Elena Marcevska will Present at International Performance Conference in New York City http://www.performingtheworld.org/
Elena Marcevska will be doing a lecture at Performing the World 2008, an international conference on performance and social development, being held in New York City, October 2-5. She will be delivering a paper entitled “Performing motherhood while working on the streets and intersection” .
Elena Marcevska, recently a mother herself, for the purposes of this project, is working with Roma mothers who are begging with their children on the streets and intersections of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. Mostly they are judged by the majority passer buys as bad mothers. But what is the story behind? They don’t have health insurance, most of them are victims of family abuse, they are minors or very young and this is the only way they know for survival. Together with the artist they will develop T-shirts with messages that are reflecting their situation and wear (perform) them while they “work” on the streets. This will be documented, together with the reactions and send to organizations and government bodies that are dealing with these issues. Also, it will be published on line and exhibited in a gallery space, together with video diaries of mothers “working days”.
Performing the World 2008 is a unique “happening” of performances, workshops, panel discussions, lectures, community tours and improvisation. It brings together scholars and educators, social workers and psychologists, theatre artists and dancers, community activists and young people from around the world to learn from each other’s work. What this unusually diverse group of people have in common is a commitment to performance as a way of relating to, engaging and changing the world. Presenters are coming from 37 countries and 20 U.S. states.
Performing the World 2008 will take place throughout New York City, at the All Stars Project’s performing arts and development center on 42nd Street, near Times Square, at John Jay College for Criminal Justice, City University of New York, and at Bishop Laughlin High School in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. (Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has declared Sunday, October 5 as “Performing the World in Brooklyn Day.”) Participants will be put up in homes through the New York City area. Saturday will feature talks, workshops and performances by and about youth, including an International Talent Show at John Jay College.
The conference is sponsored by two non-profit organizations based in New York City: the All Stars Project, Inc., which sponsors performance based development programs for young people and adults; and the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy, an international research and training center for new approaches to human development, learning, therapy and community building.
