Israel’s policy of aggression and annexation toward the West Bank is acknowledged not only by Palestinians but by a growing segment of the Israeli population who sees the present measures as an obstacle against medium and long term interests of all. An example: the wall built to protect Israel’s borders. Sections of it were planned inside Palestinian territories, not along the so-called “Green Line” of 1967. The village of Budrus would have been cut off from the rest of the West Bank, in fact even enclosed between two walls, and farmers would have seen part of their olive trees uprooted, and lost access to some of their land. The wall would have run close to their school and cemetery. Nonviolent resistance allowed it otherwise.

Beyond political concerns, nonviolent responses are creating a healthy response to the growing spiral of hate. Another paradigm needs to emerge. Otherwise more and more oppressive measures will rise. See anti-boycott laws just approved by the Knesset.

Resisting: Taking on New Roles, Expecting the Unexpected

The work of Just Vision has produced two instructive documentaries: Budrus (see trailer) and Encounter Point (see trailer) . The first illustrates the successful nonviolent resistance of the Palestininan village to the erection of the wall; the second follows the work of Bereaved Families Forum through which some 250 Israelis meet regularly with another 250 Palestinians. All people meeting are willing to share their experiences and seek outlets to the crisis through an understanding of the other party’s reality. From a new perception of reality is born the ability to reach out, and educate people of each group to new alternatives.

Watching the movies is a learning experience at every turn. We are invited to let go of what we know from the past, and simply make room for the new. In Budrus women discover with pleasure that they can play the same role as men in marching in defiance to the wall. And, not only do Israeli activists join the fray. Budrus becomes the center of attention of international support; even a delegation from South Africa shows up.

Nonviolence is not for the weak. Some of the main characters – the Palestinians Ayed in Budrus and Ali Abu Awwad in Encounter Point – know first hand the cost of armed resistance, the loss of lives to the adversary, and time spent in jail. They have been seasoned, and they have credibility when they speak about trying to reach out to the Jews. The first barrier is one of perception. Hardly anybody knows anybody on the other side, and in general they consider all of it evil and unable to change. And nonviolence is not considered a viable option on either side. Among Palestinians authorities it is most often perceived as an effort toward “normalization,” or selling out. Inviting any individual to consider meeting anyone of the other side takes time and dedication.

Building Alternatives: Testing Beliefs

The comfort of a political platform stands in knowing what the goal is and what it will look like regardless of time elapsed. Nonviolent resistance and bridge-building is deeply personally transforming and socially co-creative. In Encounter Point Ali Abu Awwad expresses that he is willing to meet people at the extremes of their positions. He meets with an ex-settler – Shlomo – who is now in the process of changing his mind. Shlomo’s journey takes him for the first time away from his tight-knit community into the anonymity of the big city.

The Jewish activist, Robi Damelin, also meets with the reality of a settlement. She knows that it will be extremely hard to hear the other side, and the film shows it. But the hardest test to her beliefs comes when the sniper who killed her son, David, has been identified. With pain she reaches to the family of her son’s killer, and their first response shows openness. Where this will go from here we don’t know yet. But, walking this path means being ready to meet inner challenges and being transformed.

Sami al Jundi, a young Palestinian, realized while in prison that he needed to change. He had been jailed at age 16 for use of explosives, and he took advantage of the time he had to acquire an education about nonviolence. Now he invites young Palestinians to meet with their Israeli counterparts. “Speak to each other” he says to a group of embarrassed youth.

In Budrus a meeting is organized for Israelis and Palestinians to know each other. The checkpoint authorities render it difficult for Israelis to cross through; passing through unsettled occupied territory is another concern; and losing trust in each other can become the real problem in the end. Can everyone hang in there believing that the other side is willing, trusting what they say, rather than letting the ancestral fears rise up, or doubts emerge about the usefulness of these efforts? How can one rally the skeptics for whom every setback is further proof of their doubts?

And New Outlets for Action

Lives are touched and changed, and new action emerges that could not have been foreseen.  The organization Windows publishes now a joint Israeli-Palestinian youth magazine.  Tzvika Shahak lost his daughter in a Palestinian terroristic attack. He later discovered the peace poems she had written and published them in Hebrew and Arab. Others who have been transformed work now in the interfaith movement.

And Just Vision?  Besides offering many screenings of the two movies, they

• brought together Arab, Muslim, Christian and Jewish organizations in North America that had never before cooperated to co-sponsor Encounter Point screenings.
• catalyzed a discussion among Fatah movement leaders about strategic nonviolence and media coverage of nonviolent initiatives to end the Occupation.
•  hosted US-based “Best Practices” facilitation trainings, bringing together Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Arab leaders to address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in North America, and co-convened two strategic nonviolence workshops in Palestinian society for local community organizers in partnership with the International Center for Non-Violent Conflict. And more.

