Paradigm Shift

Amidst the global culture of revolution and counterrevolution, ethnic and religious battles, natural disasters, poverty and growing disparities in wealth that impact us all, nations and communities face pressing human development challenges. Many are trying to identify and meet these needs, some with old and tired tools and some with new and innovative ones. Don’t miss this conversation with Lois Holzman, director of the East Side Institute and founder of Performing the World, and Jacqueline S. Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, as they introduce and discuss the work of an array of performance activists and play revolutionaries from Japan to Uganda – who are experimenting with cultural-performatory approaches to human development.

Their presentation will include documentary video reports from these “developmentalists” sharing the on-the-ground struggles, joys, disappointments and discoveries that come with supporting people to transform.

   Lois Holzman, Ph.D., is the Institute’s director and a co-founder. She is well known for her pioneering work in exploring the human capacity to perform and its fundamentality in learning how to learn. As a leading proponent of a cultural approach to human learning and development, she has made the writings of Lev Vygotsky relevant to the fields of psychotherapy, education and organizational and community development. She is particularly respected as an activist scholar who builds bridges between university-based and community-based practices, bringing the traditions and innovations of each to the other. Holzman has written and edited seven books and over sixty articles on human development, psychology, education and social therapy – among them: Vygotsky at Work and Play; Performing Psychology: A Postmodern Culture of the Mind; and with Fred Newman, The End of Knowing and Unscientific Psychology. 

   Jacqueline Salit is a cutting-edge democracy strategist.  She is a political  independent, community organizer and one of America’s leading proponents of nonpartisan politics.  She is President of Independentvoting.org, the country’s largest and most innovative strategy and organizing center for independent voters, and the co-founder of EndPartisanship.org, an innovative legal and coalition-building tactic designed to challenge the taxpayer funding of partisan activity.  Her efforts to bring nonpartisan political reform to every state in the country include work on the successful passage of nonpartisan primaries in California; a 12-year effort with former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg to bring nonpartisan elections and governance to New York City; strategizing of Lenora Fulani’s historic 1988 independent presidential run. Salit’s book Independents Rising (Palgrave, 2012) is considered by many to be the most comprehensive look yet at the contemporary independent movement.