I am writing this in response to several reviews of the play “The Book of Judith”. These reviews were published during the first week of the play’s run in the revival tent at 1001 Queen St. W. One review was on the CBC’s National Friday May 22, created by Sandra Abma. Other’s were published in Eye Magazine, Eye Weekly, National Post and more.
And then there are the members of the audiences who have been commenting and e-mailing in numbers at every performance. And the choir.
I cannot be objective. This play – my play? – has been and continues to be a wonderful, terrifying and funny journey, all at once. None of the reviews, even the ones like the National which took a real stab at doing more than simply describing the basics, have not come anywhere near the actual experience of creating, then living, The Book of Judith.
I am most surprised and moved by the stories that choir members have shared with me. Most members are volunteers who have been labelled with a “disability”. Throughout the performance they are the Greek chorus: speaking my words, directing the audience, supporting Rubenfeld’s character’s transformation. One by one, as they grew into their role, many choir members have told me tales of how this play is supporting their own transformation, deepening a personal sense of power, liberating sexuality, strengthening vision and dream.
This effect among cast members is in many ways an unexpected treasure for me. I have given my life to breaking open the cage that the myth of disabled and normal confines people in. Yet in this play, in this nearly messianic, religious revival, interactive and spoofy over-the-top musical, the cage is utterly evapourated!
Don’t get me wrong – audiences are being deeply moved as well. The journey is far from smooth. People are personally engaged – with each other as well as with the cast. Andrew Penner wrote original music for the play. His tunes are like a spider’s web. With Rubenfeld’s energy, Penner’s melodic seduction and the choir’s invitation there is no escaping the joy, annoyance and struggle of the engagement. Although some have complained, many are returning for a second experience, and several have spoken or written to me, Michael Rubenfeld, Sarah G. Stanley, Alex Bulmer, Andrew Penner and other cast members about how they were deeply connected and changed in the performance.
The Book of Judith is a miracle disguised as a play about miracles.
Judith
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
The Book of Judith
Well, I am deeply immersed in the play: “The Book of Judith.” I wouldn’t have thought that the play and World Peace through Inclusion were related a mere three weeks ago. Now I understand that they truly are and so I am reporting on the play and my experience of it in this blog. Anyone who might have a chance to come and see the play in Toronto will really, really get something out of it, so don’t miss your chance!
“The Book of Judith” has mainly been created by Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Stanley. A subtext of the play is about my part in their co-creation, a part which seemed to end about April of 2008. It was at this point that I got sick and tired the advocacy flavour of the piece. I was also beginning to have serious thoughts about taking on World Peace through Inclusion as my main focus at that time, although it was several months before I would meet Gabor and we begin serious consideration about taking off for six months.
Some of you know how deeply I struggle with the concept of advocacy even though I am often thought of as an advocate. The root of the idea is to speak for someone else. It contains within it the ever present idea that people who are considered to be disabled require other people’s help in order to function as human beings. It is not so much that we need advocates, as we need listeners, since even those who have no voice are very good at communicating and even better at contributing. Given that, it is no great task to discover what their dreams are and to create ways for them to contribute even more fully in society. We do not need to advocate; we need to pay attention.
So I was burnt out, disgusted, and unwillingly to spend the time and energy it would take – or at least, so it seemed – to shift Michael and Sarah’s focus. In this play Michael reads the email where I clearly told him and Sarah that I was out of the picture.
Last January, when I had to come back to Toronto so that issues around the funding of my personal assistance could be resolved, I went to a reading of the play which at that time had minimal structure and was being formed as a musical with Alex Bulmar as choir leader and Andrew Penner as composer. It was evident that Michael, and no doubt along with him Sarah, had taken a major shift in focus, and that in fact Michael was prepared to express a vulnerable and moving shift in his understanding of me personally and the life experience of people who get excluded by being labeled.
Those who get to know this play will understand that I was conflicted at that moment. On the one hand it would require me to allow myself to be exposed and in some ways, deified, so that the play could be formed. In other words, every view that other people have of me would become fully expressed in public – odd, inspirational, wrongheaded, bullheaded, artistic, curtly articulate, and more. It was no small struggle to agree to have these images boldly displayed.
At the same time, Michael himself takes a personal beating in terms of his ego and reputation. I realized that he is not putting me through this wringer as some kind of sacrificial lamb to a great cause, but he and Sarah have uncovered a brilliant format to create the context that could blow all the stereotypes to the wind.
I agreed with some reluctance to participate in “The Book of Judith” and justified it to myself as necessary to make up for the fact that I had abandoned Michael and Sarah at a critical stage in their process and that I owed it to them, particularly Michael who had put so much of himself into creating our group in the first place. I came to the rehearsals with that attitude.