The women of Liberia, in a 2 and ½ year campaign have forced the armies of dictator Taylor and those of the opposing warlords to come to the peace table, and helped to send the tyrant to exile, set up an interim government, and hold free and fair elections. 

Christian and Muslim Women Coming Together

 Leymah Roberta Gbowee  was a social worker who worked with the ex-child soldiers of president Taylor’s army. Working with them she could see how much they too were victims.
In a short time Leymah joined the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) and brought all the women of the Christian Churches together into a group called the Christian Women’s Initiative. The turning point of coalition building came at a service in which Leymah, articulated her requests to the church members and a woman rose up with a loud “Praise the Lord” and presented herself as Asatu Bah Kenneth,  the president of the Liberia Female Law Enforcement Association, and a Muslim.

Soon a new coalition was formed with the women of the Muslim organizations in Monrovia, the capital. The coalition managed to force a meeting with Charles Taylor and extract a promise from him to attend peace talks in Ghana with the rebels. She then led a delegation of Liberian women to Ghana to continue to apply pressure on the warring factions during the peace process.

Over time this campaign led to an agreement between the opposing parties, an interim government leading to free elections and the first woman president in Africa: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Men with Guns: Women in White Tee-Shirts

Liberia was a country engulfed by senseless. Children soldiers were armed, with license to kill, pillage and rape at will. They were inebriated by all these acts of violence and the feeling to be adopted into adulthood; aditionally lot of violence occurs under the influence of drugs. The blind thirst for power of men like Taylor is accompanied by immense hubris and denial. Taylor regularly attended church and invoked his Christian faith. The opponents were ready to do the same as Taylor once in power.

“Can the bullets pick and choose? (between Christians and Muslims) is the basic question that rallied women of both faiths. The women’s campaign was based on the simple desire for peace, and on parties being able to hear each other; nothing more, nothing less. It mixed great measures of forgiveness and equal determination. Wearing white tee-shirts and rallying with banners for peace, this was the first time that Muslims and Christians banded together. For the first time 2,500 women under the sun had the chance to empathize with one another. On the other front, they put pressure on pastors, priests and imams to break the silence.

And all sorts of ideas emerged, ranging from the playful to the serious. At one point the women decided to start a sex-strike to motivate men to join them in prayers and support for the common cause. But the negotiations in Ghana were another matter. When after 6 weeks talks were stalling the women did not hesitate to invade the hall of the meetings and form a cordon that did not allow delegates to leave, proceeding then to outline their conditions. And one has the feeling that all of this could not have been achieved without the greatest inner faith.

Key ideas emerged when everything seemed lost. Forcing a meeting with Taylor was one such gamble. Whoever would meet him could face the danger of being eliminated by a ruthless tyrant. So, Leymah went to meet him with great fear while the other women prayed for her. And later, when despite the talks, all hell broke loose at home, the women were all in tears, feeling all possibilities of peace were slipping them by. When the women invaded the halls and resisted attempts of eviction, little did they know that they had gained the support of the international community, which threatened to cut funds to all parties if no breakthrough were reached.

And in Rwanda: Immaculée Ilibagiza

The book Left to Tell recounts how Immaculée Ilibagiza, together with another seven women survived for 91 days during the Rwandan Genocide in a damp and small bathroom, of 3 X 4 feet. Though her entire family, except her eldest brother, was killed, Immaculée is an outspoken voice for peace and reconciliation.

At the heart of the book lay Immaculée’s spiritual battle. After many ups and downs, it climaxed the night that Immaculée heard the voice of an infant, crying by the roadside. She kept listening until the cries grew weaker and ceased. In the book she remembers: “I prayed for God to receive the child’s innocent soul, and then asked Him, ‘How can I forgive people who would do such a thing to an infant?’ I heard His answer as clearly as if we’d been sitting in the same room chatting: ‘You are all my children, and the baby is with Me now.’ It was such a simple sentence, but it was the answer to the prayers I’d been lost in for days.”

After this cathartic experience of forgiveness, Immaculée prayed all the more intensely. This is how she describes the next transformation, “I sat stone-still on that dirty floor for hours on end, contemplating the purity of His energy while the force of His love flowed through me like a sacred river, cleansing my soul and easing my mind. Sometimes it felt as though I were floating above my body, cradled in God’s mighty palm, safe in His loving hand. … In the midst of the genocide, I’d found my salvation. I knew that my bond with God would transcend the bathroom, the war, and the holocaust. It was a bond I knew would transcend life itself.”

“I have seldom seen a film that captures so sensitively, and with such honesty and hope the life of someone so loved and loving.” Jonathan Stedall (documentary film producer of the films of the lives of Ghandi, Jung, van der Post)

Jack Heckelman, the brother of the movie director, Nancy Poer, was a cosmopolitan soul with a passion for environmental, peace and social justice activism. His wife of forty-two years died in his arms after a long illness. Then he met Linda Bergh, a widow whose only daughter Kirstin passed on with her best friend Nina in a car accident while still in high school. (The story is told in the book Laughing in a Waterfall). No one expected romance to bloom as Jack was much older than Linda but when they got married it was a joyful community event.

