The How of Performance Activism - February 2026

Over the past four decades we at the East Side Institute have led a practice in which play, performance and philosophizing are uniquely combined to support people to grow themselves and their communities, to humanize the mental health field and the social sciences, and to effect social change and global cultural transformation. As it turns out, we were built for this historical moment of social upheaval. We and our colleagues around the world are putting our tools to work for collective development in ways we never imagined and are making new discoveries along the way.

Join us for a weekend dive into the conceptions and practical tools of social therapeutics and performance activism. We will explore how play and performance can break through social barriers, unleash imaginations, and open doors to new possibilities. See how these tools can work for you, your teams, communities and projects. Perfect for experienced organizers and newly becoming activists. Led by a dynamic, diverse and experienced team of Institute faculty: educators, therapists, theater artists, social entrepreneurs–activists all!

We will explore how to:

• Approach your activism as a performance and your play and performances as activism.

• Create supportive ensembles in all sorts of social, political, artistic and educational environments that generate individual and collective development. 

• Get past arguing, agitating and aggravation and create conversations that build bridges.

• Learn from your project’s successes and failures, and avoid becoming satisfied and stagnating.

• Navigate and engage your country’s established institutions while maintaining your independence.

• Generate happiness and use it as a force for social change.

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FACULTY BIOGRAPHIES

Dan Friedman is a playwright, director, theatre historian and life-long grassroots educator and activist.  He is a founder of the Castillo Theatre and a co-convener of Performing the World.  His book, Performance Activism: Precursors and Contemporary Pioneers, the first book-length study of performance activism, was published by Palgrave in 2021.  He currently is on the faculty of the East Side Institute, managing producer of Institute’s podcast, All Power to the Developing, and project manager of Let’s Learn! a  global community-engaged educational project of Lloyd International Honors College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in collaboration with the  East Side Institute. www.danfriedmannyc.org

Lois Holzman is a developmental psychologist and transformational change methodologist, who over the course of decades of activism, has helped social change agents (educators, coaches, therapists, non-profit leaders, academics, et al.), create performatory environments that stir hope, joy, and open portals of possibility. Along with Institute co-founder and public philosopher Fred Newman, Holzman has challenged the epistemological bias of the social sciences, advancing a “non-knowing growing,” playful/performatory/philosophical alternative. In her seminal text with Newman, The End of Knowing, and its general audience companion text, The Overweight Brain: How Our Obsession with Knowing Keeps Us from Getting Smart Enough to Make a Better World, Lois introduces a Wittgenstein/Vygotsky synthesis that activist colleagues have “made their own,” to grow their communities. She supports them to become “developmentalists,” guiding them via playful/philosophical discourse. Lois is founder and chair of the Performing the World conferences (since 2001) and a chief organizer among the growing performance activism movement. In addition to public workshops, lectures and conversations with thought leaders, Lois heads, since 2004, The International Class, a 9-month exploration of social therapeutic methodology for performance activists, scholars, and all varieties of “developmentalists.” She is the author or editor of 11 books – including Performing Psychology, Unscientific Psychology, and  Vygotsky at Work and Play.  Her latest book, A Developmentalist’s Guide to Better Mental Health: Navigating Everyday Life Dilemmas (Routledge, 2025), offers a performance turn to subjective pain and emotional quandary.

Steven T. Licardi, LCSW is a neurodivergent social therapist, spoken word poet, sci-fi writer, and performance activist working at the intersections of art and social policy. He travels internationally using the power of performance to create empathic dialogue around, to confront the realities of, and to assist communities in dismantling historic narratives of mental health and madness. He co-leads weekly social therapeutic groups alongside Ann Green, PsychNP and Rachel Mickenberg, LCSW. His sci-fi writing can be found at thesvenbo.substack.com.

Carrie Lobman is a sociocultural scholar and play movement leader. She is the Leader of Education and Research at the East Side Institute and a professor in the department of Learning and Teaching at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. She facilitates the Institute's "Play, Development and Social Justice" webinar series and co-leads the International Class, its flagship program. She serves as a mentor to emerging performance activists around the world and is on the national board of directors of the All Stars Project. Carrie is the co-author or co-editor of three books: Unscripted Learning: Using Improvisation across the K-8 Curriculum, Big Ideas and Revolutionary Activity: Selected Essays, Talks and Articles by Lois Holzman and Performance and Play: Play and Culture Series, Volume 11.

Gloria Strickland has a fifty-year history of commitment, innovative leadership, and service to poor communities. In May, 2023 she retired from her position as Senior Vice President, Chief Youth and Community Development Officer, All Stars Project, Inc., (ASP) and Director of the All Stars Project of New York (ASP of NY), where she worked to creatively advance the ASP’s standard of excellence for youth programs around the country, train program leaders and staff in performance and development and implement community-based strategies that engaged leaders and policy makers in the All Stars Project’s mission. Prior to joining the ASP, Gloria served as Executive Director of the Somerset Community Action Program (SCAP) and Somerset County Head Start in New Jersey. She has served on numerous committees and taskforces to advance the quality of outside of school life for teenagers and children, receiving several community awards and a Distinguish Leader Award in Service from Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education.