Before there was language, there was laughter. And since the first guffaw, laughter has always been the healthiest form of human expression serving the function of releasing tension, creating emotional space to move beyond discomfort, and closing the gap between pain and pleasure. With this project, we will leverage the human need to evolve past difficulties by constructively using the natural response of laughing with others to foster deeper relating.

The Liberation Comedy Project was born out of the awareness that our ability to laugh at situations and ourselves is a telltale sign that we have processed the more challenging emotions in the human expression toolkit. In order to laugh, one has to engage their reflective capacities as well as be willing to accept a certain level of vulnerability and responsibility. We can only laugh at what has been exposed.  Also, typically certain contextual and social conditions have to be present for laughter to occur or be appropriate. Therefore, to invite a laugh and to know when to accept that invitation, one must have an attuned sense of relational awareness. But, most of these faculties are enculturated and relegated to the unconscious mind. With the Liberation Comedy Project, we help participants examine their "sense of humor" and learn how to activate it consciously in the service of bridging divides and connecting across difficult subjects.

Project Director Bio:

Pedro Silva has been a conscious student of the human experience for most of his life. Fascinated by what makes us do what we do, he has studied culture and human motivation from a variety of angles.

Leveraging his upbringing as a multi-hyphenate American, he took his exposure to the many races, cultures, and beliefs that informed his worldview and developed a relational framework that facilitates navigating a variety of contexts. In his evolving career in spaces as diverse as Military Intelligence and ministry, he cultivated an understanding of how culture is often the silent communicator in most human interactions. And how, when unexamined, can unconsciously hinder relational progress.

He further refined this understanding through his linguistic studies at the Defense Language Institute, a certification in Diversity Training Management, and through earning his M.Div from Andover Newton Theological School. But, it was serving as a pastor for a decade, working with people in every station of society, that convinced Mr. Silva of the power of narrative structure to shape or shackle people, either binding us to a futureless story doomed to repeating the past, or liberating us from those binds and inviting us into an ever-evolving story replete with relational possibilities.

Now, in his work outside of the pulpit, Pedro’s concentrating his talents on helping people move beyond the stories that no longer serve them, their families, and their communities so that we can recreate a story that brings us closer to one another, wherever we come from. He currently serves as the Director of Engagement at YOUnify.