2023 Law and Social Change Jam
Quick info:
- Applications are here!
- Alumni of a previous Law and Social Change Jam? Apply here!
- Application deadline: Accepting applications until last few spots are filled!
- If you need more time or any accommodations to submit an application, please let us know as soon as possible so we can support you. If the deadline has passed and you are still interested in applying, please reach out by email first to confirm if we can consider your application. We can be reached at: lawandsocialchangejam[at]gmail.com.
- November 7-11, 2023
- Location: Watershed Center (Millerton, NY)
“JUSTICE IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE IN PUBLIC.” – DR. CORNEL WEST
THE 8th ANNUAL LAW AND SOCIAL CHANGE JAM
Join a diverse group of practitioners of law and justice for a week of personal inquiry, mutual support, and community building. Together we will call forth a more just and loving world through engagement with and transformation of the law, and explore how we can continue to transform ourselves into healers & agents of change, create nourishing community among those engaged with the law, and re-imagine law as a tool for collective liberation. Join us!
OUR INVITATION TO YOU
“Hurt people hurt people,” as the old adage goes. This insight sheds light on our legal and political institutions, how we treat each other within these institutions, and the impact these systems are having on individuals, communities, and broader society. The insight seems especially relevant as we emerge from the deepest part of the COVID pandemic and find ourselves in no less of a fractured and hostile society and climate-impacted world than we were before the pandemic. And still, we believe that “healed — and healing — people heal people,” and that collectively, humans have the capacity to heal our world.
As lawyers, legal professionals, and people connected to the law, we are called into the service of social transformation regardless of our fields. We invite you to engage in the soul-nourishing and healing work of personal reflection, deep listening, and community-building as a way to strengthen ourselves and our collective capacity for the work we are doing now and into the future. We are excited to gather with a group of about 25 to 30 committed people to dive deep into this moment, our roles in it, and the opportunities for collective liberation this moment brings.
During our time together, we will share where we are in our lives and work, and reflect on whether that place still serves us, the people we work with and care about, and the societies we live in. We will explore how to care for ourselves and each other in a profession plagued by burnout, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicide. And we’ll collectively call forth a vision of how we can each and collectively contribute to a more beautiful, interconnected world. At the jam, we will engage, create, tangle & untangle, challenge & be challenged, struggle & liberate, and love & dream, in ways we cannot even predict.
We invite you to come seeking connection and common ground while acknowledging the importance of difference; to arrive with openness and curiosity while acknowledging that this can be hard; and to be ready to tune in to the wisdom of the heart, body, and soul, along with the familiar analytical mind. We invite you to bring all of who you are, to see the multiplicities and wholeness in everyone else, and, as a collective, to explore how we are walking similar, parallel, and diverging paths toward a better future.
Come join a growing community of law jammers who are building a more just, loving, inclusive, mindful, and healing legal system (and world!), at the 8th annual Law and Social Change Jam!
“It was so healing to be in a space with lawyers and feelings commingling so harmoniously. That is something I have been yearning for the entire time I’ve been a lawyer. I felt a sense of belonging that worked deeply on the part of me that feels like I need to split and hide parts of myself, like the lawyer and the dreamer, and on… This Jam reminded me that I can just be, that I don’t have to know all of the answers or have the right thing ready to say or do. This Jam introduced me to so many sweet, sweet souls and sparked connections that I am excited to grow.” – Jesse Workman
JAM? WHAT FLAVOR OF JAM?
A music jam is a creative, live gathering of musicians who spontaneously create new sound(s). The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This jam will be a place where we collectively make music with our passion, vision, openness, truth, and courage. We’ll gather for five days of reflecting, connecting, growing, and learning together across a wide variety of connections to law, social change, and social justice. To date, more than 200 jams have been held on six continents, bringing together intergenerational leaders from more than 85 nations. At least 117 beautiful human beings specifically working in law and social justice have jammed together since 2015. Throughout 2020 and 2021, YES! offered online Jams all over the virtual world. And now, we are super excited to be jamming again in person! For more about all things YES! Jams, check out https://yesworld.org/about-us/
SO… WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?
The Jam is a chance to practice the world we want to see. This is not a conference, seminar, retreat, or typical meeting.