Living into Dying

Jack was diagnosed in August 2004 with lung cancer and given 6 months to live. He died  eight months later. Obviously he admits getting depressed at the beginning, for he had hoped for longer time. It was a ‘wake’ up’ call, an invitation to pay attention, but not long after, Jack made cancer part of his life. As the lung cancer spread to the brain he received radiation therapy which helped slow the disease and he did not need hospice care till his last week of life.

What do you do when you find out you have cancer? Jack did not fear dying and wanted to be active and connected to his community. They had a gathering to celebrate life and to call on  the support of all friends. The event included live music, skits, singing  plus dancing in honor of Jack’s personal passion. And Jack shared with his friends his values in four most important words: healing, gratitude, love and hope.

In the weeks that follow many friends come to visit Jack and Linda at their home. They may have arrived with reservations, but  left inspired, having found a life-teacher in Jack.

And the milestones of community involvement went on. Next, in the video we hear animated laughter when Jack is asked what color he wants the liner of his casket, and he answers “Rainbow”. And Jack asked his niece to make his casket in a deeply touching conversation. She was profoundly honored with the responsibility, striving to make it as beautiful as she possibly could.  It had an arched top of light grained wood with an etched design of dragonflies. (A dragonfly had alighted on Jack’s back at his wedding ceremony.)   The mirth around the preparation of the casket is another surprise for those of us who have little opportunity to celebrate dying, much less be so involved with the details of planning it.

Preparations went on, and Nancy, a home death national consultant, offered Jack an understanding of the spiritual transition, the birth, that he was about to encounter. Jack received it as a gift. As Nancy, reminded him, “When we die we give birth to ourselves.” At home a group of friends carried Jack and Linda as a support group, and naturally there was the welcomed assistance of Hospice in the last days.

And Jack was not about to live less because he was dying. His next project, a few weeks before passing on, was a trip to Mexico with Linda. While he was gone the silk of the casket lining was blessed on Easter dawn by family and friends. Jack was not weary of life and wanting to die, on the contrary he loved life and wanted to live every moment to the fullest.  He called it his last great adventure and his attitude and constant gratitude for the gifts of life were evident in the quality of life he was able to have to the end.

Immediately after Jack’s death at home, on a spring morning, Linda felt like a breath in the room, experiencing that there is something greater than loss. This sounds like what has been called an “After Death Communication.” Jack’s family renewed the tradition of the 3-day wake. It’s the occasion for reading from the Bible and other spiritual texts and singing at night for hours.  Many who went to pay their respects to Jack, entered with hesitation. They were in for a surprise and they kept returning to bathe in that special atmosphere that radiated an aura of peace.

The Last Great Adventure

I have seen the video twice before sharing it with my community. I needed to see it a second time to catch the depth of the experience. And then I realized how the greatest joys can come from the willingness to share our trials and sorrows with the community; in fact going through the sorrow to know a new kind of joy.

It’s a continuous give and take. The community can look up to Jack as a teacher showing all what it is to let go with grace and a feeling of abundance. And the community is there to share in the vulnerability, the beauty and the creation of a true sacred space. Just as at a birth we meet with joy, at death we can all find meaning and gratitude, Nancy reminds us.

The sadness of people acquires deeper meaning, and laughter is always close to pain. And one end of life is next to the other; the children participate in a natural manner in an experience that is normally taboo for them.

Dying at home with friends, music and sharing of various kinds creates a feeling of timelessness and peace. This is an important thread to renew for all of us who believe in a spiritual dimension of life, and want to reclaim the dignity and humanity that can be experienced in the transition from this world to spiritual existence.

Resources for Dying at Home and Home Burials

Home Funeral Directory

“We hope to provide you with resources that will give you the confidence to  carry out a family-directed funeral.  There are many websites about death and dying and the funeral industry, but the focus of this site is on natural after-death care provided through a home or family-directed funeral.” (from the website)

Beholding the Threshold: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, the work of Linda Bergh and Marianne Dietzel.

“Each death is unique. Taking care of our own in the hours and days after death is returning as an option for many people like it was commonly 100 years ago.. What is a challenging time can also be a precious healing time, filled with spirit.” (from the website)

Books

Living Into Dying: A Journal of Spiritual and Practical Deathcare for Family and Community by Nancy Jewel Poer

The Tear, A Children’s story of Transformation and Hope: When a Loved One Dies by Nancy Jewel Poer

THE IDEAS

In education the idea was to address:

• reductionism and fashions of the moment in curriculum designs.
• separation of all areas of knowledge from life questions.
• the divide between sciences and humanities.

Comprehensive Education Model

The following were some of the studies:

• Imaginal Education, consisting of images of education and new methods for teaching.
• Intellectual methods: conversational method, charting method, seminar method, lecture building and presentation methods.
• Social methods: workshop method, strategic planning and others.

