Freedom in Jail

Participants of the two-day workshop

“These past two days, I didn’t even feel like I was in jail,” remarked one of the participants of this month’s two-day workshop inside the San Bruno County Jail.  It was two days filled with intense discussions and important lessons for all of us, as trainers and participants.

It’s an honor for us every time we have the opportunity to go inside, and hearing comments like this really reinforce our commitment to this work.  To be able to feel free in a community with so much violence – even if for only a moment – makes the early morning trip all the way across the bay well worth it.

And it really didn’t feel like we were in jail.  Jonathan and I are obviously in a VERY different place than the rest of the guys – we get to go home at the end of the day.  But the two days we spent with these 19 men were some of the funnest and inspiring times we’ve had in a while.  The jokes, the stories, the conversations, the lessons.

Help PPWN Reach $10,000 Matching Goal!!!

Click Image to Donate!!!

The Positive Peace Warrior Network has recently received a $10,000 challenge grant from our friends at Peace Workers!!!  That means if we are able to raise $10,000 between now and the end of the summer, Peace Workers will double that money by awarding us with $10,000 more!  Peace Workers is a community of activists in the Bay Area working to nurture peace, justice, reconciliation and nonviolence in the world today.

We are grateful for this oppurtunity, and excited to kick off our first ever fundraising campaign!!!  We need to raise $10,000 by the end of this summer in order to receive the funds, and we need your help to meet our goal!!!  Every dollar you give will count twice with this match.  Please help us out by donating and sharing this with your friends.  Every dollar will count (twice!), especially since we are an incredibly small operation who have become experts at making money stretch and keeping the work going even when there is no money.  Throughout this past year, we saw how much we can accomplish with no money.  As we move forward, we are so excited to think about how much more we will be able to do with the proper resources backing us up.

As we look around our world, we see examples of violence everywere.  From the war in Afghanistan to the police killing of 18-year old Alan Blueford in Oakland to the internal, emotional and spiritual violence so many of us carry inside, it sometimes seems impossible to escape.  Yet, Dr. King reminded us that the Universe is on the side of justice.  As hard as that may be to believe, those of us who are involved in the struggle for justice believe that if we continue to push, if we continue stay focused on our vision and continue to struggle, we will ultimately see justice.

Part of our challenge is about shifting our priorities and shifting our narrative.  We need to shift our anger to love.  We need to shift our narrative from focusing on what we want to tear down to focusing on what we want to build.  And we need to shift our investments in violence to an investment in peace.  As a society, we spend billions investing in war, a broken criminal justice system, corporate tax breaks, and other failed unjust policies.  The return on those investments?  An endless cycle of war, violence, and destruction.  And as a society, how much do we invest in peace?  It’s no wonder that we are surrounded by violence.

Real, lasting Positive Peace will not come on it’s own.  As Dr. King said, true peace is not merely an abense of violence, but the presence of justice.  And in a world filled with injustice, justice is something we need to work towards and invest in.  Only when our investments in peace begin to match our investment in violence will we begin to see the changes that we so despareately need.

So join us in making an investment in bringing about a true, sustainable and lasting Positive Peace.  Join us by donating, spreading the word, or finding other ways to support our work.

We want to thank Peace Workers and everyone else for all of the support you have already shown, and thank you all in advance for your ongoing support.  Our first year, a year where we went without any grants, fundraising or even a bank account, showed us that our work can have a huge impact in our communities, and we know that the support that we need to maintain our work is out there.  We look forward to continuing to work with all of you.

Positive Peace,
Kazu & Jonathan

Oakland’s Street Art

A scene from the Oakland Wall of Fame

Reason #1,209 why I love Oakland: The ridiculous amount of public art that is all over the place.  If you don’t have money to go to a museum in San Francisco, you can walk around the streets of Oakland and be treated to a world class gallery.

Oakland often times gets a bad rap.  People talk about how screwed up things are here, how violent it is, etc.  And all of that is true.  But Oakland is also one of the most amazing cities I’ve been to, and it a place I am now proud to call home.  The culture, the diversity, the food, the music, the art, the people.

I decided a while ago to go all over the city to document some of this art.  What I thought would be a fun one-day project turned into three days in the streets.  It’s one thing to notice all of this art as you’re going about your day, but it’s a whole different thing to actually sit and appreciate all of it and it took way longer than I thought.

West Oakland

This post has nothing to do with nonviolence, really.  But one thing we do talk about in our work is the need to change the narrative.  We so often talk about what’s wrong and what we don’t want and what we want to tear down, and sometimes we forget how amazing our communities already are.  So I may be posting a few more of these “Why I Love Oakland” posts.  There’s a lot to love here.

The New York Time recently named Oakland the #5 places to visit in 2012, and cited much of the new developments around downtown as the reasons to visit.  And it is true that these new restaurants, bars and lounges have brought some good things to Oakland.  But Oakland was a pretty cool place waaaaaay before these new businesses showed up, and the arts and culture scene was thriving loooooong before any of these new clubs showed up.  You just gotta know where to look.

Below are just the highlights of my travels around Oakland.  It’s hard to believe that all of these pictures below are just the highlights and that it’s all from just one city, but it’s true.  You can see the entire album by clicking HERE, but make sure to check out the highlights after the jump.

Our First E-Newsletter!

Hey look, it’s our first E-Newsletter!!!  If you haven’t already seen it, make sure to check it out to read about some of our recent work, updates about our upcoming workshop in Oakland this month, and an invitation to our first PPWN Camping Trip coming up soon!!!

Click HERE to read the newsletter.  If you are not on our mailing list, make sure to sign up by clicking the “Join Now” button on the right side of our site.

More People!!! More Power!!! More Progress!!!

Happy 1 Year Birthday PPWN!!!

On April 8th of this year, the Positive Peace Warrior Network celebrated our first birthday during a two-day workshop in Oakland, CA, joined by the 45 participants from that workshop.  There could not have been a better way for us to celebrate the success of our first year than with a group of people learning about Dr. King’s legacy.

Our 1 Year Birthday celebrated in Oakland, CA

April 8th, 2012 was an incredibly auspicious day, and not only because it was our birthday.  This year, the 8th also happened to be Easter Sunday, a day to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.  The 8th also happened to be Hanamatsuri, the day that the birth of the Buddha is celebrated in Japan.  It was also, of course, 4 days after the commemoration of Dr. King’s assassination, which occurred on April 4th, 1968.  Could there have been a more fitting day for us to celebrate by certifying 45 new people in Kingian Nonviolence?

As we look back at our first year as an organization, we are amazed and blown away by the support and reception we have gotten.  Our work has carried us all over the country, working in high schools, jails, Occupy movements, neighborhood associations, universities and other communities.  Our workshops have pulled in hundreds and hundreds of people, including former city mayors, formerly (and currently) incarcerated people, veteran organizers, people who have never attended a protest, youth, elders, anarchists, wealthy individuals, homeless youth, teachers, union workers, and people from every walk of life.  Our work has received coverage in the press, including on KPFA, YES Magazine, Rethinking Schools, and many other outlets.

And all of this was done without a budget.  Not a single grant, not a single donor, not a single paid staff – heck, we didn’t even have a bank account until after our birthday celebration.  

San Bruno County Beloved Community

First group of men at the San Bruno County Jail, CA introduced to Kingian Nonviolence in the form of a 2 Day Core Introductory Orientation. Training was provided by Positive Peace Warrior Kazu Haga and Jonathan Lewis

“I wish you were there that night when I let anger get the best of me, maybe I wouldn’t be here. Homies in my hood don’t speak the same language as you. I want to learn more so I don’t make the same mistakes again”, one of the men from the San Bruno County Jail shared after reviewing the 6 Principles of Kingian Nonviolence and the “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence’.

This blog will share with you the participants evaluation of the Kingian Nonviolence 2 day workshop, audio of the men discussing racsim, and positive peace poetry describing where they want to go, PPWN’s next steps and what we were able to accomplish over all.

On April 9-10, 2012, the Positive Peace Warrior Network conducted the first 16 hour Kingian Nonviolence 2Day Core Intoroductory Orientation. As this workshop was approaching I was reminded of one of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.’s speeches titled, “The Drum Major Instinct”.

Excerpts from the The Drum Major Instinct delivered By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr on February 4, 1968.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, in 1968,”And so before we condemn them, let us see that we all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, JR, “Drum Major Instinct”) 

PPWN on KPFA’s Sunday Show!

On Sunday, April 29th, PPWN Founder and National Coordinator Jonathan Lewis and West Coast Coordinator Kazu Haga were interviewed on KPFA’s Sunday Show about Martin Luther King, nonviolence, May Day and the Occupy movement.  Go to KPFA to hear the full three-hour show or click below for the hour-long segment featuring PPWN.

Our thanks to the wonderful people at KPFA, who for decades has been reporting on important issues to our communities and giving a voice to so many.

Freedom Foundation: Selma Alternative Spring Break

Jonathan L. Lewis

I was invited to inspire college students to continue learn, study and continue the work of the civil rights movement of the 50′s & 60′s. However I was the one who was inspired and overwhelmed.  Their hospitality and spirit of the old, young, Black, White, Brown, Yellow, and Red people involved in the program. The College’s that were represented were, Wisconsin University at Riverfalls, Illinois State University, New York University, Miami Universtity, and IUPUI: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The Freedom Foundation is an organization that represents the “Beloved Community”, in the diversity that is represented and in the way that they encourage and support everyone to become their own individual fullest human potential.

I have included a few video clips describing the program

Seattle Report Back

Participants of the Seattle 2-day orientation

Just over a week ago, Jonathan and I spent a full 4-days in Seattle, where we were able to facilitate a two-day workshop to 42 people and 3 dogs, explore the city, meet with some great people, plant seeds for future collaborations, and practice applying the philosophy of Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation rather then simply talking about it.

The workshop was a really good one with a diverse group of youth and elders from the movement, participants from Occupy Seattle, school-teachers and representatives from Antioch University and others from various walks of life.  We were also joined by two local trainers, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm and Mary Lou Finley.

The workshop was held at St. Mark’s Cathedral, a church that has actively supported Occupy Seattle.  Dr. King talked about how the Church

Justice for Trayvon

The movement for justice for Trayvon Martin has recently taken the country by storm.  This incident is a rude reminder that we do not need to travel to Northern Uganda to find instances of brutal injustice.  We have so much work to do in our own backyard, and PPWN is grateful to all of the amazing organizers, activists, and others who have spoken out.

A new mural in Oakland, CA

This is not just an “activist” issue.  It is a human issue.  And we are reminded of that as Representative Bobby Rush was thrown off the house floor for wearing a hoodie.  As the entire Miami Heat team of the NBA posed for a picture of themselves wearing hoods.  As Clay Aiken talks about Trayvon while wearing a hoodie doing promotions for “Celebrity Apprentice.”  And we also reminded of this from the incredible strength and courage shown by Trayvon’s family.

Above is PPWN video footage of a recent Trayvon Martin solidarity rally and march that was held in San Francisco.  Please continue to spread the word by going to www.justicefortrayvonmartin.com, rockin your hoodies, and continuing to work for justice for all of our youth.