Social Presencing Theater: April News
Catch up on all the latest updates regarding Social Presencing Theater: community, practice, upcoming courses
Honoring Ricardo and Welcoming Sebastian
Ricardo Dutra, who has headed our SPT research for the past three years, is now going to focus his attention on completing his PhD and on his career direction. His creativity and commitment have established a solid ground and body of knowledge of SPT. Findings from our work can be found in two articles, “A Pattern Language for Social Field Shifts,” in the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change (JABSC) and “Awareness-Based Collective Creativity: Studios for Social Future-Making,” in the forthcoming International Handbook for Creative Futures.
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Ricardo introduced photo images and video to enhance reflection and resonance. He created reflection tools (the Postcard and the Journey Map, to name two) and designed the Aesthetic Language Cards which were first created to bring fresh perception to the Village practice. These are now standard resources for all Social Presencing Theater practitioners, and we have discovered that facilitators are finding that they add depth and meaning in other contexts, as well. Our journey had been enriched by Ricardo’s contributions. He is a joy to work with, and we look forward to our next adventure together. |
As our focus moves toward the application of SPT in institutional change initiatives, we welcome Sebastian Jung into our newly re-formed SPT research team. Sebastian is an advanced SPT practitioner and works worldwide as an organizational consultant. He is currently based in Berlin with his wife and two children. He devoted 10 years to the field of international development supporting indigenous organizations and governmental institutions as a political advisor in Latin America.
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His spiritual roots in Zen-Buddhism and Qigong founded his wish to integrate the seemingly disconnected worlds of institutions and awareness. His encounter with Theory U and SPT in 2014 supported a decision to move from his work as a political adviser to the field of organizational change, using SPT to illuminate the more subtle structures of organizational fields and to “make the system see and sense itself.” |
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Recently, he co-authored an article in The Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change with a team led by Eva Pomeroy, exploring “Action Research from the Social Field Perspective “- a discipline still in the making.
The Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change and the Aesthetic Language Cards can be found at www.presencing.market
Arawana's Book Update
Arawana’s book is currently available at presencing.market and amazon.com
Please help us in sharing “Social Presencing Theater: The Art of Making a True Move” by writing a book review on Amazon.
Here's how leave a review:
- At Amazon.com/books, open to the page where Arawana’s book appears.
- Look under the description where it says: Print length, language, publication and an arrow.
- Click on the arrow and it takes you to See all details.
- Click that and if you scroll down, it goes to Review this Product, then to some stars and Write a Customer Review.
Many thanks!
Upcoming SPT Practitioner Zoom Calls 2021
SPT Practitioner Zoom Call is a peer-learning space where SPT practitioners bring their questions and insights about application of SPT in diverse contexts. These calls are most useful to those who are applying (or intent to apply) SPT practices to help their organizations or communities in awareness building or change process. Given your feedback, we have set up a quarterly rhythm to these calls for 2021. We will host the calls on the first Tuesday of June, September and December.
Tuesday, June 1st, 2021, 8-10 am EST
Tuesday, September 7th, 2021, 8-10 am EST
Tuesday, December 7th, 2021, 8-10 am EST
We request you to fill this short registration form to help us design the calls.
Save the Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/2545223737
Hosts: Manish Srivastava and Laura Pastorini
Please feel free to reach out to Manish (srivastava@presencing.com) with any questions.
Introducing our Newsletter Staff
For more than a decade, we have been sending out these quarterly newsletters to the SPT community as a way to stay connected. Over the years, many of you have communicated directly with my sister Noel and my indispensable assistant Nicco Porcello. I wanted to take this opportunity to formally introduce them so that you can connect their faces with their names.
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Noel, who manages the SPT mailing list, has curated and edited the newsletter since the very beginning. A performing arts consultant, she currently resides in Los Angeles. | |
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Based in Connecticut, Nicco not only is responsible for the design and lay-out of my website and the newsletter, but is also my all-around technical problem solver and social media guru. Together, they make a small, but mighty team. |
From Our SPT Practitioner Community
Prototyping Online 4-D Mapping
Rie Algeo Gilsdorf
What are the conditions for a successful online 4-D Mapping?
Or, as Vasco Gaspar put it, how do we create an online practice “for the purpose of allowing a system to see and sense itself (with all the limitations of the digital world) and, mostly, that opens the field for a generative dialogue about the current system and its future possibilities?” There has been a flurry of energy around these questions in the past year, culminating in at least 9 distinct prototypes since January! Read more here.
Gender and SPT
Viviana Galdames and Manish Srivastava
Viviana Galdames and Manish Srivastava facilitated two workshops on “Gender and Social Presencing Theater” in collaboration with the Altoparlante team. The workshops were inspired by Manish’s book: “Trading armor for a flower” (www.tinyurl.com/TAFAF). The book offers us a path of embodied poetry to transform our gender conflicts, honoring each other with sovereign presence. We read poetry from the book and practiced SPT to look at the hidden dynamics between the feminine and the masculine in our bodies and social reality. We saw how the practice of a Dance of 20, Duets or Stuck can help us let go of stories and traumas and thus, leave room for freedom and respect.
https://flacavgaldames.medium.com/the-story-of-a-co-creation-a-space-for-new-feelings-a651f0578030
ImagineAction Podcast
Uri Noy Meir
In February 2021 Uri Noy Meir interviewed Arawana for an ImaginAction Social Arts Across Borders podcast, where the ImaginAction team hosts conversations with social artists and facilitators meeting across borders to listen with an open mind and heart to the wisdom of now.
Listen to the conversation on Spotify, Google Podcast, and other platforms. Watch the video version of the interview on YouTube.
In Ma: Mind the Gap!
