On March 16, 2023, disability and performance scholar and artivist Petra Kuppers gave a movement workshop and talk to students in Non Conforming: Disability and the Arts, taught by Stephanie Sherman, and Feminist Art, taught by Cindy Bello. The event explored contemporary disability culture performance through co-experienced embodiment in unequally distributed, not-always-accessible power fields. Traditional somatics teach us how to hone our introspective senses and expand our bodies’ worlds; Eco Soma methods extend that attention toward the creative possibilities of the connection between self, others, and the land from a critical disability perspective. Eco Soma proposes an art/life method of sensory tuning to the inside and the outside simultaneously, which allows for a wider opening toward ethical cohabitation within human diversity, and with more-than-human others.

Below are some of the participants’ written and visual responses to Petra Kuppers’ workshop. After leading students in a guided “eco-soma” meditation, Kuppers asked them to meditate on what “practices of peace” look like to them.

This project was funded by an endowment gift to support The Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Series at CCA, an annual series of public programs focused on creative activism.

"The Show: People care about each other. My heart feels pain."

"Love, Community, Speech, Family, Connect, Build, Reflect, Grow / Peace can be a practice of healing, mending, but it is also our living, our community thrives in peace. It may be turbulent in its journey, but it LIVES on..."

"Grounding oneself in nature, connecting to the animal of our bodies. Experiencing each breath and where our body connects with the ground that supports us. Where does our body end and the dirt begin? Try to be present, so not shy away or overthink it. Are you safe? Are your needs met? Are you content? Do you feel alive? Listen to your heart beat, imagine blood coursing through your veins, your nervous system alight with minute messages. Peace can take many forms."

"yellow frames, dark green blue lipstick / glides, rolls, moves, wheels, whirls, soft motor, drives / joy, community, trance, and mystery / 'dream journey' / score / speculative imagination, seeing something—removal of loss / my left is on fire, it traps(?), it's cold, i'm compressed, i am on fire / i'm rocking / received shave crystals from a shadowy dark form / roots to pools / body at material form mindfully subverting the score"

"When I see people in things / the little things / the massive / in between (my dreams, day or night) / I want to see the best for them / to go, boundless forever, perhaps / like shooting stars, they smolder / in my visions and the / here now after. / I cannot create the massive, / the best for them, /but the little things? / When I peel an orange and shave / it, I hope you taste it. / I hold space, make it so, for the / little things, and share, / for you." —Aris Ruff

"That space / of breath—and connection / standing at the top of a hill in four directions / Peace is not all still, or quiet— / It is everyone listening to everyone / and everything / and every being / the moment of eye to eye held for longer / embraces that last longer than 30 seconds / and melt / Utopias that might never be but are worth fighting for / —that space is impossible without justice— / Peace is not silence / it is after the storm when the parts have / loosened and the foundation has moved / enough for the chiropractors to adjust the / social body so that our bones align / and there is space for everyone / to listen"

"breathe / breathe / taste the air / drink the air someone else has breathed before / drink the lung shadow of another / take into your blood the ghosts of others / breathe / breathe / the circuit of connection." —Petra