How can we create new possibilities for living and working together in a fractured world? In this two-hour conversation and workshop, Carrie Lobman and Mary Fridley of the East Side Institute invite participants to explore the practical, political, and spiritual power of philosophizing in everyday life. Drawing on social therapeutics—the Institute’s radically relational, non-diagnostic, non-dualistic, play- and performance-based approach to human development—this session engages participants – as we do everyone – as both who we are and who we are becoming.

A group-and community-building practice, social therapeutics is being used across disciplines including therapy, education, youth and leadership development, community organizing, and even electoral politics, and in organizations and communities across the globe. Participants will meet some of the Institute’s key inspirations—Lev Vygotsky, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Fred Newman, and Lois Holzman—and engage in activities that create new kinds of conversations and connections.

Carrie and Mary will also share stories from Institute projects in dementia care, education, mental health, and more and introduce grassroots leaders who are using play, performance, and philosophy to transform isolation into connection and difference into growth.

This session is for anyone interested in human development, innovative practices, and transformational change. Join us in creating new ways of being—together.

About the Presenter(s)

A long-time community builder, performance activist, group therapist and passionate developmentalist, Mary Fridley is a faculty member at the East Side Institute in NYC, where she co-created and leads The Joy of Dementia (You Gotta Be Kidding!). She is also co-founder and coordinator of Reimagining Dementia: A Creative Coalition for Justice, an international effort to creatively transform the “tragedy narrative” of dementia. Mary has written or co-written dozens of articles and chapters about her work.

Carrie Lobman, PhD is a socio-cultural scholar and a play movement leader. She is professor of education at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education and Leader of Education and Research at the East Side Institute, a grassroots center for innovative approaches to human development and social change. Her research, which explores the role of play and improvisation in development across the lifespan and cultures, is published in dozens of articles and books, Carrie hosts Institute’s “Play, Development and Social Justice” webinar series and co-leads its International Class.