Two or three days into the rehearsals I began to realize the genius of the structure of the play. A few more days and I awakened to the brilliance of having it be a musical with a choir made up of volunteer men and women, many of them people with disability labels themselves. They are at times my voice and at times Michael’s voice and very much the voice of people whose voice and social presence is erased by the societal oppression we call disability. At times there are some very humourous moments where the choir affirms the amazing possibilities that lie within the personal experience of being someone whose abilities are considered “wrong”.
And so now I am having a bit of fun with the whole thing. I have also had a wonderful opportunity to meet many of the choir members on a personal level and have some moments of deep reflection on our common journey.
Perhaps the greatest learning for me has been how much I was, and probably still am, caught up in the mirage of disability. This play could never have come to be being if I had not thought that my current singleness was the “fault” of my being quadriplegic. I started and fuelled the entire cascade of errors and events by believing that it is my stillness that places an obstacle between myself and potential lovers, and not just the reality of my being busy, somewhat solitary, and Britishly inhibited! It’s an amazing thing to have a play open your eyes to your own foolishness.
But back to World Peace through Inclusion. “The Book of Judith” is an on-the-ground (or on-the-stage) exposition of the contributions that people can make when they are included. It is also a full exploration of the journey that it takes for people to go from seeing each other as strangers to having collegial and intimate relationships. It’s a full expression of how peace is created when people take on the struggle to work from diversity instead of from sameness. I will never have a better example of what I have been talking about than this play.
We are very much hoping to tour the show. Anybody who has some ideas about this, please let me know.
By the way it has been a long time since I told anybody how to get in touch with us and/or the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation. My email is: avalanche0809@gmail.com and my phone # is: 647-232-9344. Gabor Podor is at gaborpodor@gmail.com.
Videos and information about “The Book of Judith” can be found at: www.bookofjudithplay.blogspot.com. Enjoy!
Judith
“The Book of Judith” has mainly been created by Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Stanley. A subtext of the play is about my part in their co-creation, a part which seemed to end about April of 2008. It was at this point that I got sick and tired the advocacy flavour of the piece. I was also beginning to have serious thoughts about taking on World Peace through Inclusion as my main focus at that time, although it was several months before I would meet Gabor and we begin serious consideration about taking off for six months.
Some of you know how deeply I struggle with the concept of advocacy even though I am often thought of as an advocate. The root of the idea is to speak for someone else. It contains within it the ever present idea that people who are considered to be disabled require other people’s help in order to function as human beings. It is not so much that we need advocates, as we need listeners, since even those who have no voice are very good at communicating and even better at contributing. Given that, it is no great task to discover what their dreams are and to create ways for them to contribute even more fully in society. We do not need to advocate; we need to pay attention.
So I was burnt out, disgusted, and unwillingly to spend the time and energy it would take – or at least, so it seemed – to shift Michael and Sarah’s focus. In this play Michael reads the email where I clearly told him and Sarah that I was out of the picture.
Last January, when I had to come back to Toronto so that issues around the funding of my personal assistance could be resolved, I went to a reading of the play which at that time had minimal structure and was being formed as a musical with Alex Bulmar as choir leader and Andrew Penner as composer. It was evident that Michael, and no doubt along with him Sarah, had taken a major shift in focus, and that in fact Michael was prepared to express a vulnerable and moving shift in his understanding of me personally and the life experience of people who get excluded by being labeled.
Those who get to know this play will understand that I was conflicted at that moment. On the one hand it would require me to allow myself to be exposed and in some ways, deified, so that the play could be formed. In other words, every view that other people have of me would become fully expressed in public – odd, inspirational, wrongheaded, bullheaded, artistic, curtly articulate, and more. It was no small struggle to agree to have these images boldly displayed.
At the same time, Michael himself takes a personal beating in terms of his ego and reputation. I realized that he is not putting me through this wringer as some kind of sacrificial lamb to a great cause, but he and Sarah have uncovered a brilliant format to create the context that could blow all the stereotypes to the wind.
I agreed with some reluctance to participate in “The Book of Judith” and justified it to myself as necessary to make up for the fact that I had abandoned Michael and Sarah at a critical stage in their process and that I owed it to them, particularly Michael who had put so much of himself into creating our group in the first place. I came to the rehearsals with that attitude.
Two or three days into the rehearsals I began to realize the genius of the structure of the play. A few more days and I awakened to the brilliance of having it be a musical with a choir made up of volunteer men and women, many of them people with disability labels themselves. They are at times my voice and at times Michael’s voice and very much the voice of people whose voice and social presence is erased by the societal oppression we call disability. At times there are some very humourous moments where the choir affirms the amazing possibilities that lie within the personal experience of being someone whose abilities are considered “wrong”.
