Coming Together in the Great Turning study/practice/integration book group
Just released in December 2025, Coming Together in the Great Turning: Collective Liberation and Work That Reconnects, shares over a decade of learning with how to expand and grow Work That Reconnects facilitation to better attend to how oppression is showing up in group spaces and move towards collective liberation.
This book group series will explore applications of some of the main content in the book related to facilitation of Work That Reconnects and similar forms of group work.
In many ways, the book is only scratching the surface and opening the door to deeper inquiry and study. Many of the recommendations offered require further learning and practice to be able to integrate.
This study/practice/integration group is designed to offer support for that learning journey and will meet two weeks on, one week off for a total of six sessions:
Session 1 (January 11) will explore Chapter 1 and especially Chapter 6 focusing on understanding systems of oppression and working with social location.
Session 2 (January 18) will explore Chapters 7 and 8 on Seeing and Addressing Oppression Dynamics and Appendix A On Giving and Receiving Feedback About Harm
Session 3 (February 1) will explore Chapter 10 on Anti-oppressive Facilitation and addressing different "isms" as well as Appendices B and C on Community Agreements and Why Share Gender Pronouns
Session 4 (February 8) will explore Chapter 11 on Trauma Awareness and Approaches for Group Facilitation and parts of Chapter 12 on Inner Work For Collective Liberation
Session 5 (February 22) will explore Chapters 2 on Updates to the Work That Reconnects; Chapter 13 on Culture and the Work That Reconnects; and Appendix D Reconsidering the Practice called "Reporting to Chief Seattle"
Session 6 (March 1) will explore more parts of Chapter 12 on Inner Work for Collective Liberation and building support for going forth in our respective learning and growing journeys.
These sessions will be organized and facilitated by Aravinda Ananda with some special guest facilitators. The main group portions will be recorded if you need to miss a particular session. However, as the primary purpose is to be in practice in this shared community learning space, the biggest value is in attending live.
You can order a digital or paperback copy of the book directly from New Society Publishers or on Bookshop.org
About Aravinda Ananda
Aravinda (she or they) resides on Massachusett land in the northeast United States and is one of the three author-editors of Coming Together in The Great Turning: Collective Liberation and Work That Reconnects. She has been a lead convenor of the Anti-Oppression Resource Group (a peer space for WTR facilitators to be in learning together as well as support learning in the wider WTR community) since its inception in 2017. She was one of the guest editors along with Patricia St. Onge and Anne Marie Davis of the August 2017 Deep Timse journal special edition on "The Impact of Race and Culture on the Work That Reconnects." In 2019 she co-authored with Carmen Rumbaut a document entitled "De-escalating patterns of harm in white dominant spaces" that arose out of harms that were named as reoccurring in Work That Reconnects spaces. She subsequently was part of a team that offered a series of "De-escalating patterns of harm in white dominant spaces" practice sessions. From 2022-2024 she worked with Kara Bender and Mutima Imani to develop parts of an Anti-Oppression Facilitation Foundations Curriculum for Work That Reconnects facilitators which greatly informed the book and this study group. She feels passionate about the Work That Reconnects and its ongoing evolution to make it safer and reconnecting for all who experience its power, and she feels grateful for the opportunity to be in ongoing learning and practice towards collective liberation.
