REPLAY: Connection is the antidote to fascism.
Plus a free guide to help you with your next all-hands meeting
Last week, I received this DM on Instagram:
And so, in our GROUP HELP Session this week, we talked about civic gathering not as a grand public gesture, but as something practical, local, and doable. And we had a very special guest, Julie Peppito, share with us how she’s begun and continued regular gatherings that are building steam in her neighborhood. She even shared her amazing guide on how they began. (Thank you, Julie!)
You can watch the full replay is below.
Here are 5 ways to start a civic gathering in your own life
1. There is no one “right way” to show up for a cause. Don’t judge how people express their activism just because it doesn’t look like yours. In The Persuaders, my husband, Anand Giridharadas, writes about a recurring problem in some progressive movements, which is that they turn inward and start attacking their own. If you’re not posting on Instagram in the right way, if you’re not saying the exact words in the right way, if you’re not showing up in the approved way, you’re treated almost as if you’re against the cause. He introduces the idea of the “orchestra principle”: In an orchestra, some people play the flute, some people play the cello, others play the bassoon. Some people speak, some people organize, some people host, some people babysit so others can go out. We need it all.
2. Know your gifts and skills. During the session, I asked everyone to take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, write “my gifts, skills, resources.” Where are you wealthy? Can you make a mean casserole, or hold a beat, or know how to teach yoga, or have access to a secret garden? On the other side of the page, write down the needs of your community. Not the whole country, because that’s too big, but the needs you see in your specific community, however you define it. When you start with what you already know how to do and connect it to a real need around you, you can begin to move.