Fierce Vulnerability

Mobilizing the Power to Stop Harm, Cultivating the Love to Heal In times of collapse, we need a movement that recognizes injustice as a reflection of collective trauma and embraces its role as a catalyst for collective healing through transformative action. We are living in a world where the depths of division, violence, and destruction can no longer be ignored. From political polarization leading to the erosion of the democratic process to the climate crisis continuing to perpetuate racial inequity, we need changes that heal harms at the personal and systemic levels. Escalated forms of harm require an equally escalated response. Yet social movements often use tactics that have a tendency to escalate an "us vs. them," "right vs. wrong" worldview not conducive to healing. In Fierce Vulnerability, activist and author Kazu Haga argues this binary worldview is at the heart of what is destroying our relationships and our planet and offers a new way to create healing by combining the time-honored lineage of nonviolent action with the sciences of trauma healing and the promises of spiritual practice. Fierce Vulnerability realizes we can't "shut down" injustice any more than we can "shut down" trauma; if healing is our goal, we need social movements that center relationships and promote healing.

Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of Building Belonging, the Ahimsa Collective and the Fierce Vulnerability Network, is a Jam facilitator and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm. He works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country. He has over 25 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work and is the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Award from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Gil Lopez Award for Peacemaking. He is a resident of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA, where he lives with his family. You can find out more about his work at www.kazuhaga.com.