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OEP-RJ Accountability Meetings
Final Participant Group Announced on February 15 - This cohort is currently closed
Let’s hold each other accountable as we build on the educational work we’ve done in past years with a clear commitment to action. We will build space in our cohort to “do the work” personally, and to strategize together about organizing to dismantle systems of racism and oppression. What are the specific policies and practices in your communities that uphold racial injustice? Who is in charge of these policies? Who is already working on change efforts? How can you join or strengthen that work?
As a result of these meetings, you will gain more information about specific problems, possible solutions, and the pathway from here to there. In addition, you will develop and strengthen basic organizing skills and Kingian Nonviolence values. Ultimately, you will gain relationships within your community and within this Learning Action Community to sustain you over the long haul.
On Earth Peace’s Racial Justice Learning Action Community (LAC) seeks to be a place for engagement, education, accountability, collaboration, and action among advocates and organizations actively committed to working towards justice for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Our hope is for the creation of a Beloved Community that unleashes power and equips its members with community, capacity, and commitment to racial justice.
What to expect:
Training
Time to report on your activities since our last meeting
Personal sharing & discussion in small and large group settings
Spiritual power/practice
Music, art/imagery & community-building
Homework assignments including conducting individual research and relationship building within your own community
Facilitators:
Radiah Shabazz
Radiah Shabazz is a communications professional, racial equity expert, and mother, whose work is rooted in advancing racial equity and inclusion for Black and Indigenous communities of color, to ensure they all have the ability to exist in liberation while contributing to collective healing to combat the impacts of white inferiority complex. She holds a master's degree in social work from the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and a BA in journalism from Howard University. She is a former On Earth Peace racial justice organizer.
Tamera Shaw
Tamera Shaw is the racial justice organizing intern at On Earth Peace. She is currently studying African & African-American Studies and Psychology at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.
Matt Guynn
Matt Guynn is the director of church and community organizing at On Earth Peace. He serves on the Coordinating Committee of the Oregon Poor People's Campaign and is the co-editor of Resist, Organize, Transform: An Introduction to Nonviolence and Activism (2020). Matt is part of an international network of Kingian Nonviolence trainers and organizers.
WHENMay 05, 2021 at 7pm
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Matt Guynn published Kingian Nonviolence as a Resource for Community Leaders Today in Blog 2021-01-20 11:04:12 -0500
Kingian Nonviolence as a Resource for Community Leaders Today
"Structures of evil do not crumble by passive waiting. If history teaches anything, it is that evil is recalcitrant and determined, and never voluntarily relinquishes its hold short of an almost fanatical resistance. Evil must be attacked by a counteracting persistence, by the day-to-day assault of the battering rams of justice." – Martin Luther King, Jr., in his 1968 book "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?"
Isn’t it cognitive dissonance for a nonviolence practitioner like Dr. King to preach about the need for battering rams? Kingian Nonviolence is a philosophy of engaged action based in values like Beloved Community and attacking problems not people, and using tools like conflict analysis, dialectical thinking, and strategic campaigns, to help practitioners become grounded, hopeful individuals and build powerful efforts for a reconciled world. . . to become nonviolent battering rams.
In December 2020, twenty-nine people completed the coursework component of On Earth Peace’s Level One Certification in Kingian Nonviolence. This spring they can earn their certification through twenty hours of practice teaching. We asked three of our cohort members to reflect on Kingian Nonviolence as a resource for today’s conflicts and problems. All three shared their reflections in a Martin Luther King Day program convened by On Earth Peace on January 18, with participants from the US, UK, the Philippines and India.
Read on for reflections from:
- Dwight Dunston, co-founder and teaching artist, City Love, a West Philly-based social justice music and education group (Philadelphia, PA)
- Katie Shaw Thompson, pastor, Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren (Elgin, IL)
- Thomas Dowdy, pastor, Imperial Heights Church of the Brethren (Los Angeles, CA)
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Matt Guynn published Congregational Visit: University Baptist and Brethren Church, State College, PA in Blog 2020-10-14 15:40:22 -0400
Congregational Visit: University Baptist and Brethren Church, State College, PA
It was great to visit with folks in the adult education hour at University Baptist and Brethren Church in State College, PA, this weekend. We shared about their work for peace and justice, On Earth Peace's current program opportunities, and the Kingian Nonviolence framework. If you would like to schedule an OEP Program Update or Kingian Nonviolence intro session for your congregation, please contact [email protected]! - Matt Guynn, director of church and community organizing
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Matt Guynn commented on Congregational Peace Health Checkup 2018-07-16 13:14:28 -0400Thanks Ken and Gerald! I’ll follow up with both of you in a couple of weeks when we have more info to share about the pilot phase.
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MLK Day 2018
Thank you for your interest in Kingian Nonviolence.
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Then select "Send me the handout," and you'll receive a copy of On Earth Peace's handout, "Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Approach to Nonviolence."
Matt Guynn
Matt Guynn is director of organizing for church and community groups for On Earth Peace. He works with groups around the U.S. and internationally build capacity for nonviolence and develop projects to challenge violence and build justice. He has been part of Training for Change, an international social change training center based in Philadelphia, PA, for twenty years. He currently serves as co-chair for nonviolent moral fusion direct action training with the Oregon Chapter of the Poor People's Campaign. Guynn is a co-founder the Kingian Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, which provides online and face-to-face trainings and extends the Kingian Nonviolence legacy. He is a trainer with and serves on the training advisory council of PeoplesHub, an online social change training school. Matt has consulted with organizations including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Greenpeace USA, and previously worked as co-coordinator of training for Christian Peacemaker Teams, preparing people to carry out nonviolent direct action and unarmed accompaniment in conflict zones. He served as an unarmed bodyguard in Chiapas, Mexico. Matt holds a B.A. in Peace Studies (Manchester University, 1995), an M.A. in International Peace Studies (University of Notre Dame, 1996), and an M.A. in Theology (Bethany Theological Seminary, 2003). He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife Sarah and sons Daniel and Owen. On Twitter at @OEPNonviolence.