IACASE Global Webinar series (9)

Tapestries of Tolerance: Weaving Contemplative Practices, Embodiment, and The Arts to Build A Mindful Middle East

(This event is free for IACASE Registered members). Register here

Contemplative creative practices, embodiment, and the arts have the potential to positively contribute to a culture of tolerance, understanding, nonviolence, and freedom of expression. As creative artists, embodied practitioners, researchers, artists, and movers we are reminded to work together to explore and focus on one sphere whose power and importance is often underestimated: the embodied contemplative arts. In times of conflict and political crisis, the arts hold answers to unwritten questions and weave fragments of narratives into a tapestry of tolerance. This international webinar serves as a platform for connection and will seek to illuminate stories from and about the Middle East by creative and inspiring panelists whose life’s purpose is dedicated to cultivating a culture of unity.

This webinar is the first of a series of webinars that will be woven into a collective body of work focusing on harnessing the healing power of the arts across the Middle East region. Join us to experience a generative power of gratitude and witness the embodied tapestry where the whole is larger than any sum of its parts.

Curated and chaired by:

• Dr Debra Kalmanowitz – PhD, HCPC, BAAT
• Lama Majaj​ – Artist, Art Therapist, Regional Director IACASE Middle East

Distinguished guest panelists:

• Lisa Suhair Majaj​ – Poet and Scholar
• Viven Marcow​ Speiser – Professor of Expressive Therapies and Phillip Speiser – An Expressive Arts educator and Therapist
• Philip Metres ​– Poet, Translator, Scholar
• Manal AlDabbagh​ – Dance Movement Facilitator and an Embodied Parenting Coach
• Kefah Abukhdeir – Educator and Founder of EduReach
• Ilene Serlin​ – Professor, Psychologist and a registered Dance/Movement Therapist
• Shireen Yaish​ – Art Psychotherapist and founder of Kaynouna
• Khitam Edelbi- ختام إدلبي ​ – Expressive Art Therapist
• Marloes Van Houten – Artistic Director, Scholar, Professional dancer
• Hedy Habra  – A Poet, Artist, and Essayist
• Martha Eddy​ – CMA, RSMT, EdD Founding Director/Director of Programming and Research of Moving For Life, Dynamic Embodiment and Center For Kinesthetic Education