• Religious Studies I: 20th century theology of Bultmann, Bonhoffer, Tillich, Niebuhr, etc.

• Personal growth methods (motivational studies): solitary reflection, depth conversations, world mythology, studies of classical spiritual writers (psalmist, Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and modern spiritual authors (Hermann Hesse, Nikos Kazanzakis, Joseph Campbell, …) In the 70’s was added the interfaith aspect: studies of the long night of the soul through Sufis, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Castaneda.

Courses in science were paired with the humanities: psychology and art; science and philosophy, sociology and history. At this time the ground-breaking Focused Conversation was already in use.

Social Process Model

The approach used in the 70s was in great part based on the ‘social process triangles’  The need to demonstrate the use of the project planning methods led to the creation of LENS (Leadership Effectiveness and New Strategies), used in all three social sectors.

In 1974 the institute started operating among other things:

• Human Development Programs
• Community Forum / Town Meetings

 

 

 

 

 

Human Development Programs

After 1975, demonstration community projects, on the pattern of Fifth City, were established, one in every time-zone, 24 in all. They were selected on the basis of:

• high accessibility to all
• the ability to be pioneers in economic, social and cultural renewal, tackling all local issues and involving all local stakeholders.

After 1975 there were about 300 projects started in 25 nations. What was unique was the idea of bringing together all stakeholders of the community, voluntary consultants from the public and private sector and ICA staff, who all together designed a comprehensive 4-year plan of local development. These programs had economic, social and cultural components. Each Human Development Project began with a week-long conference with all stakeholders, and from this ‘consult’ came out a plan for comprehensive local development. After that ICA generally left three couples from their staff in the community to teach the methods of community development and offer leadership trainings for about 4 years. The programs were followed by the founding of Human Development Training Schools. Often times one of the 24 original places would host the school.

Community Forums / Town Meetings

These were structured as one-day gatherings with presentations, planning and celebrations designed to spark off initiatives in local communities. There were 5,400 such meetings all across North America, and more than 1,000 in 13 European countries. These Community Forums used the Consensus Workshop method to design plans that would tackle local issues through cooperative efforts. Special interest groups were the Global Women’s Forum and the Community Youth Forum.

At the same time a group of Christian students and staff of the University of Texas – called The Christian Faith and Life Community – started to research the relationship between faith and contemporary life. Under the direction of Dr. Joseph W. Matthews, the group designed a curriculum for students and laity. It acquired the name of Religious Studies I (RS-I). In 1962 the Ecumenical Institute appointed Dr. Matthews as as its new dean. He brought with him the seven families fromTexas who had carried a comprehensive life of Christian worship, study and service.

The Ecumenical Institute

At this time started the Order: Ecumenical formed primarily by families of volunteers. The order was modeled after known family orders, and seven families played a central role at its inception. The mission of the order was church renewal and community development. Three directions were followed with consistency from this moment on; education, research and implementation. The pioneering curriculum emphasized whole-system models. And Fifth City was the first major step of implementation: a bold and successful experiment of comprehensive community development.

See history of EI and Institute of Cultural Affairs.

Whole System Thinking

Between 1962 and 1964 the Institute started offering its courses in Chicago. Its cultural curriculum component presented cutting edge ideas in cultural disciplines and social structures. The focus was on whole-systems models. The idea was to create models of reality, knowing full well that a model is only relative, yet internally consistent and able to hold traditional wisdom, rather than focus on passing fads.

There were in all 12 courses, 6 theoretical and 6 practical.

From 1964 to 1967 some 20,000 people in North America passed through the trainings which were offered also in other parts of North America, Asia and Australia. Later the curriculum evolved into two parts: one focusing on religious and theological dialogue courses, the other contemporary social trends.

In 1965 took place the first annual summer research assembly and here is where were developed the first forms and practical methods and designs. In 1971 these were called the Global Research Assemblies, gathering in one place up to a 1000 people from all over the world. The summer research assemblies continued until the mid 80s.

By 1968 there were about 100 people on staff, all of them living in Fifth City.

Fifth City: an Intentional City

In 1963 the original seven families moved to Chicago, where they chose a ghetto neighborhood, a total of 10 blocks, predominantly African American in the West side, in what later became known as Fifth City. The Ecumenical Institute itself was in the heart of Fifth City.

The newcomers approached the local population with door to door interviews and neighborhood meetings through which they gained an overall view of the residents’ main concerns, and with them began to design strategies of intervention. This comprehensive approach covered everything from early childhood education, programs for youth, adults and elders, to health care, housing, and economic revitalization. The interviews uncovered more than 5,000 problems and organized them into economic, political and cultural issues.

These were some of the approaches

- reaching out to teenage gang members, and to teenagers in general through a 15 week course; this was considered important for the future leadership of Fifth City.

