Social imagination today

On this page, the Maxine Greene Center affiliates describe how social imagination as influenced by Maxine Greene is being addressed in their programs. Please let us know how your community, institution or classroom is implementing these practices and ideas inspired by Dr. Greene's works. Contact us at info@maxinegreene.org

"We also have our social imagination: the capacity to invent
visions of what should be and what might be in our deficient
society, on the streets where we live, in our schools."
- Maxine Greene, Releasing the Imagination, p. 5

Imagination, Inquiry, and Innovation Institute

Maxine Greene speaks of Anna Deavere Smith's work as a singular example of the use of social imagination in our world today.

In March, 2013, at the i4 conference at the College of New Rochelle in collaboration with the MG Center, actor Anna Deavere Smith shared her social imagination with conference participants and guests, in the form of an unusual Keynote Speech. She embodied the voices of others, transfixing the audience by bringing to life stories of injustice and inequality from around the world, in the very words of those who have suffered them.

Anna Deavere Smith gives her Keynote Address

Preemptive Education and Urban Word, NYC

Poet laureates from Urban Word, NYC write and perform their works bringing the voice of urban youth to the public bringing new awareness to their lives.

Performers from Urban Word, NYC "Preemptive
Education" ceremony hosted by the Institute
for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers
College in New York City
- an occasion honoring Dr. Maxine Greene