SPECIAL EVENTS

UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENTS

 
photos ©Jamie McHugh

Earth Matters: Ecosomatics in the Anthropocene
Hosted by Jamie McHugh, MSMT
First conversation with guests
Martha Eddy, MSME/T and Satu Palokangas, MSME/T 

Indigenous Peoples Day, Monday, October 9th – 9am PT, 12pm ET, 6pm CET 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” – Edward Abbey, Earth First! Founder

It goes without saying: Earth matters! Without a viable planet, there is no living soma. This fundamental truth in the face of radical Earth disruptions is the ground for our conversations.

Curated and moderated by Jamie McHugh, these hour-long biweekly roundtables are designed to connect the ISMETA community with artists, activists, scientists, agriculturalists, philosophers, and many others dedicated to the preservation of life on Earth.

"We know enough of our own history by now to be aware that people exploit what they have merely concluded to be of value, but they defend what they love." – Wendell Berry

The initial questions are:
What can somatic movement disciplines offer to a world on fire?
What actions are you taking in your personal and professional life?
What would you like to offer to the larger ecosomatic movement?

Besides lively and engaging conversations that stimulate actionable strategies, I hope these roundtables can provide networking opportunities, resource sharing and emergent cross-disciplinary collaborations. We all hold a piece of the puzzle and can each contribute in our own unique, creative way to the mycelial network.

These online conversations, an outgrowth of the ISMETA Ecosomatics Forum, will be posted on YouTube to reach a wider audience.

This first live online gathering is for ISMETA members to encourage community participation and input. Future gatherings will be open to all.

• • •

October Open Houses

Wednesday 11 October at
12pm Eastern Time (ET) for Asia, Europe, North America & South America
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
AND
8pm Eastern Time (ET) for Australasia, Oceania, North America & South America
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Join us for a live, interactive session to "tour" ISMETA's various resources for individual and organizational members. You will learn which membership track best serves your needs, and various ways in which you can participate in our professional community. This event is designed specifically for students and practitioners of Somatic Movement who are looking to become members of ISMETA.

The event is hosted by ISMETA’s Board of Directors, and it is offered twice on the same day to cater to the many regions of practitioners globally. Welcome to the professional home for Somatic Movement Educators and Therapists!

• • •

PAST SPECIAL EVENTS

Open House Sessions
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 • 1-2pm CE
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 • 8-9pm ET

Keep Scrolling Down to See More!

smallEmbodied Activism Front Cover - High Resolution

EMBODIED ACTIVISM WITH RAE JOHNSON
Friday, May 26th at 12pm Eastern U.S. time
Hosted by the Equity, Justice and Accessibility Committee
OPEN TO ALL
How do ordinary people with busy lives leverage our actions in support of liberation, justice, and authentic connection? How can activists and social change-makers avoid burning out? How does the body factor into what our social movements might miss? Instead of thinking about social justice as a process that starts with changing people's minds, embodied activism asks us to understand our bodies—how we feel in them and relate to others through them—as crucial sites of social transformation. Drawing on the somatic arts, trauma-informed psychology, and anti-oppressive movements, embodied activism helps us explore and transform the political realities of our everyday lives in a new way: by harnessing the felt experience of our bodies as the sites of our activism. In this community conversation, author Rae Johnson will discuss how we can listen to our body language, question body image norms, and reconnect to our sensual capacities in service of social change. Join Rae in a discussion about their latest book and learn perspectives for transforming an unjust world, one body at a time.
SEE VIDEO OF THIS EVENT BELOW
RAE JOHNSON, PhD, RSW, RSMT, BCC is a social worker, somatic movement therapist, and scholar/activist working at the intersections of embodiment and social justice. Rae's approach to embodied activism has been shaped by decades of frontline work with street youth, women in addiction recovery, psychiatric survivors, and members of the queer community. Since completing their doctoral studies, Rae has held academic positions in several somatic psychology graduate programs, including at Naropa University and Pacifica Graduate Institute. They currently teach somatic psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and co-direct an online certificate program in embodied social justice.
• • •
NOT MY ENEMY
A Film Screening and Artist Conversation

This Special Encore Event is a recording of select excerpts from the February 26, 2023 Live Interactive Film Screening featured Board Member Kehinde Ishangi's documentary film, Not My Enemy featuring the process and the power of using somatic methodology in processing and overcoming trauma. This Special Event was hosted by the ISMETA Somatic Arts and Education Committee.

This acclaimed film had its first United States premiere at the San Francisco Veterans Film Festival in December, and it will be shown at the Screen Dance Miami Festival and the Denton Black Film Festival this month. Directed by Ishangi and filmed by Tiffany Rhynard, the feature-length film is based on her original choreographic work “Not My Enemy” and uses embodied narrative to understand and resolve issues around the absence of her biological father and how it impacted her life. The exploration leads her to the Vietnam War and its aftermath and the effect it had on her father, her family, and her community. With the assistance of four brave Vietnam Vets and other members of her community, she uses dance as a tool for somatic healing.