International
Travel |
 Summer
2009South Bend, IN team to Durban, South Africa |
18
June - 16 July 2006 South Bend, IN team to Durban, South Africa |
27 May - 29 June 2004 South Bend, IN team to Durban, South Africa |
21 June-6 August 2001 South Bend, IN team to Durban, South Africa |
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7-27 November 2000 Sobonakona Drama Society from Durban, South Africa to South Bend, IN |
June, 1999 South Bend, IN team to Durban, South Africa |
Jay Pather, Creative Director, Siwela Sonke Dance Company from Durban, South Africa to South Bend, IN
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Looking Through History, Back |
The SOCACT Team will travel to Durban South Africa in June 2009. The following deadlines and requirements will apply:
Enrollment in P495: Community Development & Social Change (Spring09, SSI09, SSII09)
Interview with and approval from project Director
12wks before departure
6wks before departure
The Social Action Project (SOCACT) traveled to Durban, South Africa to develop the next cycle of community-based initiatives. The work was done with Umcebo Trust, Art for Humanity, and identified new contacts for an international network on LGBT rights. Youth Community Theater, an arts education project, will partner with Umcebo Trust to test their model for fusing art, crafts, and income generation in Indiana. The replication will take place in a community center at the local level to see how well their tricks work in our neighborhood. The portfolio of art and poetry for the Child Rights Initiative is now complete. Plans are underway to bring the traveling exhibit to Indiana University South Bend in the coming year. The exhibit will include public roundtables and classroom discussions about the gap between the plight of vulnerable children. Contacts were made within the LGBT community to address issue of intimate violence among lesbian and gay couples. To encourage discussion and dialog, a website has been established at www.breakingsilence.com.
The Social Action Project (SOCACT) traveled to Durban, South Africa to continue the next phase of projects with our community partners. Art Explore, an arts education project, will partner with Umcebo Trust to create banners from "found objects" -- buttons, cups, paper clips, sponges, other ordinary items -- to address social issues such as living with HIV/AIDS and with disabilities. A Poetry Jams was held to coincide with a Jam held in South Bend and to begin gathering works for an anthology entitled, Calling Down the Thunder: Intricate Thoughts about Overcoming Racism and Sexism. Contacts were made within the LGBT community to address issue of intimate violence among lesbian and gay couples. To encourage discussion and dialog, a website has been established at
www.breakingsilence.com.
The Social Action Project (SOCACT) traveled to Durban, South Africa in summer 2001 to work with Ningizimu School for the Severely Mentally Retarded. During our stay we worked with the A4 Art Project, an arts education program that teaches basic cognitive and motor skills using visual and graphic arts.
The joint program at Ningizimu School is an arts education initiative between the Social Action Project and the A4 Art Project of Ningizimu School. Robin Opperman is the director of the art project.
Sobonakhona Drama Society traveled to South Bend, Indiana USA from Durban, South Africa to do a research residency with SOCACT. They met with youths aged 7-15 years old to create a collaborative performance. The dance and story exemplified the ideal of racial cooperation and mutual respect. Da Roots, a play about Zulu culture and history, was the backdrop against which the youths' diverse cultures were presented. Black, white, yellow, and brown children sang and danced their own stories to the beat of Zulu drums.
The Social Action Project (SOCACT) traveled to Durban, South Africa to begin the process of learning about the community and making contact with potential community partners. For the next four weeks, team members attended public forums, coffee shops, task force meetings. We went anywhere we were invited, including an opening for an original play by Siwele Sonke and the Durban equivalent of the Toni Awards. Along the way, we made contact with people at all strata of the society: black, Indian, white; impoverished and well-to-do. We met captains of industry in their offices with a secretary and a lamp as well as crafters who wove bowls from telephone wire to sell on the street. By the end of our stay we had established links with the A4 Art Project at Ningizimu School for the Severely Mentally Retarded; a community of poets and artists with whom to begin the Poetry Jams; and contacts were made within the LGBT community to address issue alienation and addiction.
Jay Pather, Creative Director, Siwela Sonke Dance Company came from Durban, South Africa to South Bend, IN as a cultural advisor. He shared his knowledge of the social justice interventions operating in KwaZulu-Natal and his personal history with using the arts as social change. He developed Siwela Sonke as a vehicle for addressing social issues related to gender, sexuality, and race not only in South Africa, but also in sub-Saharan Africa. During his stay he educated the SOCACT team about the community dynamics likely to be swirling around the hoped for partnerships and initiatives.
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Dr. Dé Bryant,
Director
Social Action Project
Psychology Department, Indiana University South Bend
1700 Mishawaka Avenue, South Bend, IN 46634
(574) 520-4447 -- tel (574) 520-4538 -- fax
dbryant@iusb.edu
