Rita Ezenwa-Okoro is a thought leader, creative culturist, performance activist, and communications expert who believes in the transformative power of play and performance for human development. Her visionary leadership shines as the Executive Director of the Global Play Brigade. This movement uses play to soften borders and barriers between people across the globe. She is also the founder of the United Nations and BMW Group’sIntercultural Innovation Award-Winning Street Project Foundation. This organization implements inclusive creative arts-led leadership programs for at-risk youth in Africa. She is a Mandela Washington Fellow, recipient of the Lagos State Award of Excellence in Youth Development and Entrepreneurship Development, respectively, a three-time global fellow of the International Society of the Performing Arts (ISPA), and now the first Nigerian to serve on the board of ISPA, a 75-yearold prestigious organization for performing arts leaders across the world. Rita is also the author of Doing. Being. Becoming. For the love of the creative arts, a book about her performance journey as a grassroots creative youth organizer in Nigeria. Besides developing creative strategies for businesses through her Marketing Communications firm ROC, Rita is also a movie buff, public speaker, singer, and world traveler who considers herself a global citizen.
Keynote Abstract
Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic began, a grouping of play and performance activists from around the world co-created a Play Ship. A moving virtual play space that provided social, emotional, and community support to our fellow human beings as we weathered the storm of the crisis together. With over 500 free play shops offered and 15,000 people from over 95 countries participating, the Global Play Brigade (GPB) was built. The GPB is a grassroots movement hinged on the transformative power of play, and it is spreading rapidly. What have we discovered from this playful global grassroots experiment? Is play for social transformation and community building catching on? (Yes!) What have we learned about creating and organizing culturally specific play spaces represented by different countries and peoples? What have we learned about creating new kinds of equitable play spaces that cross social, cultural, political, and geographical borders and barriers? How can we further tie the groundbreaking academic work of TASP with the revolutionary grassroots play movement embodied in the GPB?
Let’s talk! Let’s play! Let’s discover together!
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