Cissie Gool House was an abandoned hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, empty and decaying for 40 years, when homeless activists snuck past security on the night of March 27, 2017, and began an occupation that, seven years later, has transformed it into a vibrant self-governing community of 1,000 formerly homeless, evicted, and displaced people. Two leaders of Cissie Gool House, Karen Hendricks and Fagmeedah Ling, join host Desire Wandan to discuss how the residents themselves renovated the building, set up working committees to deal with elder, youth, mainte ..read more

The Homeless World Cup, founded in 2003, today brings unhoused people together in 70 countries to connect through the universal language of football, each year culminating in a World Cup tournament in a different city.  Founder and leader Mel Young, and formerly homeless player turned referee Sarah Frohwein talk with host Desire Wanden about why and how the Homeless World Cup was born, spread across the planet, and is bringing dignity and community to those without a home. “How on earth have we created a ..read more

In this episode, Peter Harris, one of Israel’s major innovators of community-based theatre, shares the experiences and insights of fifty years of creating performances with marginalized communities.  With the war raging in Gaza, he also talks about his work over the last decade in the Theatre Studies Department at the Western Galilee Academic College bringing Arab and Jewish students into “the aesthetic space where memory and imagination can come together,” and painful but developmental dialogue becomes possible through performance.    https://www.facebook.co ..read more

In this episode of All Power To The Developing, Host Desire Wandan sits down with Murray Dabby and Carrie Sackett, the authors of "Social Therapeutic Coaching: A Practical Guide to Group and Couples Work." Our conversation dives into the heart of their upcoming book, exploring the innovative approaches and transformative methods they use for group and couples coaching. Carrie Sackett, known for her expertise in coaching dynamics and group facilitation, elaborates on the practical applications of their methods in everyday scenarios. Murray Dabby, with his extensive experience in counseling and ..read more

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 ..read more

On the 30th Anniversary of the Taos Institute, co-founder Kenneth Gergen shares the birth of social constructionism, its challenge to the assumptions of modernism, and the impact it has had both in and beyond the academy.  During this wide-ranging conversation with host Desire Wandan, Gergen discusses the practices, such as appreciative inquiry and narrative therapy, that social constructionism has helped to inspire, along with its decades-long interface and mutual influence with social therapeutics.  In this time of intense mistrust and partisanship, he ..read more

Francine Kilemann and Marcia Donadel are bringing their experience with site-specific, immersive theatre to elementary school education in Brazil.  Through Plato Cultural they lead students and teachers in creating fictional worlds in which the children become “SOS Agents” from the future tasked with helping to save the environment. The months-long performance is one in which nothing is taught in the traditional sense of the word.  Instead, the students learn through the experience of performing.  “Once we enter this fictional world,” says Kilemann ..read more

Nuyorican M.C., poet, and hip-hop educator Intikana shares his development as an artist, activist, and educator. He traces his journey through the economic poverty and cultural richness of the Bronx, the challenges of commercial co-optation, and bringing his revolutionary hip-hop educational techniques to young people in kindergartens, foster homes, and youth prisons.  In this wide-ranging conversation with host Desire Wandan, Initkana also discusses with deep insight the cultural and historical roots of hip-hop as an embodiment of “oppressed people trying to liberate thems ..read more

The ASSIM (Like This) Institute in Florianopolis, Brazil is dedicated to bringing therapy free or at affordable rates to those who need it the most—the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized.  Not only does ASSIM bring therapy to the people, it also provides poor people with free therapeutic training  that allows them to lead groups in their own communities.  ASSIM’s therapists and clients engage in collaborative and dialogic conversations that build on the client’s knowledge and works from the assumption that people have the resources and wisdom to transform their lives.  ..read more

In this time of political, ecological and emotional crisis, Developing Across Borders has emerged as a Zoom-enabled support network for activists and others around the world.  This month "All Power to the Developing" would like to draw your attention to "Border Crossers Build Their Culture."   This episode is even more relevant now than when it was first released on January 15, 2021.   It features East Side Institute director Lois Holzman  in conversation with Developing Across Borders participants Lea Cikos, Mariamalia Cob ..read more