And so now I am having a bit of fun with the whole thing. I have also had a wonderful opportunity to meet many of the choir members on a personal level and have some moments of deep reflection on our common journey.
Perhaps the greatest learning for me has been how much I was, and probably still am, caught up in the mirage of disability. This play could never have come to be being if I had not thought that my current singleness was the “fault” of my being quadriplegic. I started and fuelled the entire cascade of errors and events by believing that it is my stillness that places an obstacle between myself and potential lovers, and not just the reality of my being busy, somewhat solitary, and Britishly inhibited! It’s an amazing thing to have a play open your eyes to your own foolishness.
But back to World Peace through Inclusion. “The Book of Judith” is an on-the-ground (or on-the-stage) exposition of the contributions that people can make when they are included. It is also a full exploration of the journey that it takes for people to go from seeing each other as strangers to having collegial and intimate relationships. It’s a full expression of how peace is created when people take on the struggle to work from diversity instead of from sameness. I will never have a better example of what I have been talking about than this play.
We are very much hoping to tour the show. Anybody who has some ideas about this, please let me know.
By the way it has been a long time since I told anybody how to get in touch with us and/or the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation. My email is: avalanche0809@gmail.com and my phone # is: 647-232-9344. Gabor Podor is at gaborpodor@gmail.com.
Videos and information about “The Book of Judith” can be found at: www.bookofjudithplay.blogspot.com. Enjoy!
Judith
Friday, May 8, 2009
A New Phase Has Begun
(Written May 6, 2009)
As I am writing this I am waiting and wondering if the extremely intermittent internet service characteristic of Camphill Nottawasaga will come back on. It may be a day or two before I get to post this blog entry. I am sitting at my wall hung desk in the back of Avalanche, looking out at a pair of Camphill residents returning from work in the garden. It is nearly the exact experience from the days before Gabor and I left on the World Peace through Inclusion Tour during the week of Oct. 24, 2008 – a book end in time.
The World Peace through Inclusion Tour is finished. Well over but not entirely as there are bills to pay still. Essentially everyone involved has moved into a different mood and activity. Gabor will leave tomorrow to take up intensive preparation for the summer solstice festival, and to rest from his position as a personal assistant to me for seven weeks. Jason has been off for a week and will come back to work – double full time – tomorrow. I am establishing myself: hired a new staff person to spell off Jason, am completing the arrangements to hire my staff through CILT which will give me much greater flexibility, have made arrangements to live at Camphill Nottawasaga in Avalanche until October, and am preparing to move tomorrow to a campground in Toronto for three weeks to participate in the play “The Book of Judith” at the Workman Theatre until the end of May.
We came across the Canadian border on April 28. This moment culminated a truly intense three weeks of presentations given in and around Faribault, Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota. In a way the experience was like my giving the doctoral thesis defence that I have never untaken at a university. After decades of personal and professional research and reflection, and eight months of working with Gabor to discover and develop the model of Syncopated Transition we presented it to over twenty audiences. Our listeners were of very different groups, from city councillors and business leaders to musicians to school children. With one exception – a gathering of group home managers – Syncopated Transition sparked everything from interest to revelation – a true success.
Even at the very end two important realizations emerged. The first was that we knew what we were trying to learn at the very beginning. It was in awkwardly trying to describe the sort of process that with minimal resistance breaks down segregation
– what we are now calling a syncopated transition – that I first recognized what a valuable colleague Gabor Podor is. How archetypical is that – to only recognize that one has always known one’s home after a long journey away from its!
Secondly I realized how much in the presentations I was focusing on inclusion instead of peace. I had not freed myself from my identity as a professional advocate. In my last week in Minnesota I broke free of this and we focused our presentations on the potential of inclusion to create peaceful community.
A different sort of work lies ahead. We have decided to create the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation. Our next step is to invite a diverse working team to the Summer Inclusion Institute (www.inclusion.com/toronto2009.pdf) where participants will design the future of WPIF, expand our Syncopated Transition Model and map out its implementation. Out of this gathering will emerge an organization that will increase the body of research on Inclusion and Peace, create sustainable projects demonstrating Inclusion as a tool for peace and community making, and invent and pollinate a practical language of Inclusion to talk about community and diversity.
We are now inviting people and raising money for this July event.
I will also spend the bulk of the summer at Camphill Nottawasaga writing a book about this experience of nine months of preparation, travel and research. This blog will serve as notes in designing the themes of my next book.
