What Does Love Have To Do With It? Bringing Mystery to Peacebuilding, Part 3
Kalyanee Mam and Host Serena Bian
The subject tonight is Love
And for tomorrow night as well,
As a matter of fact
I know of no better topic
For us to discuss
Until we all
Die! —Hafiz
Crisis, war, injustice, and violence have a certain logic—and social change processes working to address these challenges carry a similar, reactionary logic. How can love help us to step out of the perceived reality of “what is possible” in building peace during conflict? Turning points in conflicts and crises are often mysterious, require acts of enormous creativity, and a willingness to risk. Social change is an artistic act, mobilizing love and prophetic imagination–and it requires us to step into the mystery of the unknown that lies beyond the far too familiar landscape of violence. In this series, join Host Serena Bian in speaking with three people who bear witness to the best and worst of humanity, holding a courageous moral imagination. Working and witnessing the front lines of injustice, war, climate change, these peacebuilders, mystics, storytellers hold space for the miraculous to emerge, refusing to be bound by a perceived reality of “what is possible.”
Conversations in the series:
Deepa Patel: In the first conversation in this peacemaking series, meet Deepa Patel, a facilitator specializing in interdisciplinary collaboration and a passion for the arts, social justice, conversation, and living a contemplative life. She was born in Kenya to Indian parents and lives in England. Her current work is with The London College of Fashion, UNHCR, and the University of Sheffield in refugee camps in Jordan and Africa.
Aljosie Aldrich Harding: In the second conversation in this peacemaking series, we listen for what Love has to say—creator and divine love, romantic love, the love that cries out for justice, familial love, love for community, love that is disciplined, love that is courageous. Aljosie Aldrich Harding is an elder whose lifelong social justice and peacebuilding work is rooted in a profound relationship with Love. We hear about Aljosie’s spiritual biography, her work as an elder who accompanies young activists in finding their wholeness, and rich, beautiful stories of her life and love with the late Vincent Harding.
Kalyanee Mam: In the last conversation in the series, meet Kalyanee Mam, a filmmaker who was born in Cambodia, escaped the Khmer Rouge, and has spent most of her life trying to understand the root cause of war, destruction, and displacement and how we can return home again. Her debut documentary feature, A River Changes Course, won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Kalyanne Mam
Born in Battambang, Cambodia, during the Khmer Rouge regime, which claimed the lives of over 2 million people, Kalyanee and her family were displaced from both their land and their home. Kalyanee has spent most of her life trying to understand the root cause of war, destruction, and displacement and how we can return home again. After returning to Cambodia and spending years living with families in the forests, on the Tonle Sap, and in the countryside, she understands how intimately connected their way of life is to the land, forests, and water and the neak ta or land and water spirits that protect them. Her debut documentary feature, A River Changes Course, won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and the Golden Gate Award for Best Feature Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Her other works include the documentary shorts Lost World, Fight for Areng Valley, Between Earth & Sky, and Cries of Our Ancestors. She has also worked as a cinematographer and associate producer on the 2011 Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job. She is currently working on a new feature documentary, The Fire and the Bird’s Nest.
Serena Bian
Host
is pursuing a life that remains attentive to the tenderness of a snail’s soft body and reverent to the miracle of its spiraled shell. She is a peacebuilder, writer, and community circulator and works with organizations, networks, and movement leaders at the intersection of intergenerational peacebuilding, collective trauma healing, social justice, and social transformation. She previously served six years as a Special Advisor in Design & Innovation to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, bringing a spiritual and systemic understanding to the public health crisis of loneliness and isolation. Serena serves on the board of Commonweal.
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Healing the Roots, Transforming the Future
Beyond Cancel Culture: On Healing, Conflict, and Community
The Art of Peacebuilding: Haiku, Accompaniment, and Courageous Love