• cultural programs for the neighborhood
• moving 18 suburban families both black and white back into the city: among them a doctor and a businessman.
• the families themselves lived and worked at the Institute

The group started rehabilitating apartments and a community center; opening a shopping center hosting 5 businesses; inaugurating an auto service center and a car wash. Fifth City owned equipment with which it could communally improve the infrastructure and the landscape. All of this activity attracted the new Bethany Hospital and the CTA Bus garage for a total of $ 40 million investment. The two employed a total of above 1000 people in the neighborhoods. Many partnerships were formed between Fifth City and businesses, with local government and with other non-profit organizations.

In 1968 at the death of MLK, the neighborhood was affected by the riots and the people started to rebuild immediately. In commemoration of the events they built the Iron Man sculpture placed in the center of Fifth City (photo on top of page)

Five years later the city was recognized as a model for comprehensive human development. See Fifth City video as part of an ICA documentary.

To see a preview look at a very short trailer. For a more informative 15’ clip go to youtube.

Public Transportation

The city adopted a trinary road system designed to optimize the flow of traffic.  The new system comprises a central street for local traffic and public transportation, flanked on either side by fast-moving one-way streets of up to 6 lanes for the commute traffic in the two directions. The middle section has a central two-lane street restricted to buses and public cars (police, ambulances, …) and adjacent lanes for local car traffic.

The whole system occupies some 45 miles. At rush hour buses travel within a minute from each other, and there are stops within 1,300’ in average. 60 % of Curitibans take the bus to work and that covers all social classes.

To maximize passenger load, Red Volvo multicabin buses carrying up to 270 people each, were integrated into the transit system, and high-speed bus stops, called tubes, were created to facilitate access to the buses. The system is all in all a surface alternative to the metro, comparable in speed and efficiency, but much lower in cost: compare $ 1 million/km for the surface solution to $ 100 million/km for the subway alternative.

The transportation network is operated by the city in partnership with private companies in charge of different sectors on a per mile basis. It does not cost Curitiba anything to run and allows the companies to make a profit.

Recycling

In the early days civil engineer Nicolau Klüppel proposed to mayor Lerner to send collection trucks to the poorer areas, offering bus tokens for the garbage. The program was widely successful, encouraging the residents to clean up their neighborhoods. From there the city moved to the idea of separating recyclables in the houses. With TV programs, and school education targeting the children, 70% of the population latched on within the first 3 months.

Finally, a separation station/recycling center opened in 1989. The station serves as a training center for unskilled workers and drug rehabilitation center as well, allowing the workers to find better jobs after they leave. The recycling is self-sufficient and funds many subsidiary programs. The recovered bricks are used for construction for the underprivileged; styrofoam is used for stuffing in couches, plastic for railroad ties, old tires for fuel and oils (eliminating the most common breeding ground for the dengue mosquito).

The success of the programs has promoted individual initiative of recyclers who bypass the city and sell to private companies, lowering Curitiba’s needs for equipment and infrastructure. Once more the partnership city / private companies makes all these programs self sufficient.

Housing and Business Development

The prevailing idea of low income housing in Brazil consists of standardized housing in the outskirts of the city, far from services and jobs.

In 1980 Curitiba came through with a new idea: break the standard design and integrate diversity of functions and social classes. The tenants were allowed to individualize their unit by redesigning it, and the areas were allowed mixed use, business and residential.

Then mayor, Cassio Taniguchi, devised the idea of placing new housing developments along the electric power grid, and adding schools, clinics, daycares and other services in the projected new areas. Concurrently he envisioned stimulating micro-enterprise. The city offered job training and free training for starting businesses, together with financial assistance, reaching as many as 18 districts and 800,000 people. The start-up businesses are hosted in the ‘baracao industrial,’ a very large warehouse. Spaces are offered as soon as they are freed by more mature businesses moving out to the next stage.

Parks

Like many cities, Curitiba is bordered by floodplains. While wealthier cities in the United States, such as New Orleans and Sacramento, have chosen to build extensive, and expensive-to-maintain levee systems, Curitiba purchased the floodplain and made parks.

Initially Curitiba was one of the worse cities in Brazil concerning annual floods. Every year thousands of people were affected, with compounding sanitation problems. After the catastrophic flood of 1970 the city devised the creation of parks in the low-lying areas. A newly dug lake replaced 800 houses whose owners had been compensated to move to better areas. Other overflow lakes were excavated to be used in case of floods. The cost to the city of all of these operations compares 1 to 5 with the creation of dams and canals, with none of the ecological consequences moving downstream.

New parks have been very creatively devised. A quarry used for industrial waste was restored and turned into a green area with an additional waterfall, lake, and tunnel dug into the mountain. Overall Curitiba boasts 30 parks, most of which were designed to contain floods. Public green space went from an average of 0.5 m2/person in the 60s to 55 m2/person in the 90s. Lacking funds for maintenance, the parks are kept mowed by sheep.