We will continue this blog, but from this point on it is a body of work about the creation of the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation and the results of the work undertaken in this framework.
Judith
As I am writing this I am waiting and wondering if the extremely intermittent internet service characteristic of Camphill Nottawasaga will come back on. It may be a day or two before I get to post this blog entry. I am sitting at my wall hung desk in the back of Avalanche, looking out at a pair of Camphill residents returning from work in the garden. It is nearly the exact experience from the days before Gabor and I left on the World Peace through Inclusion Tour during the week of Oct. 24, 2008 – a book end in time.
The World Peace through Inclusion Tour is finished. Well over but not entirely as there are bills to pay still. Essentially everyone involved has moved into a different mood and activity. Gabor will leave tomorrow to take up intensive preparation for the summer solstice festival, and to rest from his position as a personal assistant to me for seven weeks. Jason has been off for a week and will come back to work – double full time – tomorrow. I am establishing myself: hired a new staff person to spell off Jason, am completing the arrangements to hire my staff through CILT which will give me much greater flexibility, have made arrangements to live at Camphill Nottawasaga in Avalanche until October, and am preparing to move tomorrow to a campground in Toronto for three weeks to participate in the play “The Book of Judith” at the Workman Theatre until the end of May.
We came across the Canadian border on April 28. This moment culminated a truly intense three weeks of presentations given in and around Faribault, Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota. In a way the experience was like my giving the doctoral thesis defence that I have never untaken at a university. After decades of personal and professional research and reflection, and eight months of working with Gabor to discover and develop the model of Syncopated Transition we presented it to over twenty audiences. Our listeners were of very different groups, from city councillors and business leaders to musicians to school children. With one exception – a gathering of group home managers – Syncopated Transition sparked everything from interest to revelation – a true success.
Even at the very end two important realizations emerged. The first was that we knew what we were trying to learn at the very beginning. It was in awkwardly trying to describe the sort of process that with minimal resistance breaks down segregation
– what we are now calling a syncopated transition – that I first recognized what a valuable colleague Gabor Podor is. How archetypical is that – to only recognize that one has always known one’s home after a long journey away from its!
Secondly I realized how much in the presentations I was focusing on inclusion instead of peace. I had not freed myself from my identity as a professional advocate. In my last week in Minnesota I broke free of this and we focused our presentations on the potential of inclusion to create peaceful community.
A different sort of work lies ahead. We have decided to create the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation. Our next step is to invite a diverse working team to the Summer Inclusion Institute (www.inclusion.com/toronto2009.pdf) where participants will design the future of WPIF, expand our Syncopated Transition Model and map out its implementation. Out of this gathering will emerge an organization that will increase the body of research on Inclusion and Peace, create sustainable projects demonstrating Inclusion as a tool for peace and community making, and invent and pollinate a practical language of Inclusion to talk about community and diversity.
We are now inviting people and raising money for this July event.
I will also spend the bulk of the summer at Camphill Nottawasaga writing a book about this experience of nine months of preparation, travel and research. This blog will serve as notes in designing the themes of my next book.
We will continue this blog, but from this point on it is a body of work about the creation of the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation and the results of the work undertaken in this framework.
Judith
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Maxed!
Ten days since I last “blogged”! It’s hard to believe.
On top of being an amazing hostess, Barb Handahl is an unbeatable tour manager. Our team of three – Jason, Gabor and I – have completed more than a dozen interviews, presentations, workshops and even two minutes in front of City Council to have Tuesday, April 21, 2009 declared Judith Snow Day in Faribault.
During three of those days I was without a computer. Last February I received a supposedly indestructible laptop – built to military specifications – as part of my work in Savannah. On this Tour it acquired two holes in its casing and then suddenly the screen would not turn on. Fortunately Gabor has been frequently backing up my files and Barb and her family rounded up a spare monitor, then a donor of a brand new laptop, then some help installing some software.
Throughout much of the week I have had sores and inflammation in my mouth and jaw making chewing a challenge. Meanwhile my four year old wheelchair batteries packed it in, and Jason spent the best part of two days either pushing me around or rounding up some new ones. We couldn’t figure out a donor for these, but research revealed a local business who sold them for $300 less than the price quoted by “medical suppliers”.
Needless to say fulfilling an intense presentation schedule, resolving back-to-back crises and participating fully in the extended Handahl family life of birthday parties, breakfasts with Grandpa, etc. has kept us fascinated, rushed, entertained and close to exhausted. In ten days or so we return to Toronto and end the Tour, or at least this leg of it. I expect that reverting to a relatively less intense and more typically structured life is going to seem like some sort of major let down.
