The Inaugural Minneapolis Somaesthetics Gathering is established, hosted, and curated by Dr. Lawrence D. Benson, PhD, MFA. Lawrence is a philosopher|artist|educator specializing in Somaesthetics with emphasis on movement and creativity. Read his bio here.
What is Somaesthetics?
Somaesthetics, to me (Lawrence), in as close to my own words as possible, is primarily about how I encounter, experience, and create the world in which I discover and learn to willfully move my body. In the USA, as a cisgender, male Black person, I recognize that the willful movement of my body is antithetical to the foundation of the USA. Navigating this opposition is a philosophical proposition; it is corporeal, a proposition of matter; it is an aesthetic proposition by the imposition of color-as-identity onto bodies by those lacking color, and thus, by their own rules, lacking identity; it is somatic as a result of this aesthesis related to navigating this body-imposed color-as-identity. Understanding that the willful movement of my body is a resistance act, I chose to remain open to ways to move and express from the traditional: daredevil-riding bikes, basketball, football, wrestling, and track, to the not-so-traditional: dance, theatre, choir, tennis, art, writing, and poetry. I understood that resistance is how I navigate through the trauma of ideological white supremacy and my personal trauma. I also make sure I explore white supremacy’s and my personal trauma’s intimate relationship to history because I am history’s byproduct and active creator.
So, what does this all mean to me? It means that Somaesthetics is living a willfully embodied life.
Richard Shusterman’s formal ‘Somaesthetics’ definition is below. Bold and italics are mine.
“Somaesthetics is an interdisciplinary research product devoted to the critical study and meliorative cultivation of the experience and use of the living body (or soma) as a site of sensory appreciation (aesthesis) and creative self-stylization. An ameliorative discipline of both theory and practice, somaesthetics seeks to enrich not only our discursive knowledge of the body but also our lived somatic experience and performance; it aims to improve the meaning, understanding, efficacy, and beauty of our movements and of the environments to which our actions contribute and from which they also derive their energies and significance. To pursue these aims, somaesthetics is concerned with a wide diversity of knowledge forms, discourses, social practices and institutions, cultural traditions and values, and bodily disciplines that structure (or could improve) such somatic understanding and cultivation, and it is therefore an interdisciplinary project, in which theory and practice are closely connected and reciprocally nourish each other. It is not limited to one theoretical field, academic or professional vocabulary, cultural ideology, or particular set of bodily disciplines. Rather it aims to provide an overarching theoretical structure and a set of basic and versatile conceptual tools to enable a more fruitful interaction and integration of the very diverse forms of somatic knowledge currently being practiced and pursued.” (Shusterman 3)
Call for Papers, Projects, Performances, and Proposals
In the Somaesthetics conference tradition of “Bodies in the Streets,” we find ourselves gathering in Minneapolis, over four years after George Floyd was murdered, his body succumbing in a literal street under the weight of centuries of ideological White Supremacy manifest in Derek Chauvin’s knee, sanctioned by the State via police. In the light of this specific horror with focus on maleness, Blackness, and embodiment, how have you repositioned your body as a member of society? Have you had to personally respond to racial, gender, sexuality, and/or political dynamics in a different way since BLM? How have you navigated embodiment in light of your repositioning? What body-centered, artistic, philosophical, creative methods/modes did you use? How important was/is technology in your repositioning? We look forward to gathering and encountering these questions and more in the city that is the location, spark of a global, body-based, political, ethical, and social movement.
The Gathering:
Saturday, August 17, 2024
9a-5p
Hennepin Center for the Arts, Studio 5B
Minneapolis MN 55403
Registration Fee: $5
Maximum Twenty (20) Participants. Pre-registered participants in first-come-first-served priority.
There are also pre- and post-gathering events on Friday, Aug 16 and Sunday, Aug 18. These events are open to the public with priority given to Gathering registrants. First come, first served thereafter. 20 person maximum.
Pre-Gathering Events – Friday, August 16, 2024
12:15-1:15p: Grooves (All-Levels-Welcome Movement/Dance)
1:30-2:30p: Introduction to Somaesthetics
Post-Gathering Events – Sunday, August 18, 2024
9:15-10a: Scan, Stretch, Breathe: Repeat (Seated and Prone Body Scan; Morning and Anytime Stretches; “Breathing Into Visualization”)
10:15-11:30a: Choreography
12p-1p: Intro to Black Aesthetics
We will be active in presentations and classes to whatever degree you feel comfortable, as deemed appropriate for the activity. Please bring comfortable clothing and shoes for your anticipated level of movement.
REGISTER HERE:
$5: Includes plant-based lunch: https://buy.stripe.com/3cs5lEetSbXSbHa7sv
Sōma|Flourish 