Before the concluding convening in September, Going Towards the Heat gathers insights and understandings arrived at over the course of all seminars, and offers specific strategies to address conflict. New York Peace Institute, a mediation service and the designated Community Dispute Resolution Center (CDRC) for both Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York, is the guide to this seminar.

In keeping with its mediation and conflict resolution work, New York Peace Institute will lead participants in a community-building circle practice. Each Circle will examine a facet of freedom of speech as a Peace Institute Circle Keeper guides the discussion during the first portion of the seminar. This will be followed by a discussion between Circle Keepers and performance artist Shaun Leonardo who also uses dialogue as a primary material, as well as seminar participants. Leonardo is an artist whose work confronts uncomfortable or divisive subjects including race, incarceration, and gun control often via public performances that activate alternative modes of communication. For example, for a recent performance in the Guggenheim’s rotunda, he posited that spoken language might be at the core of the problems behind the debate on gun control in the U.S. and therefore staged a wordless debate among 25 participants of divergent viewpoints. His take, alongside those of the Circle Keepers, will be moderated by NY Peace Institute Restorative Justice Program Manager, Anne Marie McFadyen.

In the Peace Institute’s work, the Circle is a carefully constructed, intentional dialogue space. The process of Circle Keeping is grounded in Indigenous teachings and a philosophy which values respect, equality, empathy, problem-solving, responsibility, self-regulation and awareness, and shared leadership. Circles are designed with structural elements that organize the interaction between participants for maximum understanding, empowerment and connection. This structure creates a space that encourages all participants to speak their truth respectfully to one another on an equal basis and to seek a deeper understanding of themselves and others.

Participants
Those who registered and
Shaun Leonardo, artist
Anne Marie McFadyen, Restorative Justice Program Manager, New York Peace Institute

The seminar series Freedom of Speech. A Curriculum for Studies into Darkness is organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics as part of the center’s 2018-2020 curatorial focus If Art Is Politics. It is directed by Carin Kuoni, Director/Chief Curator, Vera List Center, and writer and curator Laura Raicovich, with a critical contribution by Gabriela López Dena. Partner organizations for the seminars are ARTICLE 19; the National Coalition Against Censorship; New York Peace Institute; and Weeksville Heritage Center.

Seminar 6 is co-curated by New York Peace Institute.

Going Towards the Heat is the sixth in a series of seminars dedicated to Freedom of Speech. Other seminars in this series include:

Seminar 1: Mapping the Territory
Monday, November 12, 2018
Partner organization: The National Coalition Against Censorship

Seminar 2: Feminist Manifestos
Monday, December 3, 2018

Seminar 3: Pervasive and Personal: Observations on Free Speech Online
Monday, February 11, 2019
Partner organization: ARTICLE 19

Seminar 4: Say It Like You Mean It: On Translation, Communication, Languages</a></b>
Monday, March 11, 2019

Seminar 5: A Time for Seditious Speech
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Partner organization: Weeksville Heritage Center
@ Weeksville Heritage Center

Seminar 6: Going Towards the Heat: Speaking Across Difference
Monday, June 10, 2019
Partner organization: New York Peace Institute

Closing Convening
Friday & Saturday, September 20 & 21, 2019