Moving Online!
Art & Social Change 2020
Spacious Connection from You Own Home
Natalie Abdou,
Agnotti Cowie, and
Soyinka Rahim
Mon–Fri, July 6–10, 2020
Join us during these times when human connection, racial justice & equity, community healing, and collective transformation are bubbling at the surface. The InterPlay Art & Social Change program is a space that welcomes the whole of you and a chance to gift yourself a week of playing with joy, grief, resilience, stillness, silliness, creativity, and the well of wisdom that resides within you at this moment.
InterPlay is a practice that invites us to play with our birthright practices of movement, song, voice, storytelling, dance, and stillness to connect more deeply with our inner body wisdom and to build connection through community. InterPlay as a social movement is dedicated to ease, incrementality and human sustainability - noticing what feels good in the body, and seeking and creating more moments based on this knowledge.
This year’s Arts & Social Change program is for people of all ages, however, priority will be given to people 18-40 years olds, as this is usually a millennial program. The program offers a chance to:
-Share and reflect on our experiences as people passionate about the intersection of art and social change
-Plug into a community that cares deeply about the world, the earth, each other, and a true reflection of what equity means
-Explore the transformative power of play through entirely new and ancient ways of knowing, honoring ourselves and our ancestors along the way
-Tune into our innate artistic gifts, nurture our capacities, and explore what support us most along our journey of community and social justice
You will get the chance to engage with a diversity of InterPlay leaders, including founders Cynthia Winton-Henry and Phil Porter, sharing tools and techniques used globally for community building, social action, peacemaking, teaching and personal well-being and healing.
Program Structure:
The program takes place Monday, July 6th to Friday, July 10th 2020
Morning Session: We will meet for a play session in the morning to explore InterPlay forms and tools and deepen our sense of community with one another with leaders Agnotti, Natty & Soyinka (1.5-2 hours each)
Afternoon Session: We will meet for a play session in the afternoon with InterPlay founders/guest leaders exploring specific topics, diverse expressions and different applications of the InterPlay practice (1.5-2 hours each)
Alum Connection: We will have one play session with Art & Social Change alumni, who are super rad, silly, wise & awesome allies along your InterPlay journey
Focus Session: Every participant will receive 1 Focus Session, a personalized session with Agnotti or Natty where you will be guided, with both freedom and structure, to play with some aspect of your life using the InterPlay forms and tools (hopes, questions, challenges, curiosities)
Between Session: Self-guided with prompts will be provided to explore the practice on your own away from the computer between session and/or connect and play alongside another person from the program
Celebration: The last day of the program, we will have an evening celebration where we will be able to play & witness one another in our playfulness!
Pacing: We appreciate that these COVID times are full of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual demands and invite you to play at your capacity and honor your body wisdom around zoom burn-out.
We welcome the widest diversity of participants to the program and do our best to ensure the program is accessible to anyone who wants to participate. No previous InterPlay experience required to attend although it is always great to have a taste before diving deep. Racial Equity & Transformation are important to us as a community of practice & this program seeks to be present and sensitive to equity in our approach and play.
APPLICATION DATES & COST
APPLY HERE
Submit registration materials by and set up an informational interview before June 19th
Confirm attendance once accepted by June 19st
Send a deposit by June 26th
Final installment or total due July 2nd
Training: July 6-10, 2020.
NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS/SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE: We understand that the COVID reality brings with it great instability around many aspects of life, including livelihood and personal finances. If the sliding scale option is inaccessible to you, please consider what contribution is feasible & contact us to discuss scholarship opportunities.
If you can’t offer a financial contribution but want to offer your gifts and talents in another way, please fill out a Tuition Proposal. Here: TUITION PROPOSAL
Registration/Information: For more information or to set up an informational interview please contact Agnotti by emailing agnotti@interplay.org
InterPlay is a practice that invites us to play with our birthright practices of movement, song, voice, storytelling, dance, and stillness to connect more deeply with our inner body wisdom and to build connection through community. InterPlay as a social movement is dedicated to ease, incrementality and human sustainability - noticing what feels good in the body, and seeking and creating more moments based on this knowledge.
This year’s Arts & Social Change program is for people of all ages, however, priority will be given to people 18-40 years olds, as this is usually a millennial program. The program offers a chance to:
-Share and reflect on our experiences as people passionate about the intersection of art and social change
-Plug into a community that cares deeply about the world, the earth, each other, and a true reflection of what equity means
-Explore the transformative power of play through entirely new and ancient ways of knowing, honoring ourselves and our ancestors along the way
-Tune into our innate artistic gifts, nurture our capacities, and explore what support us most along our journey of community and social justice
You will get the chance to engage with a diversity of InterPlay leaders, including founders Cynthia Winton-Henry and Phil Porter, sharing tools and techniques used globally for community building, social action, peacemaking, teaching and personal well-being and healing.
