomy Department of Boston University who work with observatories, spacecraft, and computer models. Their research includes work on Brown Dwarfs (substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen into helium), the Heliosphere (the giant magnetic field that envelops our solar system), and the atmosphere of Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons). They will share their backgrounds, what drew them to the stars, talk about the work they do and respond to your questions.
What Is Power?
Dan Friedman, Ph.D.
Saturday, March 11, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Eastern U.S. Time
People all over the world become activists because they want to change things. To change things you need power. Yet the meaning of power is not clear. Think of the slogans we’ve grown up with: “Fight the Power,” “Power to the People,” “Power Corrupts.” Taken together they don’t make sense. If power corrupts, why would we want to give to the people? Do we want to corrupt them? Dan Friedman, program manager of Let’s Learn!, East Side Institute faculty member, lifelong progressive activist and author of the upcoming booklet, “What Is Power?,” invites you to this open-ended conversation about the nature of power, its relationship to authority and the various ways it being exercised around the world.
Everything’s a Remix: Playing With What Is – To Create Something New
Gwen Lowenheim
Saturday, March 18, 11:00 am -12:30 pm Eastern U.S. Time
Thanks to hip-hop, remixing—the art of combining or editing existing materials to create something new—has become a celebrated part of international popular culture. Although the term “remix” is new, the activity isn’t. Remixing has always been the key to innovation—artistic, scientific, and social/political. It is what creativity is all about—and it’s something we can all learn to get better at. This class, led by Gwen Lowenheim, an English professor at Pace University in New York City and a lifelong community organizer, will support you to develop your ability to remix with everything around you: your life experience, our 5,000 years of recorded history, the latest digital tools, etc. The class will play with a variety of remixing activities that we can put to use in all aspects of our lives—from developing new job skills to building creative partnerships, from writing poetry to approaching academic work.
The Beautifully Complicated Science Of Turning Plants Into Medicines
Dr. Nadja Cech
Saturday, March 25, 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm Eastern U.S. Time
VIEW RECORDING HERE
Nadja Cech grew up off grid in the Oregon Wilderness. She spent much of her childhood in the company of plants, drawing them, cultivating them in the garden, and making medicine from them. Those early experiences inspired in her a fascination with the relationship between plants and humans, a relationship that she eventually sought to understand more deeply by pursuing a PhD in chemistry. Today, Dr. Cech is Patricia A. Sullivan Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She works with an extraordinary group of students and scientists from around the globe to discover plant molecules that can be used to treat infectious diseases . In this class, she will share some historical examples of how plants have been turned into some of today’s most effective medicines. She will also tell the story of her own research on the medicinal plant echinacea, a story that illustrates the beautifully complex interactions between plants and the humans who cultivate and consume them. Participants are welcome to come with questions or with their own stories to share.
Science In Your Kitchen
Dr. Nick Gross and Simeon Bittman
Saturday, April 1, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Eastern U.S. Time
Ever wonder why adding lemon juice or salt not only adds flavors to food, but also can have significant effects on the texture structure of the food? Why is kneading dough is important to the texture of bread, or how flour acts as a thickener? Dr. Nicholas Gross of Boston University will be joined by chef Simeon Bittman to answer these questions and explore the science behind the chef’s favorite traditional dishes.
A Tale to Tell: Storytelling Workshop
Ron Short and Ben Fink, Roadside Theatre
Tuesday, April 11, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
VIEW RECORDING HERE
We all have stories to tell, many passed along to us by our parents, grandparents or the uncle who lives up the road or around the corner. These stories can provide us with identity, continuity and a sense of history. They help shape how we see ourselves and the world. They are one of the foundations of our culture(s). Join master storyteller, playwright, composer, musician and performer Ron Short as he tells stories drawn from his Appalachian heritage and helps you find ways to tell yours. Short has been a member of Kentucky’s Roadside Theater since 1979 and his stories have been the basis of many of the theatre’s plays. He will be joined by Ben Fink, a Roadside ensemble member, the founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub and the Performing Our Future coalition. For more about Roadside Theatre’s newly published book of its plays, go to https://www.artinademocracy.org/about