Charis welcomes editors Tessa Hicks Peterson and Hala Khouri, MA for a panel discussion of  Practicing Liberation: Transformative Strategies for Collective Healing & Systems Change: Reflections on Burnout, Trauma & Building Communities of Care in Social Justice Work. The editors will be joined by editor of the accompanying workbook, Keely Nguyen, and contributors Nkem Ndefo, Jacoby Ballard, and Leslie Booker. Practicing Liberation is a trauma-informed anthology with contributions from 13 activists and community organizers—for readers of adrienne maree brown, Staci K. Haines, and Ejeris Dixon.

When your work is inextricable from your identity, your community, and your own liberation, you need a unique praxis of care to sustain it—and for mission-driven activists, organizers, and changemakers working under oppressive systems, making space to center vital needs like rest, self-care, and healthy boundaries isn’t as simple as clocking out.

Practicing Liberation reorients collective justice work toward a model that transforms the effects of injustice, harm, and oppressive systems into resilience, joy, and community care. Through frameworks like trauma-informed methodology, transformative movement organizing, engaged Buddhism, and healing justice, editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson show readers how to:

Embody healing, wellness, and beloved community

Guard against replicating systems of harm

Disrupt racist, classist, anti-queer, and anti-trans behavior and systems

Celebrate creativity and radical imagination in movement work

Center healing from intergenerational trauma, white supremacy culture, and extractive capitalism

Honor that self-care is a necessity—not a luxury—that strengthens our collectives

Featuring essays from editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson and contributors like Kazu Haga, Taj James, Nkem Ndefo, Jacoby Ballard, Sará King, Kerri Kelly, and more, Practicing Liberation can be used on its own or alongside The Practicing Liberation Workbook to help readers orient toward embodied leadership, interconnected collectives, and a bold vision for transformation—the vital tools we need for collective wellbeing, healing, and long-term social change.

Tessa Hicks Peterson (she/her) has spent the past twenty-five years working with civil rights and social justice nonprofits and in higher education. She has directed a number of community centers, facilitated hundreds of workshops, and taught classes at Pitzer College in areas including anti-bias education, movement arts, healing justice, and community-based research collaborations. To learn more, visit tessahickspeterson.com.

Hala Khouri, MA, (she/her) has been teaching yoga and movement for over twenty-five years and has been doing clinical work and trainings for fifteen years. She cofounded Off the Mat, Into the World, a training organization to bridge yoga and activism within a social justice framework, and she leads Collective Resilience trauma-informed yoga and somatics trainings nationally. To learn more, visit halakhouri.com.

Keely Nguyen (she/her) comes from a legacy of strong-willed women in the rural/coastal provinces of Southern Vietnam. She is passionate about sharing collective memories and cultural stories to resist and build community with folks, specifically directly impacted youth. She is currently a communications manager at Partnership for Safety and Justice, working to disrupt the carceral state through narrative building, advocacy, and digital organizing.

Nkem Ndefo is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of the Resilience Toolkit, a model that promotes embodied self-awareness and self-regulation in an ecologically sensitive framework and social justice context. Originally licensed as a nurse midwife, Nkem has extensive post-graduate training in complementary health modalities and emotional therapies and has worked in settings ranging from large-volume hospitals to mobile community clinics. She brings an abundance of experience as a clinician, educator, researcher, and community strategist; learn more about her at www.lumostransforms.com /team/nkem-ndefo.

Jacoby Ballard is a trans social justice educator and yoga teacher who leads workshops and trainings around the country on diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a focus at the nexus of healing and social justice. More of his teachings can be found on his website, jacobyballard.net, and his book, A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation.

Leslie Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and liberation. Using this framework, through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care, she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging. She shares her offerings widely as a university lecturer, public speaker, and Buddhist philosophy and meditation teacher. Leslie is passionate about supporting frontline communities to thrive in their work. She currently lives in Philadelphia with her partner and pup and serves as the Guiding Teacher of New York Insight. More of her teachings can be found on her website, lesliebooker.com.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.

Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we begin this new way of connecting across distances.

By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.

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Practicing Liberation: Transformative Strategies for Collective Healing & Systems Change: Reflections on Burnout, Trauma & Building Communities of Care in Social Justice Work