Resource Center for Nonviolence

08/28/2026

TONIGHT AT Resource Center for Nonviolence! 🎬✨

Join us as we welcome Zaya & Maurizio Benazzo back for the Santa Cruz premiere of Flowers of the Earth, the latest film in Science and Nonduality's Eternal Song series.

Come for an evening of storytelling, community, and reflection.

🎬 Flowers of the Earth – Santa Cruz Premiere
📅 Friday, August 28 | Doors 6 PM | Film 6:30 PM
📍 RCNV, 612 Ocean St., Santa Cruz
🔗 RSVP https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1997503212881

🎟️ Sliding scale + complimentary tickets available. 50% of proceeds support Indigenous-led initiatives. No one turned away.

We also invite you to register now for the online Global Premiere & Live Gathering on September 22 to continue the conversation with Guarani-Kaiowá Elders, healers, and land defenders. Link in bio! 🔗

✨ Special thanks to our promotional partners: Center for Spiritual Living, Center for World Networking, Romero Institute, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH), SURJ Showing Up for Racial Justice—Santa Cruz County, UCSC American Indian Resource Center, UCSC Community Studies, Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County, KSQD Community Radio, Watsonville Film Festival, and Friends of Juristac

08/28/2026

TOMORROW AT RCNV!

Join us tomorrow night as we welcome Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo back to RCNV for the Santa Cruz premiere of Flowers of the Earth, the latest film in Science and Nonduality's Eternal Song series.

This profound documentary follows the Guarani-Kaiowá of Mato Grosso do Sul—a people for whom the land is not simply ground beneath their feet, but their skin, bones, and living mother. Through elders, healers, and young women leading the Retomada (the return to ancestral lands), the film invites us to reforest not only the land, but the mind.

Come for an evening of storytelling, community, and reflection.

🎬 Flowers of the Earth – Santa Cruz Premiere
📅 Friday, August 28 | Doors 6 PM | Film 6:30 PM
📍 RCNV, 612 Ocean St., Santa Cruz
🔗 RSVP https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1997503212881

🎟️ Sliding scale + complimentary tickets available. 50% of proceeds support Indigenous-led initiatives. No one turned away.

We also invite you to register now for the online Global Premiere & Live Gathering on September 22 to continue the conversation with Guarani-Kaiowá Elders, healers, and land defenders. Link in bio! 🔗

✨ Special thanks to our promotional partners: Center for Spiritual Living, Center for World Networking, Romero Institute, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH), SURJ Showing Up for Racial Justice—Santa Cruz County, UCSC American Indian Resource Center, UCSC Community Studies, Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County, KSQD Community Radio, Watsonville Film Festival, and Friends of Juristac

08/25/2026

🎬 The full trailer for Flowers of the Earth is here.

In Brazil's Cerrado, the world's most biodiverse savanna, live a people known to the world as the Guarani-Kaiowá. They call themselves Ivy Poty: Flowers of the Earth. Their sacred purpose: to admire, honor, and protect the natural world.

Today, they fight for their lives—with prayer, sacred seeds, and the courage to reclaim their ancestral land.

The trailer ends with an invitation:

🌿 "By reforesting the mind, you reforest territories worldwide."

We hope you can join us this Friday as we learn from their story...

🎬 Flowers of the Earth – Santa Cruz Premiere
📅 Friday, August 28 | Doors 6 PM | Film 6:30 PM
📍 RCNV, 612 Ocean St., Santa Cruz
🔗 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1997503212881

Post-screening conversation with directors Zaya & Maurizio Benazzo.

🎟️ Sliding scale + complimentary tickets available. 50% of proceeds support Indigenous-led initiatives. No one turned away.

✨ Special thanks to our promotional partners: Center for Spiritual Living, Center for World Networking, Romero Institute, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH), SURJ Showing Up for Racial Justice—Santa Cruz County, UCSC American Indian Resource Center, UCSC Community Studies, Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County, KSQD Community Radio, Watsonville Film Festival, and Friends of Juristac

08/25/2026

🌺 "Our name is Flores da Terra—Flowers of the Earth. Admirers of the work of God. We are Nature. The land is our skin."

These are the words of the Guarani-Kaiowá people of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Their story is not one of loss—but of love. Love for a mother wounded by fences and fire. Love that refuses to vanish.

Come listen. Come witness.

🎬 Flowers of the Earth – Santa Cruz Premiere
📅 Friday, August 28 | Doors 6 PM | Film 6:30 PM
📍 RCNV, 612 Ocean St., Santa Cruz
🔗 Details & Tickets https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1997503212881

Post-screening conversation with directors Zaya & Maurizio Benazzo.

🎟️ Sliding scale + complimentary tickets available. 50% of proceeds support Indigenous-led initiatives. No one turned away.



✨ Special thanks to our promotional partners: Center for Spiritual Living, Center for World Networking, Romero Institute, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH), SURJ Showing Up for Racial Justice—Santa Cruz County, UCSC American Indian Resource Center, UCSC Community Studies, Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County, KSQD Community Radio, Watsonville Film Festival, and Friends of Juristac

08/19/2026

Our Programs Manager Bree Booth shares an invitation to join a Loving Justice book circle to read bell hooks’ all about love: new visions.

We offer these book circles as learning for how to show up for others in the fight for justice.

Our hope is that this series cultivates an awareness of loving justice—uniting us in love against war, environmental devastation, and racial oppression.

📅 Circles will meet between September 1 – October 2, 2026.
⏳ Sign up by August 23rd to secure your spot.
🔗 Click on the link in our bio to sign up.
💌 Our Programs Manager, Bree Booth, will follow up with more details.

This program is offered on a donation basis (suggested $25; no one turned away for lack of funds). We look forward to having this journey together.

08/07/2026

Two Loving Justice events. One weekend. All are welcome. 🕊️

As part of our 2026 Loving Justice initiative—A Transformational Path Toward Interbeing—we’re gathering to reflect, remember, and recommit to the work of cultivating a peaceful, safe future for all.

🕊️FRIDAY, Aug 7 • 6-8 PM
Threads of Grief, Threads of Love – Quilt Exhibit honoring Gaza’s Children. 36 handmade quilts remember 720 infants—each one stitched with care by community members who could not bear to watch from a distance while their government remained implicated. Come witness, grieve, and reflect together. We'll have Palestinian tunes, plus drinks and bites. Bring a friend.

🕊️SATURDAY, Aug 8 • 1-4 PM
Peace Memorial Talk, Film Screening & Ceremony. Marking the 81st anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We’re honored to welcome Victor Kimura, who will share his family’s stories from the bombing at Hiroshima and U.S. internment camps. His parents, born in California, were incarcerated at Arizona’s Poston Camp during WWII, and returned to Freedom in 1945 when Victor was just six months old. After Victor’s talk, we’ll watch Collateral Damage (a 35-minute documentary about our local Hiroshima Peace Memorial), fold origami cranes with guidance from Robin Yamashiro West, and a march to the memorial for a brief ceremony.
RSVP https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hiroshima-peace-memorial-film-screening-ceremony-tickets-1996164072476

We’d be grateful for your presence at either gathering or both. Bring yourself, bring a friend—the connections we make when we come together help grow the movements that change the world.

#𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞

08/04/2026

Two Loving Justice events. One weekend. All are welcome. 🕊️

As part of our 2026 Loving Justice initiative—A Transformational Path Toward Interbeing—we're gathering to reflect, remember, and recommit to the work of cultivating a peaceful, safe future for all.

🕊️FRIDAY, Aug 7 • 6-8 PM. Threads of Grief, Threads of Love – Quilt Exhibit honoring Gaza's Children. 36 handmade quilts remember 720 infants—each one stitched with care by community members who could not bear to watch from a distance while their government remained implicated. Come witness, grieve, and reflect together. Light refreshments served. No RSVP needed. More info at https://rcnv.org/

🕊️SATURDAY, Aug 8 • 1-4 PM. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Talk, Film Screening & Ceremony. Marking the 81st anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We're honored to welcome Victor Kimura, who will share his family's stories from the bombing at Hiroshima and U.S. internment camps: his parents, born in California, were incarcerated at Arizona's Poston Camp during WWII, and returned to Freedom in 1945 when Victor was just six months old. After Victor's talk, we'll watch Collateral Damage (a 35-minute documentary about our local Hiroshima Peace Memorial), fold origami cranes with guidance from Robin Yamashiro West, and a march to the memorial for a brief ceremony. RSVP https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1996164072476

We'd be grateful for your presence at either gathering or both. Bring yourself, bring a friend—the connections we make when we come together help grow the movements that change the world.

#𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞

07/29/2026

Thursday, learn about Eyewitness Palestine's history and ongoing work.

Eyewitness Palestine and Interfaith Peace-Builders were co-founded by RCNV founder Scott Kennedy, Joe Groves and others.

Join FOR-USA for an upcoming Gathering Voices session next Thursday, July 30 at 4 pm ET, featuring Nancy Mansour, Executive Director of Eyewitness Palestine, Dr. Joe Groves, former coordinator of FOR's Interfaith Peace-Builders program, and Georgia 42nd District Rep. .

Learn about the origins and evolution of FOR's IFPB program into Eyewitness Palestine, and how it was designed to send delegations to Israel/Palestine to bear witness, learn and promote nonviolent solutions, while focusing on educating U.S. citizens through on-the-ground experiences of Palestinian life under occupation and apartheid.

Hear about recent Eyewitness Palestine delegations to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, including the organization’s future plans and impact on policymaking in the United States.

Scan the QR code or register here to tune in on Zoom: https://conta.cc/4fgrvlY!

07/27/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out for the Santa Cruz premiere of SAND's Sila: The Life Within Everything on July 16. We're grateful for the continuously expanding community showing up for this heart-opening film series.

Whether you made it to the premiere or not, we invite you to join an online screening of Sila tomorrow, followed by two days of live conversation with the Inuit women featured in the film. Feel free to invite others who may like to join too!

👉 Register for the gathering: https://rcnv--sand.thrivecart.com/sila/

🗓️ Day 1: Tue, July 28

8:00 am PDT | Opening Circle & communal screening of Sila

9:15 am PDT | Following the Calling: Shamanic Lineage, Trauma, and the Soul's Return with Rakel Aviaja Sanimuinaq

🗓️ Day 2: Wed, July 29

9:00 am PDT | My Body Remembered: Reclaiming Power from Colonial Trauma with Naja Lyberth

9:35 am PDT | The Breath Behind Everything: Drum Dancing, Sacred Markings, and Belonging with Ikimaliq Pikilak & Nuka Alice

For decades, thousands of Greenlandic women carried a silence that their bodies remembered long before their minds could find the words. They lived through the "Spiral Campaign"—a non-consensual program that stripped them of their agency and their future children.

As Naja Lyberth shares: "Trauma takes root deep within the nervous system and endures for decades—silent, yet never gone. It does not disappear simply because no one speaks about it."

True healing happens in community. In returning to spirit. In the reclamation of Sila—the breath that connects us all.

07/16/2026

Sila: The Life Within Everything is a beautiful new documentary from Science and Nonduality's The Eternal Song film series. Set in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), it follows the lives of Inuit women: healers, artists, elders, tending to what colonization tried to bury.

Watching Sila reminded me that healing isn't only personal. It's carried through community, through memory, and through the courage of those who preserve language, ceremony, songs, and ways of belonging so future generations can remember who they are.

As Rakel Aviaja Sanimuinaq says in the film: “Use my roots to dive into your own culture. Because if I can awaken my ancestors—so could you.”

If that question speaks to you, I hope you'll join us TONIGHT for the Santa Cruz premiere of SILA followed by a community conversation led by directors Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo.

🎬 Santa Cruz Premiere of SILA
📍 At RCNV, 612 Ocean Street
📅 6:30 PM, Thursday, July 16 (Doors 6 PM)
🔗 RSVP for tonight: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sila-kalaallit-nunaat-greenland-santa-cruz-premiere-tickets-1992176293923
🔗 RSVP for the July 28-29 online gathering: https://rcnv--sand.thrivecart.com/sila/

❤️ Ticket donations support both RCNV and SAND’s vital work, and 50% of proceeds after film production costs directly fund Indigenous-led initiatives in the featured communities. No one turned away for lack of funds.

✨ Special thanks to our promotional partners: Center for Spiritual Living, Center for World Networking, Romero Institute, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH), SURJ Showing Up for Racial Justice—Santa Cruz County, UCSC American Indian Resource Center, UCSC Community Studies, Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County, KSQD Community Radio, and Watsonville Film Festival
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