Fierce Vulnerability: Direct Action That Heals and Transforms

Move beyond tactics of shaming and blaming in call-outs and cancel culture with a powerful new approach to difficult political conversations from Healing Resistance author Kazu Haga.

Seasoned campaigner and political organizer Kazu Haga reveals an unexpected yet effective way to defuse potentially explosive situations, whether at a protest or at an uncomfortable family dinner: to act courageously with ＂fierce vulnerability.＂ Activists and concerned citizens on the frontlines of change will learn to engage in social movements with a different spirit, one that aligns with our deepest values around the healing and dignity of all people.

Escalated forms of harm require an equally escalated response. Yet social justice activists often have a tendency to fall into an ＂us vs. them,＂ ＂right vs. wrong＂ worldview as their tactics escalate, which can derail true social transformation and healing. In Fierce Vulnerability, author Kazu Haga argues that this binary worldview is at the heart of what is destroying our relationships and our planet, and offers a new way to create healing at all levels of society by combining the time-honored lineage of nonviolent action with the sciences of trauma healing. In answering the question, ＂How do I engage in efforts for change that match the intensity of the destruction of all I love--my family, my community, the planet?＂ Fierce Vulnerability helps us meet today’s challenges with the transformational power of taking a stand without demonizing our opponents and causing further harm.

Kazu Haga is the founder of the East Point Peace Academy and the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Award from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Gil Lopez Award for Peacemaking. He trains groups in nonviolence, conflict reconciliation, restorative justice, organizing, and mindfulness in prisons and jails, high schools and youth groups, and with activist communities around the country. Haga was introduced to the work of social change and nonviolence in 1998, when at the age of 17 he particiated in the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage; a 6-month walking journey from Massachusetts to New Orleans to retrace the slave trade. He spent a year studying nonviolence and Buddhism while living in monasteries throughout South Asia, and returned to the US at age 19 to begin a lifelong path in social justice work. He is the founding board chair of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), serves on the board of PeaceWorkers, and is a member of the Ahimsa Collective and The Evolutionary Leaders. He resides in Oakland, CA.