La Corsi Monkeys 2020-

The La Corsi Seniors are so dear to me!

Our 2020 experiences were cut short by COVID in March! Oh, How I miss you all seniors!

-Andrew

2020

Jan 14, 2020 we sent this out to friends and family in PR. And donated money to support relief efforts through contacts we have via Maria Bauman in ACRE.

LMCC Creative Learning Grant: Across Generations: @ Carter Burden and La Corsi

What is aging? What are our feelings around death, illness, ability, and identity?
From the end of September to December 19, 2019 several practice groups met on a weekly basis to move in collective and share in a discourse around race and aging.

The project consisted of 2 groups of non-seniors adding up to 10+ people: a POC majority with mixed abilities. And 2 groups of East Harlem POC seniors with 8+ seniors who were consistent in the 8 weeks and 30+ others who came in and out of the classes over the 8 weeks. Shortly after the first couple weeks it became apparent that it would be near impossible to schedule a shared weekly time between generations. That said, as a whole, we were able to meet for a handful of intergenerational gatherings. 

The practice spaces created a shared space to emerge in our fullness in our movement and shared conversations around illness, death, vitality, resistance and histories. We shared about our intergenerational relationships and found ways to recommit and deepen our connection to intergenerational relationships in our lives. During the final community share on December 19, those of us able to attend in the evening were able to share movement and stories of ourselves and others in the group not present around some yummy anise tea that Kimberly brought. All in all, the project felt like a wonderful opening for the Parcon Resilience community to connect "Across Generations."

Thank you LMCC and the Creative Learning grant for making this possible! The project was impactful and planted the seeds in our community for meaningful intergenerational anti-racist conversation and movement exploration to occur. Senior PR classes will continue with the La Corsi seniors in East Harlem on Mondays from 10:30a-11:30a, all are welcome to attend. Stay tuned for general open classes.

Sample inquiries from Intergenerational gatherings:

1. What is your felt sense of the 80’s or the 2035? Country of origin or American.

   Our first warm up was by moving to the beautiful music of the Social hour club at Carter burden. They invited us in and we danced and played instruments to their salsa music.

   After that we sought to find our felt sense for random objects we touched and tried to convey to an observer who had not seen the choice. The whole room of a dozen participants laughed and played with trying to figure out ways to express the qualities of an object through movement.

   Then we moved to things that we tasted like fruit or milk. And finally to the prompts above…all while continuing to move to salsa music!

2. What is home? What is leaving home?

   We used our core as our home and our limbs and body parts as things that could come to it or leave it. After warming up we played with our chairs being a place to return to and to leave. Then we all held onto the stick and left our home and shared with the group why we left. We ended class with fruit and drawing of our homes to share with each other.

3. What pulled you away or what pushed you away from home?

   This was an amazing class. After warming up, we moved by pretending to pull each other’s body parts in various directions from a string. Then we drew pictures about why we left home. People shared so much of themselves. Elopements, escaping domestic violence, seeking opportunity where there were no jobs in their home country. Each person found a means into expressing themselves through the movement. We physicalized our pull away from home by using a stick that they actually pulled on.

   Take aways: I want to support the seniors to : a. develop more grounding in their bodies to the earth and to objects and to each other b. understand the importance of ‘informed’ consent in people being able to go with you. c. Create a safe space for the seniors to share their stories…especially if they are intense or traumatic.

TESTIMONY:

Participating in Across Generations gave me a greater awareness to my external body’s relationship to my internal self and to the space around me. This awareness was integrated in my everyday life as I moved around the city. While participating I paid increased attention to how I "othered" people due to differences in age, ability, and identity, and how that othering manifested in my body and in relationship to them. For example, I could feel my physical anxieties about aging and mortality as I interacted with elders in my family over the holidays, and how that physical awareness led to a disconnection with them - an awareness that then could be used to remedy this disconnection. 

Lisa Ko

* * *

Across Generations is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Learning, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC.

SU CASA 2019 @ Jefferson Sr. Center & Community Share

Andrew Suseno is a participant in SU-CASA. SU-CASA is a collaboration among the New York City Council, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging and the City's five local arts councils. This program is administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and supported by public funds from the New York City Council in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department for the Aging. LMCC.net.

The Community Share was a combination of an Open class with activities as seen above and a performance by PR members: Sebastian Perez Colleen Roche, and Joanna Fitzick. They performed a piece on the adaptable gym embodying harmful stereotypes and liberation from them.

Keynote Speaker at the Creative Aging Conference

Over 1000 seniors came to the Conference for Aging Artfully. I had the honor of being asked by Gale Brewer to be a Keynote Panelist to share about my Su Casa Parcon work with seniors and to speak about my thoughts on Creative Aging. It was so wonderful to be aligned with Gale and my fellow panelist. I am excited to be part of this movement!

Thank you so much Gale Brewer! It was a pleasure to meet you!

When: August 8, 2018

Where Fordham Law Center

!!!Seniors in East Harlem

Parcon Resilience classes are currently offered at two senior centers in East Harlem. Following the overwhelmingly successful Su Casa LMCC spring 2018 series at La Corsi, we were awarded another Su Casa Artist’s in Residency at the Jefferson Senior Center a few blocks away. Their shared mother organization is Union Settlement. They have taken us on financially to continue offering classes at La Corsi without the LMCC grant.

When through 2019

Mondays 10:30-11:30am @ La Corsi Senior Center, 307 E116thst, NYC, NY 10029

Thursdays 10:30- 11:30am @ the Jefferson Senior Center, 2205 First Ave, NYC, NY 10029

Friday 10:45am - 11:30am @ The Carter Burden center 312 E 109th st, NYC, NY 10029

What:

Parcon Resilience

@ La Corsi, we have utilized a modular adapatble gym which you can see below. Ramps, benches, bars, and poles are all adjustable to hang on or to sit on an turn around at whatever angles work best for the bodies at play.

Testimony

Contact us if you have any questions!

Intergenerational Parcon Play

Where:  Church of the Living Hope, 161 East 104th St, NYC, NY 10029

When:  2-5pm May 19th, 2018

Who:  An intergenerational Parcon workshop with participants from the Su Casa Residency program and their families. 

What: We explored objects exploring the environment. A plastic shovel sliding along and around a metal railing versus a rubber stopper needing to roll along its surfaces. Then we explored consent in making contact with each other. And we ended by moving our partner as we did our objects, and then found ways to support their exploration in Parcon.

Andrew Suseno is a participant in SU-CASA. SU-CASA is a collaboration among the New York City Council, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging and the City's five local arts councils. This program is administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and supported by public funds from the New York City Council in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department for the Aging. LMCC.net.

Su Casa 2018: La Corsi Senior Center

Above: 7/14/18 10-1pm. Ran free movement workshop and presentation with the seniors of the La Corsi center highlighting Parcon and their experiences with it at the Union Settlement Health fair for 800-1000 seniors of East Harlem, NY.

Andrew Suseno is a participant in SU-CASA. SU-CASA is a collaboration among the New York City Council, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging and the City's five local arts councils. This program is administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and supported by public funds from the New York City Council in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department for the Aging. LMCC.net.

Seniors learned Parcon. Together we learned how to improve our balance and our embodiment of No and Yes in our lives. Each class brought new discoveries in balance and the stories of our classmates. Consent is key to accessing freedom of expression and intimacy within connection. We formed a wonderfully tight knit group!

Special thanks to my co-teachers: Nancy Allison and Ione Lewis. 

Where: La Corsi House Senior Center in East Harlem, NYC, NY, 10029

When: January through June 2018

Testimony: