In January 2005, Foundry Artistic Producer, Melanie Joseph attended the 5th World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil (MJ’s American Theatre Article). The WSF, whose motto “Another World Is Possible,” is the largest gathering of civil society in the world, and in history.  It brings together tens of thousands of people from the growing global justice movement to imagine, share, refine alternative economic, political, ecological, and organizing strategies and inform each other about movements and new practices from around the world. The intention is to make space for diverse peoples to think together on a globalized basis about the connection between local and international issues, to make room – in greater depth each year – for newly imagined alternatives to the dominant world model in which capital, instead of people, is the organizing principle of public and private institutions.  
Given the Foundry’s mission, we held this teach-in to begin to explore how (and why) artists might participate in the ways ‘another world’ is being imagined and built in this progressive, global discourse.