Mark Hollingworth
This article attempts to capture the essence of Ma, the "gaps", where amazing things can happen - but where we have to be truly present with all our consciousness and vulnerabilities in order for them to do so. How can we be at peace, standing on the "edge of terror", just letting emerge what wants to emerge, in the spaces in our conversations, in our careers or in our lives? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ma-mind-gap-mark-hollingworth/. Contact Mark directly to request a pdf version.
The Relationship Between Propaganda and Art
Artemis Akchoti
Artemis has been exploring the relationship between propaganda and art through interviews with artists and observation of SPT practice groups. Visit www.artemisakchoti.com.blog for more information or view interviews with some of the artists on The Impermanence Platform YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOWVPtwx20Dovic4mFAPZcg
SPT meets IFS - Embracing our Parts
Dirk Bräuninger and Vasco Gaspar
In March, Dirk and Vasco conducted a workshop bridging together IFS (Internal Family Systems) and SPT, applying the Stuck exercise to our inner system, composed with different parts and a healthy core. 15 participants from all over the world met online to share insights. Based on positive feedback, a continuation is planned the fall. Visit: https://www.dirkbraeuninger.de/spt-meets-ifs
My Last Conversation Was a Gift
Débora Barrientos
Recalling the previous conversation, was a phenomenological process, paying attention and observing every detail, perception, gesture, emotion, and all that happened in the conversation. From all the senses to the wonderful service of the experience. At a slow pace and with a delicate intention. It is all that SPT gifted me with. Visit: https://debbarrientos.medium.com/my-last-conversation-was-a-gift-ad275c38db08
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Silent Social Presencing Theater Retreat in Nature We offer a new format to reconnect through a silent retreat with Meditation, Social Presencing Theater and Nature in a combination of individual (offline) and collective practices (online). We propose different ways of being in connection with your deeper Self and with Nature so that you can dive into silence and listen to what truly wants to emerge. https://quintatenchi.org/2021/03/15/silent-social-presencing-theater-retreat-in-nature-or-not/ |
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Social Presencing Theater in Nature (or Not)
Aga Rzewuska-Paca & Friends
An international group of five SPT advanced practitioners have come together to practice SPT in nature. We have found that nature enhances the practice, making our connection with the Earth visible, bringing greater sense of connectedness and offering a living mirror for our explorations. After each practice Aga molds our chat harvest into a collective poem. This booklet contains a selection of 12 poems with which we are celebrating our first year of practicing together: http://bit.ly/SPT-in-nature-poems
Peacebuilding Through Awareness and Improvisation
Heather Huggins
Here’s a video from a recent event at City University of New York (CUNY) - Queensborough Community College (QCC), peacebuilding through awareness and improvisation. The program was facilitated by Arawana Hayashi, Uri Noy Meir, QCC faculty members Heather Huggins and Aviva Geismar, and members of QCC’s student and alumni practice group, including Jessica Kriesler, Yineng Ye, Joe Distl, Phylisha Louis, Geovanny Guzman, Kristopher Harris, and Justin Allen. The event was co-sponsored by the Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center at QCC and Transformative Learning in the Humanities at CUNY.
Embodied Wisdom As Ground-Breaking Practice
Joan O'Donnell
Accessing that spacious place where new ideas and possibilities can arise is something that is available to all of us once we turn our attention to our body wisdom. A first-person account of moving from being a tightly-pulled knotted string to a loose structure - unpicked, reformed, and breathing more freely - using the three gestures associated with getting unstuck.
https://medium.com/living-in-systems/embodied-wisdom-as-ground-breaking-practice-13c0d7431061
Practice Groups
Two Fridays: June 11 and July 9, 3pm to 4:30pm IST
Systems Being Practices with Social Presencing Theater
Host: Joan O'Donnell
Contact: joanodonnellelford@gmail.com
Fridays 13.00 -14.30 (EDT)
Social Presencing Theatre Friday International Group
Hosts: Debora Barrientos, Mark Hollingworth, Shannon Rabas and Marielle Slierendrecht
Information Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1931870510462950
Wednesdays (Farsi/Dari) 9am-10am (EST)
Thursdays (Italian/French) 9am-10am (EST)
Fridays (English) 9am-10am (EST)
Host: Artemis Akchoti
Contact: artemisakchoti@yahoo.com
Every 2nd Friday per month (in person)
SPT Lernreise/ SPT learning journey (in German)
Host: Dirk Bräuninger
Contact: post@dirkbraeuninger.de
Every last Wednesday per month (online)
SPT Anwender Café/ SPT application café (in German)
Host: Dirk Bräuninger
Registration
(http://bit.ly/spt-anwender-cafe)
Every 3rd Tuesday per month (online)
Open Movalogue Call
Hosts: Dirk Bräuninger and Johanna Gall
Registration and information link
(https://bit.ly/open-movalogue-calls and http://www.movalogue.org)
2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month, 7:00-8.30 pm (CET)
SPT practice group online (in German)
Host: Antje Schwarze
Visit www.condimento.net
More info
1st Friday of every month, 5:00-6.30 pm (CET)
SPT in Nature (or not) - online
Hosts: Aga Rzewuska-Paca, Antje Schwarze, Rita Venturini, Giulio Ghirardo, Viviana Galdames and Jenny Mackewn
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spt-in-nature-or-not-tickets-101736055280
Starting Tuesday, April 27 - Seven online sessions
Tuesdays at 10:00 am (PT) – 1:00 pm (ET) – 7:00 pm (CET)
Social Presencing Theater Virtual Immersion Spring 2021Hosts: Ruth Cross (Spain) and Manuela Bosch (Germany) http://bit.ly/SPT_Spring21_Immersion
Courses
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