The Global Play Brigade is here to help. If you need to smile, to work through tough emotions, or to make some new friends, they’ve got you. But more importantly, the Global Play Brigade is here to help us find better ways to make tough decisions and dream up new institutions that will benefit everyone.

Cathy was introduced to activism at an early age. Her mom taught  her that rather than critique and renounce, we can create new institutions, which is something we’re all grappling with right now.

Fernanda grew up under dictatorship, born in a poor community in Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. At the age of 15, she was already trying to create revolution within the favelas.

Together they founded The Global Play Brigade, a volunteer community of play and performance activists, improvisers, clowns, musicians, educators and therapists who have come together in response to the global pandemic and the distressing, inequitable state of our world. 

Youth & Police Coming Together through Play 

You might be asking yourself what play has to do with activism and changing the world. Cathy begins by telling the story of her work with the All Stars Project, how they brought young people together with police officers using performance to help them see one another in a different way. 

The program is running in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. And now, with so many looking to find new ways to develop relationships between the police and communities, hopefully soon it will be in your town as well. 

Join a Global Play Brigade Session!

All Global Play Brigade sessions are free. You can find and register for upcoming sessions here. Some sessions are purely playful, but their “Voices” sessions include both play and conversation.

In the sessions, you can learn how play can help us shed our defenses and forget the way we’re “supposed” to be. Only then can we begin to imagine and create new ways to approach difficult conversations. 

It all starts with bringing people together who are very different from one another, people who don’t “belong” together, then building an environment where everyone can grow and develop. In this episode, you’ll hear how play is an essential part of that.

Meet Cathy Salit 

Cathy Salit is a performance activist, author, social entrepreneur, jazz singer, speaker, executive coach, and theatrical improviser. She’s been a lifelong community organizer and radical educator since she was 13 years old, when she dropped out of school and started her own highschool in New York City. 

For 23 years, Salit was CEO and a co-founder of the maverick leadership consultancy Performance of a Lifetime, (POAL). Under her leadership POAL developed a top brand client roster, including American Express, IBM, Twitter, Nike, The U.S. Olympics, and Johns Hopkins Hospital. POAL utilizes the innovative performance and development approach –The Becoming Principle — helping leaders and teams to collaborate, grow, and create culture change. 

Cathy is the author of Performance Breakthrough: A Radical Approach to Success at Work,(Hachette 2016), on the Advisory Board of the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy, a faculty member of the East Side Institute, a member of the Castillo Theater Improv team and most recently the founder and chief organizer of the Global Play Brigade.

Meet Fernanda Coelho Liberali 

Fernanda is a teacher educator, researcher and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUCSP), in the Department of Science of Languages and Philosophy, in the Program of Postgraduate Studies in Applied Linguistics and Language Studies and in the Post Graduate Program in Education: Education of Educators.

She holds a degree in Languages from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, a master’s and a doctorate degree in Applied Linguistics and Language Studies from PUCSP, and three postdoctoral degrees from the University of Helsinki, the Berlin Freie Universität and Rutgers University.

She is one of the leaders of the Research Group Language in Activity in the School Context and of the Bi/multilingual Education Study Group (GEEB); an advisor to CNPq and FAPESP; a Brazilian representative of the international committee of the International Symposium on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education in Latin America (BILINGLATAM), an associate with Eastside Institute, a member of Global Network of the University of Leeds, the general coordinator of the national extramural and research projects Digitmed Program and Brincada Project and co-founder of the Global Play Brigade.

Join In the Fun

• Register for an upcoming free event
• Visit the Global Play Brigade Website
• Donate to the GPB on Go Fund Me
• Find GPB Brigadiers on social media with the hashtag, #PlayItForward
• Become a workshop/playshop facilitator 

The Global Play Brigade is Endorsed By:

• Performing the World 
• The Eastside Institute
• Applied Improvisation Network
• Play Perform Learn Grow
• Global Improvisation Initiative

Authors Referenced In the Discussion

• Lois Holzman
• Lev Vygotsky
• Paulo Freire – “Viable unheard-of”