In many ways this last leg is like a final exam for us. Will the concept of “Syncopated Transition” carry the inclusion fostering message we intend? Have I, and we, really learned to reach both people who care about diversity and people who know nothing about the struggle for labelled citizens to be seen and supported as citizens?
The Faribault leg of our tour has brought us face-to-face with service providing managers who are running segregated demeaning programs that create huge barriers for communities to discover the contributions of citizens who have unusual abilities. We have interacted with many individuals who are themselves labelled. We have played and coloured with four year olds and gone into elementary school classes. We have been interviewed for radio and two newspaper articles. We have workshopped inclusion with city business leaders. We have sung, talked, argued, prayed and eaten endlessly with a huge variety of people. If it is ever going to “work” - that is if I, and we, are ever going to make an effective impact in shifting a community to see full inclusion as worthwhile and doable – then surely we will have good results emerge in Faribault, Minnesota.
We have three more intensive days in this location. If time and energy permit I will write more about the impact we are having.
Judith
On top of being an amazing hostess, Barb Handahl is an unbeatable tour manager. Our team of three – Jason, Gabor and I – have completed more than a dozen interviews, presentations, workshops and even two minutes in front of City Council to have Tuesday, April 21, 2009 declared Judith Snow Day in Faribault.
During three of those days I was without a computer. Last February I received a supposedly indestructible laptop – built to military specifications – as part of my work in Savannah. On this Tour it acquired two holes in its casing and then suddenly the screen would not turn on. Fortunately Gabor has been frequently backing up my files and Barb and her family rounded up a spare monitor, then a donor of a brand new laptop, then some help installing some software.
Throughout much of the week I have had sores and inflammation in my mouth and jaw making chewing a challenge. Meanwhile my four year old wheelchair batteries packed it in, and Jason spent the best part of two days either pushing me around or rounding up some new ones. We couldn’t figure out a donor for these, but research revealed a local business who sold them for $300 less than the price quoted by “medical suppliers”.
Needless to say fulfilling an intense presentation schedule, resolving back-to-back crises and participating fully in the extended Handahl family life of birthday parties, breakfasts with Grandpa, etc. has kept us fascinated, rushed, entertained and close to exhausted. In ten days or so we return to Toronto and end the Tour, or at least this leg of it. I expect that reverting to a relatively less intense and more typically structured life is going to seem like some sort of major let down.
In many ways this last leg is like a final exam for us. Will the concept of “Syncopated Transition” carry the inclusion fostering message we intend? Have I, and we, really learned to reach both people who care about diversity and people who know nothing about the struggle for labelled citizens to be seen and supported as citizens?
The Faribault leg of our tour has brought us face-to-face with service providing managers who are running segregated demeaning programs that create huge barriers for communities to discover the contributions of citizens who have unusual abilities. We have interacted with many individuals who are themselves labelled. We have played and coloured with four year olds and gone into elementary school classes. We have been interviewed for radio and two newspaper articles. We have workshopped inclusion with city business leaders. We have sung, talked, argued, prayed and eaten endlessly with a huge variety of people. If it is ever going to “work” - that is if I, and we, are ever going to make an effective impact in shifting a community to see full inclusion as worthwhile and doable – then surely we will have good results emerge in Faribault, Minnesota.
We have three more intensive days in this location. If time and energy permit I will write more about the impact we are having.
Judith
Friday, April 10, 2009
A Five Star Spa
After more van repairs we arrived at 11:50pm last Tuesday at the home of Barb and Harlan Handahl in Faribault, Minnesota. Since then we have been in heaven.
Barb has been keeping up with our blog. She has been touched both by the powerful intention of the tour and by the many large and small hardships we have lived through during the last five months. So on the one hand she, along with Dr. Angela Amato, have lined up nearly three weeks of close to two dozen opportunities for Gabor and I to present Inclusion and Peace in Minnesota. On the other she is hosting us like we are the embodiment of royalty.
We have moved in, each of us with our own room. We are being fed sumptuous meals with homemade cookies and brownies in constant supply day and night. Barb, and her extensive family and network, have lined up free haircuts, gym memberships, golf games, passes to restaurant breakfasts (of which we have NO need), hot tubs, and even access to an accessible bathtub for me at a local senior’s residence. We can do our laundry day or night, our clothes have been mended, and we are continuously being asked if there is anything else we might need or want.
Neither are we being treated as delicate guests. We get to participate in every aspect of this family’s rich life from changing a light bulb, searching for lost keys and resetting the wireless router to playing with the grandkids and taking afternoon naps.
