Kazu Haga | Activist
I want to create a space where young people can feel that working for peace is a powerful and courageous action.
The struggle is not between the 99% and the 1%, it’s between the 100% and injustice.
If we use violence and intimidation to get what we want, that’s what’s going to be reflected in the world we create.
Accountability = Insight + Remorse + Amends
Reconciliation = Accountability + Forgiveness
Kazu Haga is the founder and coordinator of the East Point Peace Academy and is an experienced nonviolence trainer, certified in several methodologies of nonviolence and restorative justice. Having received training from elders including Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Rev. James Lawson and Joanna Macy, he teaches nonviolence, conflict reconciliation, restorative justice, organizing and mindfulness in prisons and jails, high schools and youth groups, and with activist communities around the country.
Kazu was introduced to the work of social change and nonviolence in 1998, when at the age of 17 he participated in the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage; a 6-month walking journey from Massachusetts to New Orleans to retrace the slave trade. He spent a year studying nonviolence and Buddhism while living in monasteries throughout South Asia, and returned to the US at age 19 to begin a lifelong path in social justice work.
He spent 10 years working in social justice philanthropy, while directly being involved in and playing leading roles in many movements. He became an active nonviolence trainer in the global justice movement of the late 1990s, and has since led hundreds of workshops worldwide.
He is the founding board chair of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) and sits on the board of Peace Workers, and is a member of the Ahimsa Collective. He is the recipient of several awards including the Martin Luther King Jr. award and the Gil Lopez Award for Peacemaking.
Kazu is an avid meditator and enjoys being in nature, particularly with his dog. He is a die-hard fan of the Boston Celtics and of mixed martial arts, the latter of which he is still sometimes conflicted about.
He resides in Oakland, CA.
Author of : HEALING RESISTANCE | A RADICALLY DIFFERENT RESPONSE TO HARM
