Partly I simply wanted an excuse to quote some well-crafted prose.
But mostly I like the image she conveyed. The visceral potential of it all. The feeling that at any moment—but I’m not quite hurrying—I will intentionally turn a corner and I’ll be able to see down the next street. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this street of course.
But do you recall what it was like to long to look around that corner?
ɕ
Andrew Suseno: Ancestors, Parcon Resilience, and Racism →
How can movement practices like Parcon Resilience foster connection, empathy, and anti-racism in diverse communities?
Andrew Suseno’s Parcon goes beyond the physical to create community and fight racism. Andrew discusses his family, ancestors, and their role in his identity. We explore what Parcon is, why he created Parcon Resilience, and his vision for the anti-racist work it does. Andrew unpacks various pieces of racism in modern America, how Parcon Resilience addresses it, and shares why the work he does inspires him.
When somebody is Parcon’ing with somebody who might be in a chair— who might have the ability to maybe do a couple steps if they had somebody in kind of a dynamic balance with them or helping take off some of their weight— Then all of a sudden it becomes possible! There’s this invitation across ability to be able to create new possibilities for being in public, for being in the world, and it’s not just a singular thing.
~ Andrew Suseno (17:48)
The discussion explores Parcon Resilience as an innovative practice combining movement, community, and anti-racist principles. Andrew goes into the origins of Parcon Resilience, blending influences from contact improvisation and parkour to create relational and environmental somatic experiences. The practice emphasizes inclusivity, enabling people of all abilities to connect and express themselves, often in public spaces, to challenge societal norms about movement and relationships.
The conversation also addresses broader themes of racism, intersectionality, and ancestral connections. Andrew explains how Parcon Resilience helps people embody anti-racism by fostering empathy and honoring diverse experiences. Discussions include the socio-political implications of movement and the transformative potential of connecting with one’s environment, others, and ancestral history.
Takeaways
Inclusivity in movement practices — Parcon Resilience allows individuals of all abilities to engage in meaningful interactions.
Contact improvisation — The foundational principles emphasize shared weight and nonverbal communication between participants.
Anti-racism through movement — Parcon Resilience focuses on fostering race consciousness and addressing societal inequalities.
Connection to environment — Participants explore nontraditional spaces and movements to form deeper relationships with their surroundings.
Empathy and relational practices — The focus on shared experiences builds mutual understanding and challenges societal divisions.
Intersectionality in practice — The framework centers on people of color across various intersecting identities.
Cultural and ancestral connections — Honoring one’s past and culture through movement deepens personal and collective identity.
Challenging ableist norms — Activities break barriers between able-bodied individuals and those with disabilities.
Transforming public spaces — Movement activities in public invite diverse interactions and challenge conventional use of urban environments.
Think about this question for a moment. The Apollo program was massive in size and complexity. It was executed at an incredible pace (only eight years spanned Kennedy’s pledge to Armstrong’s steps) and it yielded innovations at a staggering rate.
Not just without email, but without computers or networks or cell phones or even hand calculators. They did it with paper, drafting tools and slide rules. Meetings, planning, and most importantly:
Communication.
All these tools that I have are only useful if I understand how they work. When you first start working in some field, you get the most basic tools—two manual, screwdrivers; one straight-blade and one Philips head. When you can tell me why the Philips head was invented, you can have a hand driver with interchangeable driver heads (“bits.”) When you can use them all… When you see a screw-head and pick the right bit… When you’ve exhausted your forearm from driving screws, then you can have a power driver. When you use the friction clutch correctly, you can have a larger power driver. And so on. (You can tell the quality of the craftsman by the way they maintain their tools. Yes, skilled persons can do great work with shitty tools. But at mastery level, the art is expressed in the tools themselves. Yes, all arts.)
So yes, you really do need to understand the different between wifi, cellular and Ethernet; between Apple’s IM, carrier SMS, and WhatsApp; between email, Google Docs, and Word.
How can engaging in partner-based movement games and external variables enhance physical adaptability and uncover gaps in personal movement practices?
Exploring how others shape our environment can lead to unexpected breakthroughs in movement and training.
[T]he point for me is, it’s someone else changing the environment. So you—as the person coming in and interacting with that environment—you can’t default to your patterns, because you have to react to something someone else is doing.
~ Nikkie Zanevsky (6:57)
The conversation explores the use of partner games and external tools, such as PVC pipes, to enhance movement and adaptability in physical training. The session focuses on creating scenarios where participants cannot rely solely on habitual patterns but must respond dynamically to changing environments. This approach draws from disciplines like Parkour, fighting monkey, and natural movement practices, aiming to challenge participants’ movement in new and unpredictable ways.