Instead, we draw from your applications and the inquiries alive in each of us on the leadership team, put them in a big pot, stir them around, and come up with a flow of facilitated activities that will take place each day – with lots of down time for rest, reflection, connection, and spontaneity. We will spend time in circle, sharing stories, making art, playing games, moving, engaging in challenging and generative conversations, and being outside in nature, to support our individual and collective journeys.
This means our facilitation team doesn’t pre-plan any specific content to transmit to you. Our facilitators are participants as well; they don’t have all the answers (or maybe any of them!). What they do offer is a variety of ways for each of us to arrive at our own answers — and new questions. We’ll use a number of processes and tools and experiment with different ways of being together, all aimed at strengthening our self-awareness, our ability to communicate and work through conflicts, and our ability to vision and put these pieces together. We see the jam as a co-learning journey of the collective experiences, questions, powers, and differences of everyone who attends.
Throughout our work and play, we’ll be addressing three interconnected dimensions of transformation: the personal, the interpersonal, and the systemic. Paraphrasing what adrienne maree brown writes in her book Emergent Strategy, we believe that what we pay attention to grows and that what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system. The recent global pandemic, political instability, violence in society, and climate crisis are only some of the ways we see this insight unfolding right now — alongside resurgent social movements, flourishing networks of mutual aid, a growing body of transformative justice practice, and more.
“Thank you. For again creating a new world and making moments of connection I never thought possible, especially online. My heart felt and continues to feel full. I saw the beauty and power of people choosing to collectively support and drop in with each other. So much feels possible. “ – Sima Atri
ME?
Yeah! The Law and Social Change Jam will bring together passionate humans from diverse regions and backgrounds. It will include community organizers, advocates, restorative and transformative justice practitioners, law students, lawyers, legal workers, law professors, and conflict transformation professionals from a spectrum of identities and worldviews (class, ethnicity, race, religion, gender identity, sexuality, age, ability, and more). If you are looking to make justice more alive and accessible, if you feel called to learn from people different from you, if you are willing to push the edges of your comfort zone, then this gathering is for you!
LOCATION AND FOOD
The Jam will take place at the beautiful Watershed Center, near Millerton, New York. For travel information to the Watershed Center click here. The site offers shared accommodations (usually 2-3 people per room). A limited number of private rooms may be available. Bedding is provided.
One of the cottages on site is wheelchair accessible. The two main places we will meet and eat are also barrier-free. Given that these three locations are spread out, it is possible to drive between all of them.
All meals are provided and can accommodate a range of dietary restrictions.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE TIMES
All participants are asked to arrive for a delicious lunch on site by 1230 pm on Tuesday, November 7. The jam will close at 1130 am on Saturday, November 11. To honor the flow and the collective building that happens over the course of the Jam, we ask that participants attend the entire Jam from start to finish. Each day will be a mix of facilitated sessions (“in breaths”) and open time for participant-led sessions, spontaneous offerings, rest, and reflection (“out breaths”). We ask that you not schedule anything else (even remote/zoom things!) for the time that we’re together, as we’ve really seen how being completely open lets all of us get the most out of our precious time together. We also recommend, if you can, to give yourself some time after the Jam is over to support integration.
COST
The 2023 Law & Social Change Jam is offered on a sliding scale from $500 to $1500. The at-cost price is $1250. Travel costs are the responsibility of the participants.
We invite you to give what you can, and to give generously. Any amount above the at-cost amount of $1250 helps us provide scholarships to support the broad spectrum of participation on which this event thrives.
Money should never be a barrier to applying. Partial scholarships are available on a limited and first-come, first-serve basis. We also invite monthly payment plans. We aim to figure out with each applicant the right combination of payment and scholarship that can work for you. The sooner you apply, the sooner we can figure out a plan that works for you and the better your chances are of receiving a partial scholarship if you need one.
TRAVEL
Travel costs are the responsibility of participants, though we will do our best to coordinate homestays in New York before and after the jam, i.e. if your flight arrives the day before the jam starts or leaves the day after the jam completes. We’ll also arrange for rides from the Wassaic train station to the Watershed Centre. (Wassaic is the closest train station to Millerton, NY).
CHILDREN
Children are also more than welcome to come to the Jam. We will work out specific childcare plans with you, after getting a clearer sense of the needs of your family.