Program Structure:
The program takes place Monday, July 6th to Friday, July 10th 2020
Morning Session: We will meet for a play session in the morning to explore InterPlay forms and tools and deepen our sense of community with one another with leaders Agnotti, Natty & Soyinka (1.5-2 hours each)
Afternoon Session: We will meet for a play session in the afternoon with InterPlay founders/guest leaders exploring specific topics, diverse expressions and different applications of the InterPlay practice (1.5-2 hours each)
Alum Connection: We will have one play session with Art & Social Change alumni, who are super rad, silly, wise & awesome allies along your InterPlay journey
Focus Session: Every participant will receive 1 Focus Session, a personalized session with Agnotti or Natty where you will be guided, with both freedom and structure, to play with some aspect of your life using the InterPlay forms and tools (hopes, questions, challenges, curiosities)
Between Session: Self-guided with prompts will be provided to explore the practice on your own away from the computer between session and/or connect and play alongside another person from the program
Celebration: The last day of the program, we will have an evening celebration where we will be able to play & witness one another in our playfulness!
Pacing: We appreciate that these COVID times are full of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual demands and invite you to play at your capacity and honor your body wisdom around zoom burn-out.
We welcome the widest diversity of participants to the program and do our best to ensure the program is accessible to anyone who wants to participate. No previous InterPlay experience required to attend although it is always great to have a taste before diving deep. Racial Equity & Transformation are important to us as a community of practice & this program seeks to be present and sensitive to equity in our approach and play.
APPLICATION DATES & COST
APPLY HERE
Submit registration materials by and set up an informational interview before June 19th
Confirm attendance once accepted by June 19st
Send a deposit by June 26th
Final installment or total due July 2nd
Training: July 6-10, 2020.
NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS/SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE: We understand that the COVID reality brings with it great instability around many aspects of life, including livelihood and personal finances. If the sliding scale option is inaccessible to you, please consider what contribution is feasible & contact us to discuss scholarship opportunities.
If you can’t offer a financial contribution but want to offer your gifts and talents in another way, please fill out a Tuition Proposal. Here: TUITION PROPOSAL
Registration/Information: For more information or to set up an informational interview please contact Agnotti by emailing agnotti@interplay.org
Cost: Sliding Scale $333-$777 (No one turned away for lack of funds)
Registration/Information: APPLY HERE
Leaders
Natalie Abdou
I have been on a life-long journey of curiosity and creativity, and have spent the last 10+ years connecting and collaborating with diverse communities, in North America and the Middle East, by co-creating learning environments that are founded upon shared values of diversity, love, respect and self-empowerment - embracing a vision of solidarity, social justice and change from the inside-out. I weave in elements of embodied wisdom, Theatre of the Oppressed and other visual/movement/story arts into my practice and see/feel the arts as portals for personal and collective transformation, providing space for our souls to dance, breathe, heal and unleash the deep wisdom that resides within. That is why my heart exploded with resonance and childlike joy when I came into connection with Interplay in 2015 - since then I have had the gift of mentorship and leadership within the Arts & Social Change program, of mentoring alongside Cathy Ann in the Life Practice Program, and co-creating with Interplay POC community as we explore and better understand the ways in which this diverse unique group body plays. I feel deep gratitude for the way in which InterPlay has danced its way into my life bringing with it so many quirks and magic.
Agnotti Cowie
Agnotti Cowie (they/them) attended the first ever “Art & Social Change: InterPlay for Millennial Leaders” in 2010. Since, she joined InterPlay’s national board as well as becoming a certified InterPlay leader. Agnotti facilitates workshops worldwide employing a variety of pedagogical techniques such as InterPlay, Theatre of the Oppressed, Devising, puppetry and clown. Currently they are based in Chicago where they lead workshops in schools, organizations and with social movements including as Co-Artistic Director of Opera-Matic, bringing participatory arts to public spaces. Recently, they have taken their work around the globe teaching InterPlay workshops in India, Germany, Australia, and Chile.
Soyinka Rahim
Soyinka Rahim (GSP) is a grassroots spiritual practitioner who is the founder and artistic director of BIBOLOVE.US which stands for "breathe in breathe out love." She was also the founder of OurThing Performing arts company, where she created the modern-day folk dance play An Altar Piece to Alter Peace, a multimedia, intergenerational performance piece for peace. Her work BIBOLOVE taps into the power of sound, movement and visual art, raising the love vibration of peace, love, joy, happiness, health, grace, and ease. BIBOLOVE supports our personal and collective life challenges by feeding the love frequencies for generational, cultural, racial, body, and economic unity. Soyinka has brought her wisdom as a spiritual director, conference weaver and workshop leader to InterPlay Certified Life practice, Facing Race, National Association for Independent Schools for Teachers of Color,
Boys and Girls Clubs, Spiritual Directors International Conference, and the Parliament of World Religions.