adrienne maree brown

We Will Not Cancel Us and Other Dreams of Transformative Justice by Adrienne Maree Brown is a short, easy read about cancel culture. I started Brown's book with some hesitation even though it was recommended by a friend because I so often hear criticism about cancel culture from people who just don't want to be held accountable for their actions/words. We Will Not Cancel Us addresses this phenomenon while also gently asking if there is a better way to address conflict and harm in society and particularly in groups working toward transformative justice. Brown writes in an accessible manner that feels like an invitation to examine how we treat one another as we attempt to work together. When Brown asked "Can we be abolitionist with each other?", I stopped and read that one question multiple times. My gut reaction was doubt, but I kept reading anyway and ended up at a hopeful maybe. We Will Not Cancel Us speaks directly to the conflict and harm that we inflict on one another, both intentionally and unintentionally, in our society and asks us to consider the idea of calling one another in instead of calling one another out.… (more)

Some passages from Emergent Strategy:

In the study and practice of emergent strategy, there are core principles that have emerged and that guide me in learning and using this idea and method in the world. I gather them here with the expectation they will grow.

Small is good, small is all. (The large is a reflection of the small.)

Change is constant. (Be like water.)

There is always enough time for the right work.

There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it.

Never a failure, always a lesson.

Trust the People. (If you trust the people, they become trustworthy.)

Move at the speed of trust. Focus on the critical connections more than critical mass - build the resilience by building the relationships.

Less prep, more presence.

What you pay attention to grows.

*

This is not to say there is no space for individual creation - I love the selfishness of closing the world out and unleashing the realm of my imagination and creativity. But how do we disrupt the constant individualism of creation when it comes to society, our shared planet, our resources?

The more people who cocreate the future, the more people whose concerns will be addressed from the foundational level in this world.

Meaningful collaboration both relies on and deepens relationship - the stronger the bond between the people or groups in collaboration, the more possibility you hold. In beginning this work, notice who you feel drawn to, and where you find ease. And notice who challenges you, who makes the edges of your ideas grow or fortify. I find that my best work has happened during my most challenging collaborations, because there are actual differences that are converging and creating more space, ways forward that serve more than one worldview.

*

Understanding that you can be wrong, have been wrong, helps to increase the compassion needed to work through the emotional and material impacts of being wronged by another.

We often think that we must hold our position, regardless of what we learn or feel. But in fact, the opposite is true. We must learn to develop positions together, adapting to the changing conditions around us - sometimes this means we must relinquish our positions, to voice our feelings and thoughts, and hear and be influenced, by other people's opinions and information. Dialectical humanism suggests that mature humans actually need to be able to adjust beliefs and plans in the realm of changing conditions.

I know there is this idea that we grow less radical as we age, and that relinquishing radical positions is a way this manifests. This keeps people from allowing themselves to be open to their own new emotions, their new understandings. I think the truth is that, as we age, we realize the world is more complex, and we allow ourselves to get woven into that complexity. I am more radical now than I was ten years ago, although it may not look like it. I am more radical in my body, I am more radical in my clarity about the apocalyptic future and my belief that connection to each other is the most important thing to cultivate in the face of hopelessness - we don't want to cling to outdated paradigms; we want to cling to each other and shift the paradigms.

The world is changing all the time.

.… (more)

This is a haunting book. You can feel the loneliness and despair in each word and chapter. Dune's mom is patient zero, the first to go down in a new syndrome - a new pandemic. Dune must learn to navigate the world without her mom but also without the help of most of her friends and family. She is left to sort her mother's life in the house and what her legacy is but she also needs to find who she is now that her mom is gone. It's a story about deep sadness and resilience and the will to survive when the fight to do so feels overwhelming and too much. Dune's thoughts, ideas and her need to learn everyone's story around her was deeply moving. This is a story that will make you think and definitely stick with you.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Edelweiss. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.… (more)