In this wonderfully restorative environment Gabor and I have been improving our presentations, building toward the creation of the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation and having the tough conversations we need to complete the difficulties we experienced in the earlier parts of the Tour. Healing and new growth is emerging in this comforting space.
Meantime we are already hard at work, with an intense schedule facing us after Easter Sunday. So far I have given three media interviews and together we have done another four presentations in three days. My favourite so far was to a group hosted by the Faribault Chamber of Commerce to a group of business leaders. The interaction was lively over the two hours. I was appreciative of the opportunity to get the point across about how much Inclusion opens up economic possibilities and not just better supports. It is all about citizenship!
Happy Easter!
Judith
Barb has been keeping up with our blog. She has been touched both by the powerful intention of the tour and by the many large and small hardships we have lived through during the last five months. So on the one hand she, along with Dr. Angela Amato, have lined up nearly three weeks of close to two dozen opportunities for Gabor and I to present Inclusion and Peace in Minnesota. On the other she is hosting us like we are the embodiment of royalty.
We have moved in, each of us with our own room. We are being fed sumptuous meals with homemade cookies and brownies in constant supply day and night. Barb, and her extensive family and network, have lined up free haircuts, gym memberships, golf games, passes to restaurant breakfasts (of which we have NO need), hot tubs, and even access to an accessible bathtub for me at a local senior’s residence. We can do our laundry day or night, our clothes have been mended, and we are continuously being asked if there is anything else we might need or want.
Neither are we being treated as delicate guests. We get to participate in every aspect of this family’s rich life from changing a light bulb, searching for lost keys and resetting the wireless router to playing with the grandkids and taking afternoon naps.
In this wonderfully restorative environment Gabor and I have been improving our presentations, building toward the creation of the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation and having the tough conversations we need to complete the difficulties we experienced in the earlier parts of the Tour. Healing and new growth is emerging in this comforting space.
Meantime we are already hard at work, with an intense schedule facing us after Easter Sunday. So far I have given three media interviews and together we have done another four presentations in three days. My favourite so far was to a group hosted by the Faribault Chamber of Commerce to a group of business leaders. The interaction was lively over the two hours. I was appreciative of the opportunity to get the point across about how much Inclusion opens up economic possibilities and not just better supports. It is all about citizenship!
Happy Easter!
Judith
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
A Cincinnati Weekend by Gabor
We sat in a circle.
[inclusion]
She started by saying: I am angry. You are not listening. The room went silent.
[syncopated]
She broke through by saying: I am the lucky one. Out of my three siblings, I inherited the genes that allowed me to live a life of deep connections, intimacy and adventure. The room gasped and buzzed with excitement.
[transition]
She ended by saying: we did this together. We created the space in which we can be the Gifts that we are for each other. The room laughed as we acknowledged the shared intimacy emerging from the intensity of the last seven hours.
[listen]
On Saturday we went to an Intensive hosted by Peter Block (www.asmallgroup.net) and Jo Krippenstapel. This is a group gathering of about forty citizens. Period. No agendas. No goals. No programs. Emergence, not emergency. Peter has been at the forefront of facilitating the creation of physical and theoretical spaces that foster citizenship. His last book talked to me about two immediate ideas: the way the structure of gatherings create the gathering itself, and that the gathering itself IS the future we are coming together to create. The future is now.
[to the space]
After a bit of getting lost on the grounds of Mount Saint Joseph University, we showed up to share breakfast and mingle with a wide variety of people in a green building called Earth Connection. We started by introducing ourselves and sharing the gift we brought to the gathering. Each and every one of us. We followed by two people singing songs and playing the guitar, all of us joining in on the refrains.
[between]
Then we got down to work. The work of creating citizenship. In the group, and in small groups we explored the sometimes painful and very personal subject of Protection being a barrier, as parents and stewards restrict and police their wards ("To Serve and Protect" is the motto painted on the side of police cruisers world wide) . Of disability as Slavery by another name, as people are bought, sold and oftentimes killed by the service provider organizations based on their attached funding money. Of the wider implications of being the authors of our own lives. Of the exhilarating possibilities latent in powerful listening. Of the power of creative collaboration between people whose voice is usually not heard. Together, we created conversations that transformed us and began to emanate out of the circle into our lives and the wider world. We confronted our own stereotypes and explored ways of being and action that challenge and transform the dominant discourses of oppression. We learned that this is dangerous and sometimes frightening work, but always rewarding. Starhawk says that "Magick is changing consciousness at will". This is exactly what happened on a group level. By Magick, we created each other as citizens. At will.
After lunch, Gary sang Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and again we all sang the chorus.
