The Institute of General Semantics
and
The New York Society for General Semantics
Are Proud to Present a Screening of
Man on a Mission
A Film By
Dina Bruno Ciborowski
and
Robert Albrecht
Man on a Mission (2023) tells the remarkable story of Carmine Tabone whose lifelong mission was to explore the innovative uses of the arts and play in the education and socialization of children. As we
entered more deeply into the electronic revolution, Tabone uncovered multiple ways in which the arts and play could be used as media to motivate the development of oral communication, literacy, and social interaction. The video focuses primarily on Tabone’s work as founder and director of a day camp in Jersey City where he and his staff of artists and educators created an oral environment as a means of counter-balancing the power and prestige of electronic media.
Tabone’s approach to education—part theory, part praxis—can be appreciated as a practical application of ideas postulated by both Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman who understood the critical need for counter-environments in the electronic age.
Engaging, hopeful, and joyous… What a force. All so impressive. The unmitigated joy, happiness, and outstanding creative expression on the faces of the children not to mention the spillover into their lives was a revelation. I found myself singing, swinging my arms, and dancing to the infectiousness of it all.
—Teri McLuhan, author and filmmaker
The film is the epitome of Postman's call for loving resistance fighters.
—Lance Strate, IGS President & Professor of Communication & Media Studies, Fordham University
I can honestly say that I use Educational Arts strategies every day. It helps my children become deeper thinkers, it helps them identify with characters and situations in stories, it increases their comprehension. The writing pieces that follow, the judgement pieces we can do, all enhance our curriculum’s focus.
—Danielle Chiaro (Jersey City Middle School Teacher)
A Q&A session featuring Robert Albrecht and Carmine Tabone will follow the screening.
About the Directors:
Robert Albrecht is the current President of the Media Ecology Association and served briefly at Arts Editor of ETC. Albrecht began his work with Carmine Tabone and the Educational Arts Team/Camp Liberty at the same time he began his doctoral work in Media Ecology at New York University with Neil Postman. “Neil’s ideas obviously influenced my work with children and the arts just as my work with Carmine influenced all my subsequent media ecology scholarship.” For 40 years, Albrecht worked as a musician and workshop leader in Jersey City schools and at the Camp. He is also the author of numerous children’s plays that were produced on stage at Camp Liberty. Along with Mr. Tabone, Albrecht is the author of The Arts and Play as Educational Media in the Digital Age (2020), winner of the Media Ecology Association’s prestigious Susanne Langer Award.
Dina Bruno Ciborowski began her professional life doing improvisation theater in New York City but came to the realization that her background with improv, acting games and role play could be used more profitably to work magic in the primary school classroom. Suddenly students who were bored and detached from schooling were engaged and active participants in the learning experience. Over the past two decades, her creative work with children in Jersey City has included supervising a teen arts program, the co-creation of a number of plays, skits and puppet shows, and continued work with the art and drama techniques that act as powerful tools cultivating literacy, teaching life lessons and supporting social and emotional learning. Dina died in October of 2023 shortly after completing this film. She is missed by everyone who knew her smile, laughter, dedication and insight.
Registration is free. All attendees must be registered in order to gain admittance to the club. This includes any guests you might want to bring with you.
The program will take place in the Dining Hall on the 1st floor of the club. Please note that, as an historic 19th century landmark, the site is not handicap accessible. Dress code is business casual and is strictly enforced, including no sneakers, shorts, ripped jeans, t-shirts).
