Leaning into Paradox: How We Can Block, Bridge & Build Our Democratic Future Together

We are facing a moment in history that requires  us to develop new organizing modalities. We have to come together to block the threats we are facing to our democratic values, we need to bridge across differences to foster broad-based movements with the widest participation, and we have to build together the future we want to live within our communities. In the quest to realize belonging for all, protect democracy, and combat authoritarian populism, movements have to be and do several things at once: how do we step into the many paradoxes of being both in resistance and restorative? How do we stay future-oriented and hopeful while acknowledging and redressing past and current harms? Can we reconcile the need for spaciousness to envision the future we want to create and act with the urgency that the current threats demand?

Sometimes, as a result of these tensions movements break internally, instead of navigating and, at times, embracing  these tensions to achieve higher shared goals. In this session, we will interrogate these seeming tensions (some of which are false binaries) and collectively investigate how we can wrestle – in practice – with those paradoxes, allowing us to move forward together with the broadest participation possible along many lines of difference.

Location: HJK NORTH BALLROOM