I envision a world where humans can collaborate with one another to care for basic needs and difficult dilemmas, attend to conflict with care and purpose, and live in balance with the Earth. My commitment to contributing to this vision has taken me on an unconventional life path of self-directed and experiential learning, and hands-on practical application in many fraught situations. I have over 10 years of experience supporting organisations, movements, and communities with conflict facilitation and building resilient conflict systems, and 20 years of experience as an organiser and facilitator in various activist campaigns and movements.
I grew up in a working-class, Shia Muslim family and community in New York. I became disillusioned with religion and traditional schooling at 16. I dropped out of high school and travelled the US, hitchhiking and hopping freight trains, going to protests, squatting abandoned buildings, and hanging out with anarchists. I became pregnant at 18, and by 19 I was a single mother in and out of homelessness, surviving on a little money and a lot of community with anarchist riff-raff. I spent nine years in a frequently-touring band called Blackbird Raum, using the stage name Mars Goetia. We developed cult notoriety in many cities, activist communities, and punk scenes globally.
Having the ability to frequently travel and meet people with the band created an opportunity for me in 2013-2014 when I chose to use several tours to conduct interviews with anarchists and radicals across the US about conflict in their movements. What I learned hugely informed my work and my understanding of conflict. I continue to practise integrative approaches to conflict and feedback, and I am working on a writing project about my ideas and learning. Meeting Miki Kashtan and becoming involved with NGL has given me a place to have full companionship in the bigness of my vision, and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to learn from and alongside this global network of practitioners and visionaries.
I have rediscovered my connection to spirituality which immensely nourishes me. I live with my husband, two kids, and several close people in a small intentional community in California.
The following four sections are intended to initiate the process of alignment between you and NGL. Please take your time reading them. Our intention in communicating with you in this way is to bring clarity to your involvement in NGL as a Friend and for that clarity to live in both your mind and in your body. The more clearly you understand the invitation by which you are welcomed into NGL, the more ease we anticipate having in meeting our purpose together. For us, NGL Friends contributes to our intent to practice openness and build relationships that will mutually support our collaboration towards nonviolent global liberation.
Before you enter more personal data we want to inform you that in accordance with Article 13 of the GDPR:
The administrator of the personal data collected in this form is Nonviolent Global Liberation.
Your personal information is collected for the following purposes:
– Processing of your personal data is necessary to deliver our service to you, without this data we are unable to register you as an NGL Friend. Collected data will be stored as long as you are registered as NGL Friend and for 3 months after your unsubscribe as NGL Friend, for claiming and defending against claims, unless a longer period is required by law.
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– You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority.
As we mentioned in the introduction to Join NGL Friends, we have a number of requests of you that we want you to engage with seriously as you decide whether being an NGL Friend is a fit for you.
The overall principle we are asking of you is that you recognize the limits of our collective resources as a community, and adopt the attitude of reverence and “do no harm.” We have worked for a long time with much care to create this space. We want it to be as welcoming as we know how, and we know it’s not perfect.
We want to learn from and with you, and our capacity is limited to engage with you beyond what we offer generally. We ask that you act with awareness of being a guest in our community. We have attempted to offer as much guidance as we can to support your journey into and within NGL, and we may have not given sufficient clarity.
If so, let us know when we ask for feedback, and we will aim to find a way to offer more guidance in new ways. We deeply believe that you will learn and get a sense of belonging from attending calls and we ask that you do this with care for all of our specific requests (which mostly focus on your overall intention and focus, not concrete actions):