[the beats]
Listen. To what is said. From a place of understanding and generosity. Listen to the gifts she brings in her words, actions, ideas, history and herstory. Pain and anger are also gifts expressed as they are energy that transform and are transformed in community. The conversations we took part in were healing because we listened deeply to each other. They brought us together, because in their peculiarity and specificity, they express the common struggles we all face. I asked a question at the end. In a small group, I asked a question about self organization and it's implications for political action. Jo and Ken and Gary, Brenda and I talked about locality, about neighbours, about autonomy and about citizenship. Ha. That word again. I walked away, energized that we are asking some really important questions. Before we left, Judith and I sat around talking to Peter Block. Since the first time I met him, what continues to strike me is his presence. Here is a man, I thought, who is there, wherever he is. He looks you right in the eye, always with a glint, and he poses more questions than gives answers. He really got what we were talking about, and pointed us towards some areas requiring emphasis and clarification regarding the concept of syncopated transition. For the last forty minutes at Earth Connection, we engaged each other in building the future Foundation. I felt like we arrived. Before we left, I thanked him for inviting us and grounding the Tour. This has been a real turning point. That moment for me was the real halfway point of the Tour, with five months passed and one left. Nothing is linear. We are now the community that sustains the real work of Inclusive Citizenship.
[listen]
[inclusion]
She started by saying: I am angry. You are not listening. The room went silent.
[syncopated]
She broke through by saying: I am the lucky one. Out of my three siblings, I inherited the genes that allowed me to live a life of deep connections, intimacy and adventure. The room gasped and buzzed with excitement.
[transition]
She ended by saying: we did this together. We created the space in which we can be the Gifts that we are for each other. The room laughed as we acknowledged the shared intimacy emerging from the intensity of the last seven hours.
[listen]
On Saturday we went to an Intensive hosted by Peter Block (www.asmallgroup.net) and Jo Krippenstapel. This is a group gathering of about forty citizens. Period. No agendas. No goals. No programs. Emergence, not emergency. Peter has been at the forefront of facilitating the creation of physical and theoretical spaces that foster citizenship. His last book talked to me about two immediate ideas: the way the structure of gatherings create the gathering itself, and that the gathering itself IS the future we are coming together to create. The future is now.
[to the space]
After a bit of getting lost on the grounds of Mount Saint Joseph University, we showed up to share breakfast and mingle with a wide variety of people in a green building called Earth Connection. We started by introducing ourselves and sharing the gift we brought to the gathering. Each and every one of us. We followed by two people singing songs and playing the guitar, all of us joining in on the refrains.
[between]
Then we got down to work. The work of creating citizenship. In the group, and in small groups we explored the sometimes painful and very personal subject of Protection being a barrier, as parents and stewards restrict and police their wards ("To Serve and Protect" is the motto painted on the side of police cruisers world wide) . Of disability as Slavery by another name, as people are bought, sold and oftentimes killed by the service provider organizations based on their attached funding money. Of the wider implications of being the authors of our own lives. Of the exhilarating possibilities latent in powerful listening. Of the power of creative collaboration between people whose voice is usually not heard. Together, we created conversations that transformed us and began to emanate out of the circle into our lives and the wider world. We confronted our own stereotypes and explored ways of being and action that challenge and transform the dominant discourses of oppression. We learned that this is dangerous and sometimes frightening work, but always rewarding. Starhawk says that "Magick is changing consciousness at will". This is exactly what happened on a group level. By Magick, we created each other as citizens. At will.
After lunch, Gary sang Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and again we all sang the chorus.
[the beats]
Listen. To what is said. From a place of understanding and generosity. Listen to the gifts she brings in her words, actions, ideas, history and herstory. Pain and anger are also gifts expressed as they are energy that transform and are transformed in community. The conversations we took part in were healing because we listened deeply to each other. They brought us together, because in their peculiarity and specificity, they express the common struggles we all face. I asked a question at the end. In a small group, I asked a question about self organization and it's implications for political action. Jo and Ken and Gary, Brenda and I talked about locality, about neighbours, about autonomy and about citizenship. Ha. That word again. I walked away, energized that we are asking some really important questions. Before we left, Judith and I sat around talking to Peter Block. Since the first time I met him, what continues to strike me is his presence. Here is a man, I thought, who is there, wherever he is. He looks you right in the eye, always with a glint, and he poses more questions than gives answers. He really got what we were talking about, and pointed us towards some areas requiring emphasis and clarification regarding the concept of syncopated transition. For the last forty minutes at Earth Connection, we engaged each other in building the future Foundation. I felt like we arrived. Before we left, I thanked him for inviting us and grounding the Tour. This has been a real turning point. That moment for me was the real halfway point of the Tour, with five months passed and one left. Nothing is linear. We are now the community that sustains the real work of Inclusive Citizenship.