A significant emphasis is placed on the value of collaborative practice, as working with others exposes blind spots and encourages creative adaptation. The discussion highlights specific drills involving throwing, catching, and navigating around PVC pipes, with variations that challenge agility, coordination, and responsiveness. The role of environmental context, whether in natural outdoor settings or urban spaces, also plays a crucial part in shaping how participants engage with the exercises.
Takeaways
Engaging with partners — Training with others exposes blind spots and reveals movement weaknesses.
Because we can’t say no—because we might miss out on something if we did. We think “yes” will let us accomplish more, will give us more of what we want, when in reality it prevents exactly what we seek. All of us waste precious life doing things we don’t like, to prove ourselves to people we don’t respect, and to get things we don’t want.
Accepting and rejecting are two sides of the same coin. A lot—I contemplated writing “all”—of my problems came from being unable to intentionally say, “yes,” or being unable to intentionally say, “no.” When completely lacking the skill from either side of this coin, I’m a puppet for others. I’m one of those doormats that says, “WELCOME,” come on in and use me.
But simply developing both of the skills is not enough. I needed to learn to balance the skills; To balance the requirements of life with the pursuits of pleasure, leisure, and creativity. That requires a finer control of these, “yes,” and, “no,” skills.
I occasionally encounter people who speak of, “always saying, ‘yes and…’.” That’s utter nonsense. One can only say once to the pan-handler on the street asking for money, “yes, and take my house.” Or to the myriad of people clamoring for one’s attention online, “yes, and…” scrolling scrolling scrolling and… the whole hour is lost.
The mastery level of, “no,” and, “yes,” is to go beyond reacting to life—figuring out which tool to deploy in this situation—to intentionally using, “no,” and, “yes,” to navigate life.
Desire and aversion, though powerful, are but habits. And we can train ourselves to have better habits. Restrain the habit of being repelled by all those things that aren’t within your control, and focus instead on combating things within your power that are not good for you.
I have a confession to make: even though I love sound, I don’t really like sound equipment. […] Unfortunately, my bad attitude clashes with an important truth about audio storytelling: your equipment matters.
Today, more of a bookmarking post than deep thinking. If you do anything with recording interviews—or even if you just own ONE cable to charge your phone—this article is chock-full of neat ideas.
…of course, if you’re into recording, I recommend handing your cash/cards over to someone you trust before reading it. I confess I was off on a few sites hovering over the buy button on a few new toys. ;)
This editing continues until the painting is finished. The criterion for what constitutes a “finished” work is reaching the stage at which you are no longer sure whether applying additional changes makes it better or worse. So there is a real possibility of making things worse than they were by not stopping at the right moment. Incidentally, this is the main argument for taking frequent breaks from your work, even at the risk of interrupting a flow state. Doing so allows you to take a more detached, if not completely objective, look at the current state of your work and thus avoid making costly mistakes.
I also believe that stopping while in the flow state is a good way to set oneself up for the next working session. I call it “parking on the hill”—which is a reference to strategically parking one’s car, nose downhill, on a hill so that it can be jump-started using the manual transmission. When stopping a work session, it’s obvious how to pre-position all the physical materials, the space, etc.. But stopping mid-flow also means, in my opinion, your mind is “parked on a hill” as well.
Do you remember how you felt, and what you said, when you were trying to put forward the best version of yourself to win someone’s amorous attention? Really think about that for a minute.
Now, presuming you are lucky enough to be in a relationship at the moment—perform the following exercise:
Sit down with that person and start bragging about all of your shared stories as if they were things you did before you met them…
“One time, I went to the Grand Canyon in the winter and saw the most awesome snow squall blow up the valley!”
…then they counter with, “Neat! I once was strolling up a side street in Paris and I stumbled over a famous bakery that I’d read a book about—the Madelienes were to die for!”
“Wow! I once saw the sunset from the top of the Tokyo tower and then ate the best sushi…”
“I was in Trafalgar Square for Guy Fawkes night and then I went and listened to a Vespers concert in a church…”
“omg that reminds me I saw the Salisbury Cathedral and had this conversation with a random person who was crazy-passionate about how they built the cathedral…”
“…huh, I once hiked miles into the forest, to the top of a mountain in Kamakura Japan—oh, the mist and the wind and the trees where amazing.”
“wow! I spent a week in the French Alps with a couple of the people who created Parkour—except that’s not what they call it…”
“Really? I once rented a car and drove all over the Cottswalds in England…”
“Neat! I took a road trip to Boston and walked the entire Freedom Trail and had a picnic lunch at Bunker Hill in the shade.”