Peace and Justice Institute

Begin your day by centering your heart and mind in a short mindfulness practice to cultivate receptivity and openness. From this stance we can listen to ourselves and others to develop a language that centers on restoration and healing.

Join us to explore practices for achieving inner piece, most notably metta meditation, also known as loving-kindness meditation. During the workshop, we will reflect on the benefits of metta meditation, identify moments in which loving-kindness can help us manage our inner state, and learn how to meditate using this technique.

This session serves as an introduction and meditation on intersectionality. We will hold space for participants to locate themselves in our intersectional, political landscape today. Participants will use poetry to articulate their own identities, and reflect on their own political, artistic, and/or professional commitments.  All are welcome! No prior experience necessary.  Partner Orgazation - Orange County Library Systems

This workshop will outline the importance of allyship with the LGBTQ+ community and will discuss strategies to use allyship to counter hate.

Situations may arise where someone says or does something inappropriate such as make jokes, comments, or actions that diminish someone’s race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other identities and we may feel as though we should say something in the moment or after. In this session, participants will learn about their own barriers to speaking up in these moments and will practice finding the words to address concerning behaviors.

How does moving toward a vegan lifestyle become a peace practice? How does this practice create a transformational shift in our lives? In this workshop, participants will explore veganism and speciesism from the personal, sociological, and economic perspectives.

Mentally ill. Deviant. Diseased. And in need of a cure. These were among the terms psychiatrists used to describe lesbians and gay men in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. According to the medical establishment, every gay person—no matter how well-adjusted—suffered from a mental disorder. And as long as lesbians and gay men were “sick,” progress toward equality was impossible. CURED chronicles the battle waged by a small group of activists who declared war against a formidable institution—and won a crucial victory in the modern movement for LGBTQ equality. This feature-length documentary takes viewers inside the David-versus-Goliath struggle that led the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its manual of mental illnesses in 1973. Viewers meet the key players who achieved this victory, along with allies and opponents within the APA. The film illuminates the strategy and tactics that led to this pivotal yet largely unknown moment. Indeed, following the Stonewall uprising of 1969, the campaign that culminated in the APA’s decision marks the first major step on the path to first-class citizenship for LGBTQ Americans. While CURED is indisputably about science, medicine, and politics, at its core this is a film about activism and the process of social change. It features a diverse group of crusaders with stubborn dedication and big personalities who came together at a crossroads in LGBTQ history. Their tenacity, resourcefulness, and ingenuity brought about a change that transformed not only LGBTQ people’s perceptions of themselves, but also the social fabric of America.