A workshop titled 'Beautiful Trouble: Nonviolence, Risk and Social Change' will be held Saturday, July 5, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., at the UU Church of Belfast. A lunch break will occur from 12:30-1:30 p.m. (bring a sack lunch, or purchase lunch just a block away in Belfast).

This workshop, led by Ethan Hughes, is a deep dive into Nonviolent Direct Action, Collective Liberation, and Integral Nonviolence, as well as into regulating our nervous systems and opening our hearts to access the clarity, creativity, and courage needed for this time. The training will span from strategic planning and action, all the way to transforming enemy identities and responding to the Crisis through a trauma-healing lens. Hard skills will range from points of intervention and spectrum of allies to responding to active violence and the basics of being a street medic.

"We are in a poly-crisis of hatred, division, war, the sixth mass extinction, late-stage capitalism, corporate control, trauma, and the list goes on," said Aimee Moffitt-Mercer, in a news release. "It is time to build our capacity to respond and follow our hearts no matter if that means nonviolently breaking laws or placing ourselves in danger. It is time to build stronger communities, to protect one another and our natural relations, and to leave no one out."

Ethan Hughes has over 35 years of experience causing "beautiful trouble." He has participated in nonviolent direct actions and disaster response efforts ranging from the WTO action in Seattle to Mountain Valley Pipeline, Line Three, the water shutoffs in Detroit, the Occupy movement, and Hurricane Katrina. He has lovingly blocked pipelines with a piano and also with a giant sculpture of a wood duck. He is one of the cofounders of the Fierce Vulnerability Network, the Internal Family Systems Liberation Collective, and the Possibility Alliance.

There is enough room for 100 participants. No need to RSVP.

There is no participation fee, but donations will be collected, 100% of which will go directly to the Wabanaki-led Bomazeen Land Trust.

Church of Belfast is located at 37 Miller Street, Belfast. Enter on the left side of the building. 

Please call Ethan Hughes with any questions: 207-338-5719 (It's a landline, so no texting capacity, sorry.)