On October 25th, 2017, Beautiful Trouble delivered the third program in The Activist Lab series, which was held at the Cross-Cultural Center at California State University San Marcos. This series aims to teach students and faculty how to become better activists and advocates for social justice.

Our first Beautiful Rising book launch in the United States was held at Monkey Wrench bookstore in Austin, Texas, on October 19, 2017.

In partnership with ActionAid, for a week in September Beautiful Trouble gathered together in Tanzania leading movement figures from four continents, and mixed them with civil society folks from formal civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to share lessons and stories, and explore how movements and NGOs can better work together and strengthen that relationship.

At September’s Brooklyn Book Fest, the largest event of its kind in America, Andrew Boyd, co-editor of Beautiful Trouble, spoke about “Books as Tools of Resistance” alongside some of the leading voices of our movements, including Linda Sarsour, Palestinian-American activist and co-organizer of the Women’s March, and L.A. Kauffman, author of Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism.

Meet Hazel, Beautiful Trouble’s biggest fan!

Thanks to the support from Mozilla Foundation, Chelsea Byers had the opportunity to share Beautiful Trouble resources for creative action with the 4,000 organizers that gathered from across the country in Atlanta at Netroots Nation 2017.

Hot off the press! The brand new Latin American Spanish edition of Beautiful Trouble is now available.

Published by Paidós, this new edition of Beautiful Trouble includes Latin American-related case studies that weave creative tactics and principles together into stories from this localized political region.

Check out a recap of our activities during the first half of 2017 and stay tuned as we turn up the heat this summer.

On April 9th, 2017 – Beautiful Trouble partnered with the Hammer Museum to host a one-of-a-kind training on Creative Direct Action for nearly 500 people at the historic Wiltern Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. The event was called “Stand Up and Fight Back: Tactics and Strategies for Effective Creative Activism.”

Beautiful Trouble conducted a training as part of an ongoing partnership with Bend the Arc.

On March 9th, Beautiful Trouble gathered together 33 people for a Training for Trainers of nonviolent direct action (NVDA) workshop. The training gathered experienced activists and trainers, some of whom were lapsed trainers of NVDA looking for a refresher course, as well as experienced facilitators who were looking for NVDA content-specific training.

Calls have been circulating fast and furious on social media for a nationwide general strike on February 17. But what does that really mean?

A classic general strike happens when a substantial percentage of the workforce refuses to work, thus crippling a nation’s economy, and forcing major concessions, or even a change of government. In our era, with a weak labor movement, but a nationwide political crisis, workers (and non-workers alike) need to creatively reinvent the tactic.

Check out these Insights from Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Rising for the era of Trump.

As our movements gear up to face down the looming Trumpocalypse, here are 10 modules from the Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Rising toolboxes that may prove useful.

After two years and seven jam sessions and 120 contributions from all over the world… Beautiful Rising is finally LIVE! (And Arabic and Spanish sites coming very soon.)

Bursting with stories and hard won insights from activists across the Global South, the toolbox is an interactive platform for building better movements and designing more effective actions.

On Wednesday, July 13th, the BTTN Hangout Live! series continued in part 3 with artivistas and creative action organizers for the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention.

This project was the culmination of LMU’s 2015-2016 Alternative Breaks Program, where students have an opportunity to participate in immersive, educational social justice oriented trips to different places around the globe. During a re-orientation meeting upon students’ return, BT Trainer Chelsea Byers led a 2-hour workshop on “Art as a Tool for Social Change,” where she spoke to the role of art in social movements and facilitated the development of a plan to build a collective art piece on campus.

The following positions have been filled. Thank you for your interest!

Assistant Project Manager and Assistant Editor

The love of changemakers around the globe who are developing innovative strategies for making our world more just, sustainable and democratic—for us and for generations to come. The love that is spread through telling our stories, and giving people tools to write their own. The love that powers the other world that is not just possible, but coming into being all around us.

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For the last four years, Beautiful Trouble has shared powerful stories of people coming together to resist injustice across the world. Our books, online tools and global training program equip communities with strategic frameworks and tools to take action creatively and effectively.

The Beautiful Trouble Training Network is almost three years old and has already conducted over 40 trainings for a variety of groups in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Led by people on the frontlines of injustice in these movements, the Network has been hugely supportive to a wide range of grassroots movements for social justice.