[Peace] What's Happening w/School for Designing a Society

[parenti susan rose]

For those of you who live in Champaign-Urbana, you'll notice that our
school building on 409 N. Race street has been bull-dozed. It was a
friendly location for us since 1997, with a ramp made so that Herbert Brun
could glide in, doors that were never locked, and elaborate gardens to the
north and south.

At the moment, we're looking for another site to buy, or to share with
other serious/playful projects.

Albeit homeless, the school project is continuing! Mark Enslin is
planning a school for the fall (enslin at prairienet.org).

AND we're going to West Virginia this upcoming June, to give a 4 week
School for Designing Society, starting June 1-30, at the Gesundheit
Institute in the Northern Apalachian Mountains, the construction site for
Patch Adam's hospital-to-be.

The following describes the school. We have a full enrollment of 23
students, so I'm writing this more to keep people posted of our
activities, than to recruit last minute students.
Susan.
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A Summer School hosted by the Gesundheit! Institute in Pocahontas County,
West Virginia.

Based in Urbana, Illinois, the School for Designing a Society will travel
this summer to the hills of West Virginia and land, excitedly, at the
Gesundheit!Institute. The Gesundheit! Institute---an experiment in holistic medical
care based on the idea that one cannot separate the health of the
individual from the health of the family, the community and the world---is
situated on 310 acres in the northern Appalachian Mountains and is the
construction site for a free, silly hospital.

The School for Designing a Society, in its 13th year, is an ongoing
experiment where the question  How would I design society? is given
serious and playful thinking and discussion, and taken as input to
creative projects and to formulations of one's work in the world.

How would I design a desirable society? is a question crucial to the
answering of other questions: What am I doing with my life? What is the
work I want to do? How can I sustain what I want?

Rather than orienting participants to find a comfy spot in the current
system, the school offers tools, ambience, company and time in which
people can imagine a system they would prefer.

--What distinguishes this school from other schools?

This school is based on the desire for social change, unlike most schools
which act as advertising agencies making us believe we need the society as
it is.

Unusual emphasis is placed on composition, performance, and language---so
that our desires and intentions for change have a chance.

--What happens in the school?

Participants explore the question "How would I design society? making use
of:
   Whole system design: what is the it?
   Composition and performance (love letters from the future)
   Permaculture, and other ways to look a system
   What is my current self-description?
    How do we design care, and so that we care?
  Activism
   The realm of implementation ideas


---Who might attend?

We are looking for people who take the undesirability of the current
system as their point of departure---people who do not want the current
system, and wish to go on from there.

The 2004 Summer School is reserved for ages 18 and older.

---What is the tuition?
Tuition is $1,000  for the month, covering room, board, and compensation
for the teachers. Some scholarships are available.

---Who are the teachers?
Full-time teachers:
Mark  Enslin (composition)
Jeff Glassman (theater lab and performance)
Susan Parenti (composition)
Rob Scott (systems)

Part-time teachers and guests:
Andrew Faust, permaculturist
Dennis Stienke , deep tissue massage therapist
Patch Adams, founder of Gesundheit, June 6-12
Ralph Bronner, Dr. Bronner soaps, June 6-10
Judy Wicks, White Dog Cafe and Bookstore, Philadelphia, June 8-11
Heidi Read, costume therapist, June 13-20
Danielle Chynoweth, city planner, June 20---
Rick Burkhardt, composer and performer, Prince Myshkins, June 20---
Michael Brun, political economist, June 20----
Catherine Murphy, urban gardener from Cuba --
Carol Huang, educational policies---
Maria Silva, cinematographer---

For more on the Gesundheit! Institute go to www.patchadams.org.
For more on the School For Designing A Society go to
www.designingsociety.com.