Join us to Break Barriers and Break the Silence
Conversation
A Virtual Shalon on CANCEL CULTURE:
Is Media Too Quick to Judge? How Will This Affect Society Going Forward?
Cancel culture, defined as the popular practice of withdrawing support for individuals, public figures and companies after they have done or said something that others consider objectionable or offensive, is a relatively new term and phenomenon that is being used to describe and condemn others’ behavior- ranging from recent events such as Morgan Wallen’s use of a racial slur or the removing Donald Trump from social media.
What are the ramifications of Cancel Culture?
Can we use this practice as a teachable moment to increase sensitivity and forgiveness?
Should society forgive past mistakes?
This topic will be explored during an interactive conversation with:
Dr. Fred Luskin, Director, Stanford Forgiveness Projects
Patrick Harrington, Executive Director of Honor Yoga Foundation and former CEO of Kindness Yoga
and others
View Past Events here
Resources:
Cancel Culture: a definition (Wikipedia)
Where Did ‘Cancel Culture’ Come From? James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
Cancel culture is entering a dangerous new phase. But there is a key to getting out Deseret News
Cancel culture or accountability? Iowa State News
Event, Video on Demand: Is Cancel Culture Canceling our Freedoms? IntelligenceSquared
More coming soon
The virtual table
Feel free to eat or drink during Shalon, no need for hanger
Planning to order food or support a local establishment? Share with the Shalon community via social media so others can do the same!
Our generous conversation guides
Dr. Fred Luskin
Dr. Luskin serves as Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects, an ongoing series of workshops and research projects that investigate the effectiveness of his forgiveness methods on a variety of populations. The forgiveness project has successfully explored forgiveness therapy with people who suffered from the violence in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone as well as the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. In addition his work has been successfully applied and researched in corporate, medical, legal and religious settings. He currently serves as a Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at Stanford University and is a Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He presents lectures, workshops, seminars and trainings on the importance, health benefits and training of forgiveness, stress management and emotional competence throughout the United States.
Patrick Harrington
Patrick Harrington is living a life of his dreams, he has been working the majority of his adult life within the yoga, health and wellness world. From 2001 - 2020 he was the CEO and founder of a donation based yoga studio group of 9 locations in the Denver, CO. area. More recently he is the Executive Director of the Honor Yoga Foundation who aim is to support the broader yoga community of the US through online yoga, meditation and live virtual coaching sessions. The recent world changes with COVID being paramount have led him to reflect deeply on how best to serve the greater good of humanity and have led him down the path of working within the Non-Profit space. He is a Husband and Father of two Daughters.
Alison Turkos
Alison Turkos is a sexual assault survivor and advocate fighting for systemic change.
Whether it’s through telling her story publicly, working behind the scenes with organizations and companies, or filing litigation to hold systems accountable, Alison centers and lifts up survivor voices and pushes the narrative to be more survivor-centric.
As an outspoken survivor of sexual assault, she has fought to challenge the systems that further harm and silence survivors.
After Alison was kidnapped by a Lyft driver and gang raped in 2017, she refused to stay silent about how system after system failed her and so many other survivors. On January 31st, 2019 she filed a lawsuit against the New York Police Department because of the callous disregard and negligence she was met with when reporting her sexual assault. The following September, she filed another lawsuit—this time against the rideshare company Lyft, for continuously dismissing her story and refusing to take any meaningful action to make their platform safer.
“I do not believe there is one pathway to justice. I believe sometimes you have to work within a system to change the system. And sometimes you need to tear the system down and rebuild it,” says Alison.
Alison has been interviewed about her experiences and her work to hold systems accountable across dozens of national news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, CBS This Morning, New York Magazine’s podcast The Cut on Tuesdays, The Huffington Post, ABC News, and NBC News.
In addition to her advocacy for sexual assault survivors, Alison works in the reproductive health, rights, and justice field. Currently working to increase access to abortion and contraception in the US and Latin America, she also serves on the steering committee of the All* Above All Action Fund. She previously worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood of New York City, and served on the board of the New York Abortion Access Fund.
Alison was born and raised in Vermont, graduated college in New Hampshire, and has lived in New York City for 10 years.
Follow Alison on Twitter: @alisonturkos .