A useful by-product of the beautification of Curitiba has been the retention of tourism for longer periods (from 1 to 3 days).

And elsewhere in the world

Mayor Lerner and others believe that these ideas can be replicated in any city in the world. In fact, even though it took 25 years before a second city, Bogota, followed suit, 83 cities worldwide are adopting parts of Curitiba’s ideas for urban renewal.

Curitiba’s Master Plan

Curitiba, in the southern state of Paraná, has grown from some 140,000 in the 40s, to more than 430,000 in 1960, and around  2 million at present.

In 1964, responding to the mayor’s call for proposals that would prepare Curitiba for new growth, a team of young, idealistic architects and planners from the Federal University of Paraná, led by Jamie Lerner, laid out plans to minimize urban sprawl, preserve Curitiba’s historic district, and provide accessible and affordable public transit. The proposal evolved and became the Curitiba Master Plan.

Some of the Key Ingredients to Success

The 1980s were marked by widespread economic recession, rising urban poverty and increasing deforestation rates in Brazil.
Curitiba, however,  inaugurated new ecological and social programs, including:

• establishing new regional administrations helping to decentralize government.

• expanding Curitiba’s transit system

• initiating a citywide recycling program that separated organic waste, plastic, glass, and metal. The price of salvaged materials covered the costs of operation.

• inaugurating a number of parks dedicated to the different ethnic and immigrant groups

• protecting “green areas” from future development

The first step taken by Jaime Lerner was to to create the first pedestrian downtown street in Brazil.  Another key idea was the planning of ‘linear centers’ placing the development of the city in decentralized fashion all along the major axis of transportation. The administration removed new construction from downtown by placing it in new areas where rapid mass transit would be available, and adding major services, schools, and infrastructure, close to the major arteries of transportation.

Natural land-use patterns within the city of Curitiba were devised to support public transit systems, and vice-versa. Buildings along the dedicated bus ways are up to six stories tall, gradually giving way, within a few blocks, to single story homes. This mix of densities ensures sufficient user population within walking distance of bus stops.

At present, surveys show that 96% of Curitibans consider themselves happy living in their city.

For some basics about the documentary see the trailer or a 15′ clip on youtube.

For the goals of this blog see Saying yes to a Global Paradigm Shift: a Manifesto

Playback works through the creation of a sacred space and mood, through the distancing of the teller from his story (the teller does not enact), and through the artistic-aesthetic element that increases meaning. It works because we are called to experience on stage a variety of elements that most often remain separate. 

What a Playback Performance Looks Like

I feel fortunate to have access to the stage of Boughton Place (New Paltz, NY) where Playback performers act on the historic Jacob Moreno (founder of Psychodrama) stage , built in 1936 (see picture to the right).

As I reflect back and let the experience of last Friday sink, a certain feeling emerges that I could not quite express in the moment or shortly after the fact.

On stage were six actors and an audience of some thirty people who come for one of the monthly performances at Boughton Place. The actors come on stage at the sound of a violin, tell us a few things about their week and state of mind and build a living sculpture of it on stage. The group is led by Judy Swallow who has worked with Playback theater since its inception, this year exactly 25 years ago.

And Judy invites us to explore the question “What Are We Hungering for?” She starts by asking us simple questions about how we feel about our work or life, and the actors portray them in “fluid sculptures” or “sound sculptures.” She hears a story of delight and surprise and zooms into it, bringing out the depth and meaning, before the actor render it on stage and then turns to the teller for confirmation or comments. At one point, to continue the warming up, she invites us to discuss the key question with an unknown neighbor.

In the evening three stories are presented, and only later can I see them as a unity. We are talking about family and the first story offers the tension between conflict and the desire to hold a larger picture and trust in everybody’s higher self. The second is a more intimate picture of father and daughter in a moment of great connection that goes beyond the boundaries of the everyday, a moment in which the higher self expresses a question like “What did I dream of that I have not really followed?” The third story is poignantly held together by an improvised theme on the violin. It’s a theme of revisiting our family origins, an attempt to see what our forebears have suffered to lead us where we are. It’s a story of courage, trust in oneself and in each other. The evening winds down with portrayals of contrasting feelings taken from three audience members, portrayed by two actors in so-called “pairs” and a story of physical hunger. Before taking leave Judy offers the audience a personal story of an unusual sets of coincidences on the theme of compassion. Now that I write about it I can see what the evening has offered me more clearly. And yes my hunger for beauty and meaning has been satisfied.

Throughout the evening, after Judy takes the lead, the other actors facilitate in the conductor chair after her, each with his personal touch. And that is another beauty of such a form of mature Playback. Leadership is also improvised and shared. I imagine it’s only a challenge more and a great gift to the audience.

Playback’s Gifts to Its Audiences

To hear about how Playback Theater is conducted see a session on drugs and alcohol.

