The initiatives listed below build on the bilingual (English-German) publication On the Softening of Our World: 81 Sayings – 81 Sprüche zur Enthärtung unserer Welt.

Eighty-one authors from fourteen countries and different professional backgrounds have participated in this publication project. It aims to make more visible, in both our private and professional lives, elemetns that we perceive as hard-set and rigid in our volatile world, and also make more tangible how such inhuman hardening may be overcome. The following lines from a poem by Bertolt Brecht served as an impulse for creative responses:

... how quite soft water, by attrition
over the years will grind strong rocks away.
in other words, that hardness must lose the day 

The book / ebook, edited by Manfred Schewe, was published in 2021 in Volume V of the Scenario Book Series (2nd edition 2023) and can be ordered directly via the publisher's website here. 

Past and current initiatives include: 

• 81 SAYINGS PODCAST SERIES by Sukhesh Arora.
  
  'The Legend of the Origin of the Tao Te Ching on Lao Tsu's Road into exile' is a short poem by Bertolt Brecht whose protagonist, Lao Tsu attempts to distil his learning down into 81 Sayings. It served as a creative impulse for 81 authors from all over the world who came together after the Covid-19 pandemic to reimagine what these 81 Sayings could have been. In the podcast, Sukhesh Arora speaks to some of the authors who make visible the rigidity in our volatile world, and also make more tangible how such hardening may be overcome.
  
  Further details will be made available to subscribers at: https://81sayings.transistor.fm/  

• Public Reading /Discussion, based on a selection of texts from the book publication

A Public Reading/Discussion – in support of teams of the Irish Red Cross working on the ground in Ukraine – took place at the Everyman Theatre, Cork, on May 17, 2022. The event was streamed and can now be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psAlMUSgm_M

• Creative writing: Readers of the "81 Sayings"-book were encouraged to create their your own saying and commentary. You will find a few examples  here. 
  
  
• Teaching & Learning: We would like to encourage teachers to use (a selection of) texts from the "81 Sayings book" in their classes/seminars.  
  
  
• Theatre-related Projects: We would encourage drama & theatre facilitators to  respond in creative ways to Bertolt Brecht's poem Legend of the origin of the book Tao-te-Ching on Lao-Tsu's road into exile (1938), especially to the following lines from the poem: how quite soft water, by attrition / over the years will grind strong rocks away / in other words, that hardness must lose the day.

Should you have suggestions for further "81 Sayings-related" initiatives please please let us know. 

Contact: project81plus@gmail.com 

Biodata of Project Coordinators:

Sukhesh Arora, based in Berin, is an actor, performancemaker and educator whose work explores a diverse mesh of interests spanning film, audio, games, the web and live theater. Sukhesh trained in theater pedagogy and physical theater with an emphasis on embodied learning practices. In 2022 he received a Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF) research grant which aims at generating new knowledge and build capacities via interdisciplinary research that can contribute to equitable, socially just and environmentally sustainable futures.

Manfred Schewe is Professor Emeritus at University College Cork (UCC) where he served as Head of a Language Department (German) and also as Head of Theatre. He paved the way for the Scenario Project at UCC which encompasses a journal, a book series and a forum for international conferences, symposia and colloquia. His teaching and interdisciplinary research activities focus on performative approaches to Language, Literature and Culture. He continues to give lectures and lead workshops in different parts of the world. For further details see: http://research.ucc.ie/profiles/A016/mschewe