Edited by Tessa Hicks Peterson and Hala Khouri
North Atlantic Books
7/30/2024, paperback
SKU: 9798889840664
How do we do effective, sustainable social change... without burning out, internalizing systemic toxicity, or replicating urgency culture?
A trauma-informed anthology with contributions from 13 activists and community organizers--for readers of adrienne maree brown, Staci K. Haines, and Ejeris Dixon
When your work is inextricable from your identity, your community, and your own liberation, you need a unique praxis of care to sustain it--and for mission-driven activists, organizers, and changemakers working under oppressive systems, making space to center vital needs like rest, self-care, and healthy boundaries isn't as simple as clocking out.
Practicing Liberation reorients collective justice work toward a model that transforms the effects of injustice, harm, and oppressive systems into resilience, joy, and community care. Through frameworks like trauma-informed methodology, transformative movement organizing, engaged Buddhism, and healing justice, editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson show readers how to:
- Embody healing, wellness, and beloved community
- Guard against replicating systems of harm
- Disrupt racist, classist, anti-queer, and anti-trans behavior and systems
- Celebrate creativity and radical imagination in movement work
- Center healing from intergenerational trauma, white supremacy culture, and extractive capitalism
- Honor that self-care is a necessity--not a luxury--that strengthens our collectives
Featuring essays from editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson and contributors like Kazu Haga, Taj James, Nkem Ndefo, Jacoby Ballard, Sará King, Kerri Kelly, and more, Practicing Liberation can be used on its own or alongside The Practicing Liberation Workbook to help readers orient toward embodied leadership, interconnected collectives, and a bold vision for transformation--the vital tools we need for collective wellbeing, healing, and long-term social change.
Reviews:
"What a treasure during these turbulent times!" -- Pedro A. Noguera, PHD, dean at the Rossier School of Education, USC
"This anthology is a must-read for nonprofits, universities, communities, and organizations committed to changemaking." -- Beth Berila, PHD, faculty director of gender and women's studies, St. Cloud State University
"This interdisciplinary text arrives at a time when we need many robust examples of how we practice and think about liberation."--DR. Angel Acosta, chair of Acosta Institute
"This anthology is asking us to grow a new collective capacity and muscle memory stemming from justice, liberation, dignity, and healing--connective tissue that supports us being in more aligned movements together."--Farzana Khan, cofounder and codirector of Healing Justice London
About the Editors:
Tessa Hicks Peterson is a scholar activist and the Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement and Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Pitzer College. Dedicated to social justice, she combines art, movement, and academic rigor to empower communities.
Hala Khouri, MA, has spent over two decades integrating the worlds of therapy, yoga, and trauma research. An adjunct professor at Pitzer College, she's the force behind the Radical Wellbeing online community.