Beyond Burnout: Sustaining Ourselves and Each Other in Social Movements
With Aditi Juneja, Anthonine Pierre and Kate Johnson
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
7:00 PM–8:30 PM
Practice:
Equanimity Meditation and Group Journaling
How are the next generation of social justice activists learning from the past and building the future of compassionate action? Aditi Juneja (lawyer, activist, and co-creator of Self-Care Sundays) and Anthonine Pierre (community organizer and deputy director of the Brooklyn Movement Center) join host Kate Johnson to discuss new perspectives on using technology and self-care to avoid burnout and build social movements that are accessible, sustainable, and deeply relational.
Learn an equanimity meditation to help you connect with the vision of the long arc of history that bends toward justice and honor your contribution to that arc. Also take part in a guided journaling practice that will help you reflect on your passions, skills, and experiences and discover new ways to effect positive change by starting where you are.
About Compassionate Action
How can we cultivate the power within us to balance the power between us? Join meditation teacher Kate Johnson, co-creator and host of Compassionate Action, a series of interactive evenings with artists, changemakers, culture creators, and healers who leverage the power of spirit to fuel their transformative work in the world. Each session will include a conversation, a meditation, and an activity to integrate the learnings. You will have a chance to strengthen your skills to access the clarity, connection, and courage needed to effect change in challenging times. We hope you will leave fortified, inspired, and more skilled to turn your wise intentions into compassionate action.
About the Speakers
Aditi Juneja is a lawyer, writer, and activist who currently serves as a communicator at Protect Democracy. She co-created the Resistance Manual and OurStates.org, and also created and hosted the podcast Self Care Sundays. She graduated from NYU Law in May 2017 and was recently named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 for Law and Policy in 2018.
As deputy director of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC), Anthonine Pierre works to implement BMC’s organizing strategy and its capacity to nurture social and political leadership in Central Brooklyn. She directs the organization’s efforts in base-building and leadership development. She also leads BMC’s issue campaigns on police accountability and anti-street harassment.
As a founding staff member, she has played an integral role in the development of BMC’s organizational structure, organizing alliances, and membership base. Anthonine’s work at BMC is a commitment to cultivating fierce, powerful Black communities, informed by over ten years of experience in grassroots organizing, public policy, and government relations. Anthonine is a lifelong Brooklynite and enthusiasm enthusiast. When she’s not working at BMC, she’s usually looking for the Wiz with her friends the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow.
Kate Johnson works at the intersections of spiritual practice, social action, and creativity. She has been practicing Buddhist meditation in the Western Insight/Theravada tradition since her early twenties and is empowered to teach through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She holds a BFA in dance from the Alvin Ailey School at Fordham University and an MA in performance studies from NYU.
Kate is a core faculty member of MIT’s Presencing Institute and has trained hundreds of leaders and changemakers in Social Presencing Theater, a mindfulness and dance improvisation methodology used to inform strategic planning and systems change in our complex world.