Anger, Social Justice, and Buddhism: In conversation with sujatha baliga and Aishah Shahidah Simmons

Thursday, Nov 4, 2021 6:00-7:30pm PDT
Originally presented via Zoom
Tse Chen Ling was honored to welcome sujatha baliga and Aishah Shahidah Simmons for this special event exploring the intersections of anger, social justice, and Buddhism. They shared their perspectives on whether anger and compassion can co-exist, and how our practice can - and should - inform our calls for change.
About sujatha baliga:
sujatha baliga’s work is characterized by an equal dedication to crime survivors and people who’ve caused harm. A former victim advocate and public defender, she speaks publicly and inside prisons about her own experiences as a survivor of child sexual abuse and her path to forgiveness. Her personal and research interests include the forgiveness of seemingly unforgivable acts, survivor-led movements, restorative justice’s potential impact on racial disparities in our legal systems, and Buddhist approaches to conflict transformation. She’s a member of the Gyuto Foundation in Richmond, CA, where she leads meditation on Monday nights. She was named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow.
About Aisha Shahidah Simmons:
Aishah Shahidah Simmons' (she/her) lived experiences as a survivor of childhood and adult sexual violence, a Black feminist lesbian, and a 19-year Buddhist student and practitioner inform the creation of her cultural work. She is the producer/director of the 2006 Ford Foundation-funded film, NO! The Rape Documentary, and the editor of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology, love WITH accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (AK Press, 2019). A 2020 Soros Justice Fellow, Aishah is completing her Black feminist trilogy of survivor-centered cultural works that utilize storytelling as a praxis for healing, accountability and disrupting sexual violence without relying on the carceral state.
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