“Thank you for showing me that there is a place for the love that I want to share with the world. The jam helped me to reset, and remember that it is okay to show love and tenderness. And if someone is not able to receive my love and care, then I need not be discouraged. The facilitators were skilled, thoughtful, and kind. I marveled at their ability to hold us all in such a warm and tender embrace, which is especially difficult through our screens. After the jam, I feel lighter, stronger, and more joyful.” – Alejandra Cruz
COVID-19
In terms of Covid precautions, we ask participants to take a rapid test before they leave home. We also ask that if anyone has a fever or has a positive result, they do not come to the Jam. At the Jam itself, we will be monitoring our symptoms and naming any needs we might have. We encourage selected participants to reduce their exposure possibilities in the week leading up to the Jam. We will follow up in more detail with a welcome packet if you are selected. We’ll be keeping an eye on the Covid situation as it continues to evolve. We know it is hard and complex. And if you have any questions or further needs about Covid, please note them in your application or write to us at lawandsocialchangejam[a]gmail.com.
SWEET! NOW WHAT?
Application Deadline: Accepting applications until last few spots are filled!
To keep the Jam intimate and participatory, we limit the jam to 30 people, including our team.
And for Law and Social Change Jam alumni who want to come back, please use this separate application (linked here). Please keep in mind that as much as we’d love to have everyone back, we want to make this experience available to as many interested people as possible, which may mean we are unable to accommodate some alums. We’ll be considering the length of time since your last jam, the composition of new participants, and your application itself.
“NO REAL SOCIAL CHANGE HAS EVER BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT WITHOUT A REVOLUTION… REVOLUTION IS BUT THOUGHT CARRIED INTO ACTION.”
— EMMA GOLDMAN
WE ARE EXCITED TO SEE YOUR APPLICATION SOON! (AND ALUMS HERE!)
If you have any questions about the Law and Social Change Jam, please reach us at lawandsocialchangejam[a]gmail.com. We look forward to jamming with you!
Demarris, Chris, Judi, Jeff, Susan, John, and Runako
WHO IS THE “WE” BEHIND THE INVITATION?
We are a diverse group of lawyers and legal professionals called to come together to organize, facilitate, and support community-building around the theme of law and social change. Each of us is engaged in our own projects outside this jam, with particular interests in: mindful lawyering, restorative and transformative justice, solidarity economies law, racial justice and social equity, collaborative law, criminal defense, movement/community lawyering, and many more.
The organizers and facilitators of the Law and Social Change Jam are:
Organizer
John Lopez (he/him) is still learning. He supports people as a trauma informed boxing coach with ToolShed Boxing. John is also studying to complete his Masters in Social Work with the goal of providing support for people in the criminal legal system. He supports children charged as adults in his position as a staff attorney with the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project. John’s focus is the healing power of relationship. He’s trying to figure out how to take care of his community and himself in tandem.
Susan Brooks (she/her) lives and works in Philadelphia. She has 30 years of experience as an educator, creative scholar, facilitator, and presenter in the areas of experiential and community-based learning, relational practices, professional development, and cross-cultural communication. She is a Professor at the Drexel University Kline School of Law, where her main focus is on creating a culture of belonging, wellbeing, and liberation. Susan currently serves as Acting Director of the Stern Community Lawyering Clinic, where she works with colleagues and students to provide free legal assistance, invest in capacity building, and collaborate on projects addressing systemic issues. Susan has written extensively and has conducted workshops in the U.S. and across the globe to promote an integrated humanistic approach she calls“Relational” and “Wholehearted” Lawyering. She is also engaged with a number of global initiatives promoting wellbeing and justice education in law and legal practice, including the International Society of Therapeutic Jurisprudence (ISTJ) and Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE). Susan has a Master’s degree in social work in addition to her law degree, and is a certified mediator and a trained facilitator in restorative practices. She is also a certified Yoga Teacher and completed Judi Cohen’s Warrior One Mindfulness in Law Teacher Training.
Runako Gregg (he/him) is a grassroots activist, human rights lawyer and workplace investigator. He has a practice in Ontario, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, and holds a Legal Education Certificate that enables him to practice law in any Common Law jurisdiction in the Caribbean. His career in the field of human rights has led him to work as a policy analyst and a litigator, appearing before various levels of court and boards with a specialty on race and racial profiling matters. Runako also moonlights as an academic, as his doctoral research focused on the philosophical ideas of C.LR. James and Aimé Césaire while exploring tenets of Black radical thought, including its interventions on race, class, colonialism and revolution. As a co-founder and member of the Caribbean Solidarity Network, Runako supports actions and organizing efforts that amplify principles of Caribbean Liberation and Unity across the region as well as throughout the Caribbean diaspora, along with feminist, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonial struggles all over the world.
