Sunday September 12, 9a-1p Pacific Time

In the midst of escalated violence and destruction, we seek to cultivate the courage to engage in an equally escalated nonviolent response. Nonviolent Direct Action, defined as “the strategic use of immediately effective, disobedient acts to achieve a political or social goal and challenge an unjust power dynamic,” is a necessity in this time of crisis. 

For the Yet-To-Be-Named Network it is also a core commitment. Together we aim to build a movement home where people will find a place of belonging, as well as the support and healthy mutual accountability that will enable us to step into the front lines of the struggle in an authentic, powerful, heart-centered way. 

We are nurturing the emergence of a different culture in direct action organizing spaces. Inviting a spirit that we do not always see when engaging in direct action. One of healing. One of fierce vulnerability. One that uplifts the humanity of all people, and which seeks to defend life in all its forms.

Join us as we explore:

• What direct action means to members of YTBN, and how that understanding may differ from that of other practitioners of direct action.
• What it would look like to “shut down” business as usual while “opening up” opportunities for healing and connection.
• How we make direct action into ceremony, ritual, creative and artistic expression, a modality of healing.
• What systems are needed to support people in engaging in direct action.
  
  

NOTE: This is not a traditional Nonviolent Direct Action (NVDA) workshop, and it can be a powerful complement to traditional NVDA workshops. We will be talking less about things like organizing blockades and engaging with the press, and more about things like how we tend to the energetic field that we co-create when we are in action spaces. This will introduce participants to how YTBN views direct action, without a lot about the nuts and bolts of how one organizes an action. 

THE TRAINERS

Kazu Haga, founder and member of the core team of East Point Peace Academy, has over 20 years of experience in nonviolence, restorative justice, training, and organizing. He has been trained by movement elders such as Dr. Bernard Lafayette and Rev. James Lawson. Kazu spent over ten years working in social justice philanthropy while being directly involved in many social movements, from the Global Justice Movement of the late 1990s to Occupy Oakland. He has been a Kingian Nonviolence trainer since 2009, is a Core Member of the Ahimsa Collective, and is the author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm.

Luis Miranda - These days, Luis (he/him/el) organizes with networks of community members to show up for the undocumented community living in Utah. Professionally, he is trained in conflict transformation, restorative justice, trauma-informed approaches, and process design. As an organizer, Luis has organized with the Justicia Ya transparency movement in Guatemala and multiple youth peace movements in Colombia. Outside of organizing, he enjoys mindfulness, exploring the Utah wilderness, dancing hip hop, and baking bread.

Emma Schoenberg is a Vermont-born trainer and  community organizer.. As part of the Climate Disobedience Center she works within communities from across different movements to build transformational campaigns, relationships, and collective power. She is the co-founder of NoCoalNoGas, the direct action campaign to close the last coal plant in New England. Previously, her work has touched on direct action and civil disobedience, protest deescalation, anti-oppression education, conflict engagement work, mutual aid, food and housing justice, and policy organizing. When not organizing, Emma lives in an intentional community in Burlington, VT - unceded Abenaki territory - and likes to spend time outdoors and with friends and family.