To see what effects Playback can have for the recipients look at Playback Theater in the Schools.

Some basic books: Jo Salas Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre and Jonathan Fox Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theater. Look here for a complete review of books and articles.

Other Applications of Theater for Social Change

Drama can be a very effective tool for social transformation. See some of the examples below:

Presencing Theater: “This is a fluid and emerging process. No doubt it will continue to change and develop as different people become involved and different client situations present themselves. The first step has been to identify clients or communities and to interview members of that organization or group. Over a 3-5 day period, using the embodied presence techniques from Art of Making a True Move and an interviewing method based upon the work of Tectonic theater project, Arawana Hayashi, Greg Pierotti and colleagues create a performance of no more than 20 minutes.The performance can also include members of the client system. The entire client community then gathers for a two hour Social Presencing Theater event that begins with the performance. The performance creates a field shift or a gap in the habitual way the social system regards itself. It enhances that client ‘s capacity to see its own qualities, patterns and potential. The community sees itself embodied and enacted in a respectful way. The performance is followed by reflection and dialogue using World Café or other social technologies, out of which seed of action for the future can emerge. (taken from the site).

Drama Therapy: including Boal techniques, sociodrama, and psychodrama.

Shakespeare Behind Bars: The movie is an inspiring example of what art can achieve in transforming the lives of inmates. Given the high percentage of success it is all the more puzzling that such experiments have as yet little replication. See how Curt Tofteland directs the Tempest while facilitating a process of self-discovery.

Exploring the traditions of the region where I live -the Hudson Valley near Hudson – I have discovered that we are surrounded by the birthplaces of a  number of programs that play a part in the dynamics of personal and social change, such as Alternative to Violence Program, PsychoDrama and Playback Theater. I’m not an actor but I have something in common with the world of acting. Nonviolent Communication becomes real only when you are willing to role-play real-life situations. So exploring Playback Theater has offered me a natural amount of stretching from what is habitual. I have joined for a time the Playback Theater local group in which I knew most of the participants, starting from Roy and Elizabeth, the organizers.

Playback Theater is a very effective tool, witness the fact that it is listed in the comprehensive Change Handbook as a tool that has been succesfully used in the non-profit sector, community organizing and corporations. It has offered me the opportunity to experience facilitation through art. Going into the experience I was asking myself “How is artistic facilitation differently carried from ‘regular’ facilitation? And how do the results differ?

The Origins of Playback Theater

Jonathan Fox, who first had the idea of Playback Theater was himself the son of an actor. The father entered the theater, finding that this was most often self-indulgent and hierarchical. He quit and turned to more socially constructive alternatives. Jonathan found the answer to the dilemma of his father. In 1974 he and his wife Jo Salas, were living in New London, CT, a small town by the sea. Jonathan worked as a writer and part-time English college tutor. He also was part of a theater project with parents of a small experimental school in New London. Earlier on he had spent two years in a small village in Nepal and there was struck by the healing value of ritual and storytelling in which he saw a sort of parallel to the medieval Mystery Plays that he had studied in Harvard.

When the projects with the parents ended the group continued to meet and Jo was invited to join as a musician. It was at this juncture that Jonathan had a seminal inspiration one day in a diner while savoring a cup of hot chocolate: evolving the idea of improvisational theater based on real-life stories of participants in the audience. From it grew the idea grew that people could be inspired by seeing their stories played out on stage; they would see their stories and themselves under a new light.

Playback Theater was inaugurated in 1975. In the following years the group performed in many places: in a pedriatics ward, at a riverside festival, at a conference on the future of Dutchess County, and as far as Australia and New Zealand.

Looking at the Stages and the Facilitation

A Playback troupe comprises in average a conductor, some 5 to 6 actors and a musician, but this can vary considerably. The conductor is half-director, half-actor. In addition emcee and coordinator, according to the situations. He calls the tellers from the audience who relate their stories, listens to and reflects them, is the link between tellers and actors, has authority over beginnings and endings.

The stages of Playback are:

• fluid sculptures, tableau stories or other forms. They are most often used as warm-ups to encourage the audience to participate. Fluid Sculptures are short, abstract aggregates of sound and movement that offer a rendition of audience members’ responses to the conductor’s questions. Tableau stories are a form slightly more expansive than a fluid sculpture: a story is rendered in a series of titles by the conductor. After each title an actor creates a tableau, a still sculpture. The whole is like a series of stills.
• The conductor listens to a teller sharing a story, and the actors start setting up. This is initiated by music while actors choose their props from the “prop tree.” Generally, at this stage there is no discussion. .
• Enactment of the story. See the very dramatic Suzanne’s Story or the humorous When One Commits and the socially engaged Playback Theater and Sustainability.
• Acknowledgement: the actors turn to the teller asking him/her to accept their gift.
• Bringing it back to the teller: at this stage s/he can ask for a transformation. If needed  the conductor can ask for a correction.
• The previous four steps are repeated for a number of tellers.
• Closing of the performance: possibly with pairs or an action haiku. In pairs two actors portray two contrasting feelings. They provide a change of pace from the longer scenes, and can enhance the themes that have emerged in the scenes. In an action haiku the conductor asks the audience to call out themes that have emerged in the evening. One actor makes a short statement about what he has heard; the other actor listens and places the body of the first actor in a way that is expressive of her statement.

