Arts
I first encountered Stephen Levine through his writing. In particular his book, Poiesis: The Language of Psychology and The Speech of the Soul, which I began reading in the summer of 2004, before I started the Expressive Therapies graduate program at Lesley University. If you have noticed the name of my blog and my podcast, you can see that this book, along with Steve's chapters in the book Principles and Practices of Expressive Therapies, made just a wee bit of an impression on me. While I was at Lesley, Steve was not faculty there, and I only encountered him once in a brief workshop on creative process. I remember thinking that the way he talked reminded me of Christopher Walken. I now know Steve is a Brooklyn boy. Maybe there’s a connection? A quick google search reveals that Christopher Walken grew up worlds apart, in Queens. In any case, Steve’s accomplishments are too numerous to cover here. Briefly though, he is the Paul Celan Chair of Philosopy and Poetics in the Arts, Health, and Society Division at The European Graduate School in Switzerland. He is also the Dean of the Doctoral Program in Expressive Arts there. He along with his wife, Ellen Levine, founded THE CREATE INSTITUTE in Toronto, in 1994. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, and another in anthropology. He is a trained psychotherapist and Expressive Arts Therapist. He has authored numerous books, and is a passionate social/political activist. I was both thrilled and terrified when he agreed to be on my podcast. I felt as though I had wandered into a dragon’s den. As it turned out, the dragon was exceptionally kind hearted and down to earth. In this episode, we cover a lot. Steve shares some of the stories and numerous pearls of wisdom from his poietic life journey. I can't help but feel we only scratched the surface. There are a couple of glitches with the sound, but over all it does not interfere, or matter so much, as we settle into our conversation. There is one point around the 20 minute mark where my audio freaks out and goes into skip mode. You might notice a quality change in the microphones I'm using after that. I didn't edit this out because I feel like the discussion around this part is an important part of the conversation. So listen in as Steve shares stories on everything from: - his involvement with Students for a Democratic Society - his thoughts on social political critique - the meaning and practice of poiesis - therapeutic presence - approaching art-making - the history of philosophy and Heidegger and more... Links: The European Graduate School CAET Creative Arts in Education Therapy: Eastern and Western Perspectives THE CREATE INSTITUTE The Living Theater Poiesis: The Language of the Psychology, and the Speech of the Soul SDS Lesley University Principles and Practices of Expressive Therapy: Toward a Therapeutic Aesthetics The Imperative of Responsibility Being and Time The Denial of Death I am Love The Golden Notebook Giovanni’s Room Rashomon Butoh People mentioned: Martin Luther King Jr.Paul Celan Denise Fujiwara Heidegger Ellen G. Levine Judith Malina Julian Beck Hans Jonas Aron Gurwitsch Husserl Ernest Becker Paolo Knill Shaun McNiff Elizabeth Gordon McKim Hegel MarxJacob Moreno Donald Trump Bernie Sanders Doris Lessing James Baldwin Roy Hart