Dearly beloveds,
First, I just want to say thank you for being here, thank you for reading, thank you for believing in me! In a world with so many things competing for your attention, thank you for placing some of it here. Each and every subscribe has been a source of inspiration and encouragement, so seriously, with all my heart and being, thank you, thank you, thank you :)
Today, before I depart for our week-long break here in Costa Rica (Semana Santa), I want to share with you the poem I ended my nonviolence class with today.
The class was Strategic Nonviolent Resistance, and it was an intense learning and unlearning journey for all of us. When I did a mid-course feedback session with the students, one piece of feedback I received from a few students was wanting more lecture, which I was initially very resistant to. I try to provide a space for very dynamic and creative pedagogy in my classes, and lecturing is usually not a big part of it (if at all). But also wanting to meet students where they are and try to honor this request, I put together a final lecture for the class (there is probably a lot more to say about this and perhaps I will write more about it another time :)
To get over my resistance, I had to do it my way, and it came out as a poem. My vision for this poem was actually to have students collaborate with me on it, and for it to be a performed as a theatrical spoken word piece during our last class. These plans were crushed, however, when we were informed yesterday at 11am that local bridge construction was resulting in all classes being virtual for our last day. Campus is on top of a hill in a remote rural farming community and nature reserve, and there is a large creek we pass over on our way. The bridge is in need of repair. The last time they did bridge repair a week or two ago, it ended up taking longer than expected, resulting in some people also being stuck on campus longer than expected. The decision was made to have virtual classes rather than risk folks feeling (or actually being) stuck, which was probably for the best, even though I felt so sad that we would be virtual for our last time together (in the end, it was beautiful and we definitely made the most of it!). I see teaching as an energetic exchange, and it is not quite the same on Zoom, and I was really lamenting not being in person for our last hours together. However, we put on our fanciest Zoom filters and definitely made the best of the moment.
So I offer this poem to you, which I offered to the class in closing (I also sang All Apologies for them - maybe I will record it for you another time :). It is an attempt to capture the spirit of our time together in the three weeks during this intensive, intense class, which was full of deep, rich, beautiful, challenging, hard moments of learning, in all its complexity. You can imagine that the words in bold are read by many voices. You might read them aloud with me. You might also imagine - or even try yourself- adding embodiment to it.
Lecture
A poem for nonviolence class
You want a lecture? I’ll give you a lecture.
Stop.
Just. Stop.
Sometimes stopping is the most radical act we can take.
Stopping is resistance.
Stop.
Breathe.
Stopping in systems that just want us to go go go, to be more productive, that want more, more, more.
Stop giving our support to systems and structures that want to use us up.
Remove our support from the pillars and the whole thing can come crumbling down, as Gene Sharp taught us.
But nonviolent resistance is not just about our NO!
It is about our yes, yes, YES!
It is about our yearning
Our deepest longing
For a more peaceful, loving, just, well-rested world,
A world where many others fit, as the Zapatistas taught us.
It is about our everyday resistance.
It is about dreaming and daydreaming for that world.
Non-violence with a hyphen
Is just about not being violent
Not hurting, not harming,
Which is important
But
Nonviolence (no hyphen)
Is a power
PEOPLE POWER
Within each of us
The power to convert anger, fear, righteous rage
Into constructive change.
Nonviolence is about action
Dilemma action
Backfire and repression
Political jiu-jitsu
Understanding the movement ecosystem
The interplay of skills and conditions
And context, context, context,
And remembering that one story of hope is another’s story of struggle.
We have been on a learning and unlearning journey
A nonviolence odyssey
We have learned alongside
México
Serbia
Syria
Ukraine
Liberia
Iran - Women, Life, FREEDOM!
Myanmar
And others,
and all of the lands that hold us, form us, shape us, that make us who we are.
The lands we are speaking from, but not for.
These lands we are grateful for.
You may not be leaving with the clarity and certainty you seek
You might be leaving with more questions than answers
But leaving with NEW questions is perhaps the best thing you could be leaving with.
I hope you take with you the question of where learning happens
And where knowledge comes from
And how knowledge is created.
I hope you leave seeing the value in creating a space where the knowledge in the room can come forth
And where the wisdom within us can be drawn out.
I hope you are leaving with new questions than the ones you came in with.
That you take the learning, even when it was hard
And along with the hard,
That we struggled AND we played
That you remember the silly things we did together and the bursts of laughter (hahahahaha)
Twerking and moaning.
I hope you remember our collective creativity with the many activities we did together.
I hope you remember
Nonviolence is love in action
And you are love
In
Action
And you
are
loved.
Feliz Semana Santa a tod@s, and wherever you are, may you find joy, rest, ease, and play in the coming days.
With love,
Stephanie
Looking forward to one day co-presenting with you! You are what I consider to be one of the #couragekeepers of the planet: people with “Triple A personality” the right attitude, altitude ( perspective) and altruism to become mentors, mediators, and arbiters of peace in any setting.
🙏🏽💕