In looking at the stages, of course one story can be told in such a way to bring a cathartic redemption experience in the teller and the audience. Often, however, a story left open with a painful ending will find redemption in a later one.

The Art and Science of Spontaneity

“Spontaneity is an elusive and often frustrating quality. It takes a high degree of personal discipline, and many of us often yearn for a more automatic order. Moreover, this discipline must be shared by the group as a whole, a collective responsibility for maximizing the creative potential of each moment of practicing together.” (Jonathan Fox)

The possibility and acceptance of so-called ‘failure’ is a pre-requisite of living spontaneously. Spontaneity requires a very alert condition of openness to the present; ability to receive through all our senses (non-thinking), and beyond that it is an integration of sensory input, evaluation (thinking) and action.

Signs of spontaneity are: aliveness, appropriateness (ability to perform an old task in a new way or a new one in an appropriate form), intuitiveness, readiness for change.

For Playback’s spontaneous side see: Playback Theater Sidney.

For the goals of A Revolution of Hope blog see Saying Yes to a Global Paradigm Shift: a Manifesto

The ‘60s and ‘70s: the Work of the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA)

The ICA was the offshoot of the early Evanston Institute of Ecumenical Studies created in 1954. Started as an effort for church renewal and community development it spread worldwide at the end of the 60s. It took on the name of Institute of Cultural Affairs in 1973 to distance itself from the ecumenical element, and acknowledge its global, cultural dimension. This decision was a direct result of an effort undertaken a few years earlier.

in 1971 the so-called Social Process Triangles were born. They were the fruit of a comprehensive literature review involving all the organization’s  offices worldwide over one year through the study of 1,500 seminal books. The major realization of the collective research was  the need to add the pole of culture to the political process and the economy. Thus came to birth the Social Process model using the triangles like the one posted here. The choice of the name Cultural in ICA was a conscious decision resulting from this step.

Here is what Brian Stanfield has to say about the integration of the three arenas in The Courage to Lead.

“The ideal (rarely found) is a balanced tension between the economic, the political and the cultural. When this happens, society is in a healthy state. When these three processes of society are not held in balance, society gets sick. When we are deprived of the means of adequate livelihood, political chaos and rioting can result. When we are deprived of participation in the political process, our livelihood is likely to suffer while masters grow rich on the resources denied us. When our culture is taken away from us, we easily become political and economic victims or find our lives devoid of meaning.”

Placing the cultural arena on the top of the triangle is a statement attesting to the determining place it occupies in relation to the other two areas. It is not too surprising that ICA also offered an early global conference on the emergence of Civil Society in 1996 in Cairo.

The ‘20s: Steiner and Threefolding

Rudolf Steiner was the first thinker ever to articulate the need to integrate the cultural perspective together with the political and economic ones. To this he gave the name of threefold social order. Steiner knew that the ground was not adequately prepared for these truly innovative ideas when he came out with his first attempt through a memorandum presented in 1917 and 1918 to German and Austrian government representatives. After that he continued to work ceaselessly to bring the new ideas to fruition. He wanted to create a movement of associative economics including all stakeholders within given industrial sectors, and forming cultural councils, both of which ultimately failed for lack of understanding. The Waldorf School was an embodiment of his ideal of closing the loop between the economy and culture by allowing capital to foster cultural renewal rather than accumulate in goods and land to the deprivation of all.  The first Waldorf School was aimed at addressing the needs of the workers of Emil Molt’s Waldorf cigar factory.

Steiner’s ideas were first opposed by the left who could not grasp the idea of working cooperatively with the entrepreneurs and saw a threat to its emprise over the working class. This had already happened before to Steiner. In the years 1899 to 1905 he had been invited to offer courses at Berlin’s Marxist Workers’ University. All of this he did without ever relinquishing independence of mind. In 1905 he was let go in spite of being one of the most successful lecturer because of his independent thinking, and the fear or envy his great popularity roused in other teachers.

Steiner had become a sort of celebrity in the early 20s when his lectures drew up to thousands, and his efforts did not go unnoticed by the growing Nazi party. Thus he had to put an end to his lectures after narrowly escaping attempts to his life from Nazi thugs.

Steiner’s life illustrates what obstacles the emerging independent cultural sector faces at the hand of the advocates of the unitarian state, be they from the right or from the left.

The renaissance of culture, leading to social threefolding remains at present the way of the middle and the only viable alternative to capitalism and socialism and all the many derivations and combinations these ideas have spawned over the last centuries.