Judi Cohen (she/her) teaches Mindfulness for the Legal Mind at Berkeley Law and runs Warrior One, which offers mindfulness and wellbeing training to help legal professionals and social justice advocates relieve suffering in their own lives, and suffering that the law knowingly and unknowingly creates and perpetuates in society. Her work integrates traditional mindfulness, contemplative neuroscience, psychology, and various wellbeing practices. Judi is also a lead teacher in Warrior One’s Mindfulness in Law Teacher Training, a biennial program for legal professionals interested in deepening their own healing and gaining the tools and confidence to offer mindfulness and wellbeing in law firms, legal organizations, and law schools. She leads The Wake Up Call, Warrior One’s weekly online gathering of legal professionals bringing wellbeing solutions into the law (also a podcast), and provides leadership in the national mindfulness-in-law movement as a founding director and current co-chair of the Mindfulness in Law Society. These days Judi believes more and more in the possibility of healing for lawyers and those working in social justice, and in the idea that the law can be an instrument of wisdom, compassion, and healing. Judi is a partner, mother, and grandma, and lives on unceded Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo lands in what’s also known as Sonoma, California.
Chris Tittle (he/him) is a facilitator, organizer, lawyer, and dad focused on economic democracy, participatory governance, and co-creating liberatory futures. Over the past decade, his work has focused on land justice and workplace democracy at Sustainable Economies Law Center. He has also organized around fossil fuel divestment, anti-displacement, food justice, and indigenous sovereignty in California; co-founded the South Carolina Housing Justice Network; and served on the Board of Directors of New Economy Coalition and Fresh Future Farm. Chris became a lawyer without going to law school through the California Law Office Study Program, passing the California Bar in 2018. Prior to training as a barefoot lawyer, Chris completed an MA in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College, where he did action research at Occupy London and explored community-determined responses to climate disruption in the Global South. He previously taught English in Japan and explored Islam in Senegal; and in between those two experiences, he traversed 3/4 of the globe by way of rail, sail, foot, and thumb. He currently lives and loves near the Ashley River on the ancestral lands of the Edisto Kusso-Natchez (Charleston, South Carolina).
Demarris Evans (she/her) works as a Senior Assistant District Attorney in Alameda County. She is a supervisor in the post-conviction unit as well as restorative justice and racial justice act implementation. She previously worked as a Managing Attorney in restorative justice and collaborative courts in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. She has also been a lecturer at San Francisco State University in the Department of Race and Resistance Studies. Her focus is on racial equity and restorative justice. Demarris worked as a trial attorney in Public Defense for over 20 years. She led the racial justice unit in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and practiced in collaborative courts with a restorative justice lens. She also previously worked as an instructor in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Phoenix. Demarris was a member of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Task Force where she chaired the Bias and Policing Subcommittee. Demarris also teaches mindfulness through the lens of equity, healing and human potential. She is a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College, the Warrior One Mindfulness in Law Teacher Training Program and the Dedicated Practitioners Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She is a co-facilitator for the Law and Social Change Jam and previously the Re-Storying Justice Jam offered by YES! And she is on the Board of Directors for Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Jeff Carolin (he/him) is a recovering criminal defence lawyer living in Toronto who has been shifting his work in the world towards facilitation, mediation, and restorative and transformative justice. Basically, he loves to sit in circles. Hence being on this jam journey for 10 years. But it’s more than just the circles. For Jeff, attending jams has been a key part of discovering how he can–in this life, with this body, and with his experiences–engage around complex issues of racism, colonialism, inequality, and other forms of systemic oppression, without this work leading to further division, burnout, and in-fighting among people who are trying to build something new together. Seeking common ground while always acknowledging the importance of difference, starting from a place of openness and caring, and tuning in to the body’s knowledge a little more and the analytical mind a little less, have all been practices that he has continued to hone through jam circles–and are practices that he tries to introduce in all facets of his life.
Recent Comments