Advocacy teach-in at LMU
What can you learn about strategic creative nonviolent action in 90 minutes? If you said not much, you would be far off the mark! In this short amount of time, students at Loyola Marymount University went on a gallery walk through a museum of nonviolent direct action, shared best and worst action stories and their strategic implications, and dived into a whirlwind presentation of tactics, principles and action history.
On January 30th, the Beautiful Trouble Training Program partnered up with local allied organization CODEPINK: Women for Peace to participate in LMU’s annual Advocacy Teach-In. The Saturday morning program on LA’s westside included a keynote speaker and workshops featuring leaders in student organizing, advocacy, and criminal justice reform. LMU’s social justice program engaged over 150 students for the event.
More than 60 students attended BT Trainer Chelsea Byers’ workshop “Making Beautiful Trouble with CODEPINK.” The 1.5 hour workshop focused on how to construct creative direct actions using the tactics, principles, theories, and case studies framework from Beautiful Trouble along with examples from CODEPINK’s celebrated action history.
A student in the workshop said she appreciated the atmosphered as it “allowed my peers and I to discuss the best strategies and tactics for taking action against social injustices. The group activities were collaborative and interactive, and, personally, I was able to learn a lot not only from Chelsea Byers, but also from my peers in the group discussions and activities.”
Sound like fun?