[listen]
Monday, April 6, 2009
Minnesota Is Expecting Us
(a Minnesotan press release)
FARIBAULT — A woman who would like to wipe out the word “disabled” is making a stop in Faribault next week.
Judith Snow, 58, of Toronto, Canada, is making Minnesota a destination on her “World Peace Through Inclusion Tour.” She is spending the month of April visiting various places in Minnesota to advocate for those labeled “disabled” to be included as part of society, said Barb Handahl of Faribault.
Handahl got to know Snow through her own work with Minnesota’s State Operated Group Homes. Handahl led an effort to connect people with developmental disabilities with community groups and activities that they could benefit from being a part of. She met Snow at a inclusion conference.
“Judith is a very intelligent and remarkable woman,” Handahl said.
Snow has no use of her body below the neck except for the ability to move one thumb. The use of that thumb allows her to drive a motorized cart to get around. But, Handahl said, Snow depends on attendants for her personal care needs.
In spite of her physical mobility limitations, Snow has earned two master’s degrees and traveled to three continents advocating inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
So many barriers exist to keep those label “disabled” from fully being part of society, Handahl said.
“Judith envisions what the world would look like if everyone was included in it, and accepted for who they are,” Handahl said.
Snow has worked for more than 30 years throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Caribbean and Canada advocating for training and education programs for people with disabilities. Her models resulted in thousands of people with disabilities getting jobs, homes, new relationships and support systems that lead them to greater participation in their communities.
Snow will be speaking to the Faribault’s Future leadership group from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. that evening, a potluck to welcome her to town will be held at the Faribault Chamber of Commerce and Tourism office.
After her initial visit to Faribault, Snow will speak at a conference and events in St. Paul. But on April 19, she returns to Faribault for a special concert. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. that day at JavaLive coffee house, local folk signer Rafi Dworsky will be join Snow for a presentation for young children.
She will give presentations at Eagan, Rochester, Minneapolis and Duluth before returning to Canada on April 27.
Who: Judith Snow, international advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities.
Where: Faribault Chamber of Commerce office, 530 Wilson Ave.
When: 5:30 p.m. potluck, 6:30 p.m. conversation and desert, April 9
How: Call Barb Handahl, 507-210-0711 to register to attend
— Staff writer Pauline Schreiber may be reached at 333-3127.
FARIBAULT — A woman who would like to wipe out the word “disabled” is making a stop in Faribault next week.
Judith Snow, 58, of Toronto, Canada, is making Minnesota a destination on her “World Peace Through Inclusion Tour.” She is spending the month of April visiting various places in Minnesota to advocate for those labeled “disabled” to be included as part of society, said Barb Handahl of Faribault.
Handahl got to know Snow through her own work with Minnesota’s State Operated Group Homes. Handahl led an effort to connect people with developmental disabilities with community groups and activities that they could benefit from being a part of. She met Snow at a inclusion conference.
“Judith is a very intelligent and remarkable woman,” Handahl said.
Snow has no use of her body below the neck except for the ability to move one thumb. The use of that thumb allows her to drive a motorized cart to get around. But, Handahl said, Snow depends on attendants for her personal care needs.
In spite of her physical mobility limitations, Snow has earned two master’s degrees and traveled to three continents advocating inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
So many barriers exist to keep those label “disabled” from fully being part of society, Handahl said.
“Judith envisions what the world would look like if everyone was included in it, and accepted for who they are,” Handahl said.
Snow has worked for more than 30 years throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Caribbean and Canada advocating for training and education programs for people with disabilities. Her models resulted in thousands of people with disabilities getting jobs, homes, new relationships and support systems that lead them to greater participation in their communities.
Snow will be speaking to the Faribault’s Future leadership group from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. that evening, a potluck to welcome her to town will be held at the Faribault Chamber of Commerce and Tourism office.
After her initial visit to Faribault, Snow will speak at a conference and events in St. Paul. But on April 19, she returns to Faribault for a special concert. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. that day at JavaLive coffee house, local folk signer Rafi Dworsky will be join Snow for a presentation for young children.
She will give presentations at Eagan, Rochester, Minneapolis and Duluth before returning to Canada on April 27.
Who: Judith Snow, international advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities.
Where: Faribault Chamber of Commerce office, 530 Wilson Ave.
When: 5:30 p.m. potluck, 6:30 p.m. conversation and desert, April 9
How: Call Barb Handahl, 507-210-0711 to register to attend
— Staff writer Pauline Schreiber may be reached at 333-3127.
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