Shannon Litzenberger is keenly committed to the exploration and rehearsal of new ways in doing and being in the practice of art and living. As a dancer and performance maker, her work explores our relationship to land, the politics of belonging, and the forgotten wisdom of the body. She collaborates frequently with the wind in the leaves collective and has been an invited resident artist with major arts organizations nationwide. As a skilled freelance strategist, leadership developer, and embodiment facilitator, she works with organizations in the arts, academia, and the corporate sector.

Sparked by her own experiences and observations of Canada’s cultural reality during and emerging out of the pandemic, Shannon wrote a powerful essay titled, State of Emergence: Why we need artists right now. Anchored in systems and policies shaping society, she asks the question: What would it mean to ambitiously mobilize artists to do their most essential work well and fully, with the aim of catalyzing transformative change? She goes on to ask, Could the chaotic domain of the artist’s creative process be the fertile ground from which a healthier and more sustainable, just, and caring society emerges?

Stephen Nachmanovitch, an accomplished and classically trained violinist, has for years been espousing the life affirming power of stepping away from the notes on the sheet to explore the freedom of playing between, within and around the notes, of music, art and life as one beautiful composition. He performs and teaches internationally at the intersections of multimedia, performing arts, ecology and philosophy. He is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (1990) and The Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of Life (2019); both of which make the compelling argument “that artistic power is available to anyone at any moment. It is not a psychological tool or an artistic one...it is a way of being.”

For more information on Stephen and his work, visit www.freeplay.com

Brent Allan has always led with heart, art and a deep passion to make positive impact on the world he encounters. Drawing strength from his early personal experiences during the dark days of the HIV crisis in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver, Brent has come to be recognized globally as a highly respected and sought after advocate and crusader for people living with HIV, through education, the arts, health policy and practice and industry. The way they have defined and designed life, community and family speaks to a true embodiment of the creative spirit. In fact, Brent often finds themself being sought after by peers and professional colleagues when they are in search of unconventional wisdom and fresh perspective. I caught up to Brent at their home, bearing the wildly saucy name, Buggery Acres on the Da Da Wjurng lands of the Kulin Nation just north of Melbourne, Australia.

You can find a documentary on the HIV Science as Art project that Brent curated for the 2023 International HIV Conference in Brisbane by visiting ordinarypodcasts.com and clicking on the Ellipses Thinking page which will take you to this specific episode.