What happens when a collection of artists, musicians, and radical activists imagine self-defense as a revolutionary tool for social justice?  What happens when someone envisions boundary setting, self-care and self-defense that not only keep individuals safe, but also help energize progressive social movements making them more vibrant and resilient? For the past twenty years, Cristien Storm has grappled with these questions as a self-defense instructor, a writer, musician, therapist, activist, survivor, partner, friend and community member.

This groundbreaking text roots boundary setting and self-care in larger visions of happier and healthier communities, all the while holding on to the complexities of individual safety and social justice.  

About the Author

Cristien Storm has extensive experience in non-profit and community work on anti-violence, social change, and human rights issues.  She is a founding member and former Executive Director of Home Alive.  At Home Alive she developed highly regarded community based anti-violence programs and curricula. She also developed programs which recognized the power of arts and cultural organizing as a framework for social change.  Cristien worked as Researcher and Cultural Organizer for the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity, supporting community response to hate crimes, bigotry and assaults by organized white nationalist groups in rural and suburban communities. She helped build intergenerational support systems across organizations and programs, developed youth leadership, and integrated cultural organizing into program work.  Currently, Cristien is a therapist with a sliding scale private practice in Seattle www.cristienstorm.com.

She also runs If You Don’t They Will, a Seattle partnership that supports communities responding to bigotry and hate and focuses on how to effectively identify and counter white nationalism. If You Don’t They Will offers workshops and trainings on social movement theory and cultural organizing.  www.ifyoudonttheywill.bravehost.com.