Below you’ll find an interview with EGS cohort/pal Maia Gianakos, a curator who lives in Berlin.  The topic was our EGS Poetry and Philosophy course led by the extraordinary Judith Balso.  The conversation captures an emotional moment of discovery Maia and I shared after Judith presented breathtaking insight and challenge around Russian poet Osip Mandelstam and his poem “Ode to Stalin”.  Thank you Maia.  Thank you, Judith.

Click here for the conversation:

Music Creative Commons: Tunguska Electronic Music Society Summer Solstice Volume 1 – Simiram Slumber http://tunguska.org

Judith Balso

Maia Gianakos

In this clip, Cynthia discusses what she hopes will come of the gathering:

Here’s more on Cynthia:

Dr. Cynthia Cohen is director of the program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at Brandeis University’s International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. She is an internationally recognized educator, peacebuilding practitioner and researcher who focuses on the contributions of the arts to conflict transformation.

Currently, Dr. Cohen is the principal investigator for the Acting Together project, a five year inquiry with theatre artists and leaders of ritual working in conflict regions around the world, undertaken in collaboration with Theatre Without Borders.

Here is Erik’s take on the inevitable emergence of arts in the practice of peacebuilding:

And here is more on Erik Ehn:

Erik Ehn’s body of work includes The Saint Plays, No TimeLike the Present, Wolf at the Door, Tailings, Beginner, Ideas of Good and Evil, and an adaptation of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. He is currently working on completing a series of 15 plays – Soulographie – on the history of the US in the 20th Century from the point of view of its genocides, intended for production in NY in April 2012 (scripts include Maria Kizito, Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling, Yermedea, Drunk Still Drinking). His works have been produced in San Francisco (Intersection, Thick Description, Yugen), Seattle (Annex, Empty Space), Austin (Frontera), New York (BACA, Whitney Museum), San Diego (Sledgehammer), Chicago (Red Moon), Atlanta (7 Stages), Los Angeles (Cal Rep, Museum of Jurassic Technology), Belgrade (Dah); elsewhere.

He has taught at the U of Iowa, Naropa, UC San Diego, UT Dallas, and Cal Arts (graduate); U San Francisco, SF State, Santa Clara, and Skidmore (undergrad); he just completed a writing workshop with the Belarus Free Theater in Minsk.

Tomorrow, April 12th I visit  Brandeis University in Waltham, MA for an all-day meeting on Peacebuilding and the Arts.  The gathering is sponsored by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.

Morning sessions (not open to the public) will be a Peacebuilding and the Arts Think Tank on educating future leaders.

From 2:30 – 3:30 pm I’ll participate in the roundtable for leaders in higher ed in the Mandel Center for Humanities, Reading Room 203.

At 4:00 pm – a screening of and public conversation about the center’s new documentary film Acting Together on the World Stage (see the trailer above) at the Shapiro Campus Center Theater.

Looking forward to this!  Will post more as the event unfolds…

Here’s a little box turtle preview:

The Sartorialist.

A lovely morning treat.