Powerful Political Speech, Using Nonviolent Communication

Aviva and Rick Longinotti, MFT, lead a slide show and discussion exploring the question: How do we express ourselves in order to expose injustice and inspire people to take action, yet build dialogue, not division. The presentation considers this paradox: we yearn for civil dialogue, but frequently fail to use it. We look at the appeal of polarizing speech---why it’s hard to avoid the habit of using it.

Polarizing speech can have painful consequences: division and violence. We look at historical and contemporary examples of powerful nonviolent alternatives:
speech that exposes injustice without provoking resentment
speech that inspires people to take action without losing sight of the humanity of political opponents
speech that enhances a process of dialogue, leading to solutions
Following the slide show, participants are invited to practice Nonviolent Communication to transform polarizing speech.

Saturday, Jan. 19 10am-1pm,

at the Quaker Meetinghouse, 225 Rooney St., Santa Cruz