CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE BOOK CIRCLE ON EVENTBRITE
The Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV) presents a series of antiracism book circles as an act of radical education and collaboration. Our hope is to provide a unique opportunity to process the impact of the renewed call for gender and racial equity in our society. Our goal is to create a space in which participants may collectively and individually gain understanding that will result in healing, inclusion and empowerment. More importantly, they provide a way to maintain energetic human connections through virtual meeting spaces. Past circles have included participants from around the world to create transformative and educational learning containers.
Schedule and Logistics
We will be meeting weekly via Zoom, on Mondays, 5:00 to 6:30 PT, beginning April 11 for 10 weeks, through Monday, June 13th.
This program is offered to our community on donation basis, funds go to support the work of RCNV, to cover the costs of administration and co-facilitators training. Any amount is highly appreciated, traditionally we suggest $25 per person, or more for those wishing to grant space to others, but any donation amount is accepted and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
After you register and as our circle start date nears, your co-facilitators will reach out with more details. We look forward to having this journey together.
About this book
How To Be An Antiracist is an autobiography of Ibram X. Kendi’s own mistakes and growth as a Black man dealing with racism, his own racism and the racism embedded in our society. This circle will use How To Be An Antiracist to guide us through reflection on where racism lives in our upbringing, our lives, our culture, our systems. Facilitators will pose questions from Kendi’s newly published companion book, Be Antiracist: A Journal for Awareness, Reflection and Action, for discussion and journaling. Participants are asked to obtain and read How To Be An Antiracist (Bookshop Santa Cruz is ordering more copies!). Purchase of the Journal book is optional.
This is a powerful opportunity for white people trying to “do the work” to create community through reflecting with others and developing our commitment to antiracism beyond what we could develop on our own. We will support each other in our vulnerability, truth telling and practice of how to embody antiracism more of the time. Sessions will vary between covering the book’s material, with mindful/ heart-centered introspective exercises, group process, and somatic/embodiment practices.
Who can join
This book circle will be facilitated by 3 white-bodied co-facilitators and is offered to people who identify as white to support ourselves in doing our essential work to live and serve an equitable multiracial society.
Everyone who feels called to do this work is welcome. We ask for your commitment to all sessions and that you notify the co-facilitators if you need to miss a session.
Your Circle Facilitators
Jill Schetter-Susskind (she/her) is a white woman of Jewish ancestry. Jill is a parent and a preschool teacher/owner, and is experienced in group facilitation. Jill lives in Santa Cruz, land of the original Uypi, Awawas-speaking people.
Alain Desouches (he/him) is a white man, born in France, and lives between Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley on unceded territory of the Awaswas people.
Peter Klotz-Chamberlin (he/him) is a white man of Protestant European ancestry. Peter brings experience in nonviolence education, developed during his lifetime as part of the Resource Center for Nonviolence. Peter lives in Santa Cruz, unceded Uypi land, now represented by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.
RCNV Note on Affinity & Mixed Race Groups
The Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV) mission is to highlight social injustice and to offer education on alternative/nonviolent action into healing racism and systemic violence. RCNV, through the book circles program, offers a safe container to go deep into the self and community transformative work.
At the RCNV, we also acknowledge the need to dismantle white supremacy through creating space for affinity groups in our book circles to go deeper. People of color need the space to show up freely in our community to express their emotions away from the conditioned white spaces. At the same time, white people are in need to do their work of dismantling white supremacy in their own skin by being vulnerable with those who relate to their experience. We are aware that people from all cultures have similar human emotions but humans are also different in how they experience life, given to them through the racial, religious, ethnic and cultural lens.
Due to the sensitive racial nature of the books offered, the RCNV’s racial equity policy offers separate affinity groups to respect the process of participants and to provide more safety and depth in the circle. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Book circles are co-facilitated by facilitators of all races; and affinity groups are facilitated by facilitators who identify within that affinity group. Mixed race individuals are welcome to join affinity groups matching their self-identification. Our co-facilitators will do their best to support every participant in their process. Our book circles provide spaces to practice mutual respect, collaboration, and the creation of an inclusive community.