erin potts

The 1990 Democracy movement in Nepal changed my life, and set me on the path to doing human rights work and the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. Hoping freedom comes to Nepal, and the violence stops. And thanks to friends there for giving us first hand accounts of what they are seeing and hearing.

It was the first time I experienced martial law, the first time I hid in the dark after curfew while soldiers marched past, the first time I had a rifle aimed straight at me...the first time I witnessed people risking everything for the freedoms I was born into.

Every night, massive protests filled the streets—and every morning, the signs of resistance were scattered across the ground. Some were just torn-out pages from school notebooks, with slogans like “We Want Democracy” scribbled over math homework and vocabulary lists.

Watching the young people leading protests in Nepal has me thinking about the first time I was there in 1990, when I was 17 yrs old. At that time, Nepal was still ruled by a king, but the people were demanding a constitutional democracy.

Want to honor him on his birthday? Support the work he’s dedicated his life to by following Tibetan-led organizations like @tibetaction.bsky.social and @sft-international.bsky.social and help amplify their efforts.
#TibetWillBeFree

I’ve been fortunate to meet him. Adam & I sat with him before the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. Later, when Jon and I were getting married, he offered us a prayer. When we asked for advice, he laughed: “What do I know about marriage? I’m a monk.” Then added the best advice ever: “Not too much emotion.”

Happy 90th to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
For over 60 years, he’s led with grace, grit, humility, and humor—guiding Tibetans through exile, stepping down from political power so they could lead themselves, and ensuring China can’t control his reincarnation.

June 15 - 16, 1996. San Francisco. The first Tibetan Freedom Concert brought 100,000 people together—and the world listened. Celebrate by sharing this post with the name of your favorite freedom song. Because songs move people, and people move history. #TibetanFreedomConcert #TibetWillBeFree

Over the next year, we’ll be sharing the sounds, sights, and sparks that show how culture infuses power into freedom movements—and how we can use that power now for Tibet and beyond.

🎶 Follow along. Share widely. Join us.
#FreedomNeedsASoundtrack #TibetanFreedomConcert #TibetWillBeFree

We’re back—with the stories that started it all. Follow our next big project here and @freedomneedsasound.bsky.social as we unearth never-before-heard stories, rare photos, and movement ephemera from the fight for a Free Tibet—before, during, and after the first Tibetan Freedom Concert.

this $10k fellowship just came across my screen for musicians who work at the intersection of community and change. please spread the word. you can nominate yourself and others. due march 10th.
form.typeform.com/to/faKPRLMs

FAFO. Let us make it so.

Speed of Trust How to seize rapid response moments to transform our narrative environment

Just stumbled on this report from 2022 that I wrote with Tracy Van Slyke and Pop Culture Collaborative about rapid response work in the narrative and cultural strategies field. Thought it might be helpful in this moment of never-ending rapid responding... popcollab.medium.com/speed-of-tru...

50501 — 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement Join the movement to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach. 50 protests, 50 states, 1 day: #50501.

there are major protests happening this friday (the 28th) and next tuesday (march 4th). find one near you here: www.fiftyfifty.one

The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.

TL;DR: nonviolent campaigns seeking regime change always win when they engage 3.5% of the public in protests. in the US, that is 11 million people.

Public Opinion Is Meaningless Against Trump -- Public Action Is What Matters To defeat Donald Trump — and save ourselves — it’s time to stop reading polls and start leading protests.

TL;DR: we need to be protesting in the streets.

A Challenge to Philanthropy: Break the Cycle and Fund the Infrastructure that Already Exists As America faces crises of democracy, economic collapse, and growing authoritarianism, the old models of philanthropic investment are no longer just ineffective—they’re dangerous.

this. this. this. www.kalw.org/kalw-speaks/...

sure wish this wasn’t on mardi gras, but I guess I’ll just have to incorporate some more resistance metaphors into my soldier of love outfits.

They want us to think we’re alone. We are not. The Resistance is Everywhere.

Welcome to Resist List. Your online hub of the ongoing resistance to the growth of authoritarianism in the United States.

How Much Discomfort Is the Whole World Worth? - Boston Review Movement building requires a culture of listening—not mastery of the right language.

www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

“It’s a process that can bring us into the company of people who share our beliefs quite explicitly, but to create movements, rather than clubhouses, we need to engage with people with whom we do not fully identify and may even dislike.” words by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba from…3/4

“…Organizing on the scale that our struggles demand means finding common ground with a broad spectrum of people, many of whom we would never otherwise interact with, and building a shared practice of politics in the pursuit of more just outcomes… 2/4

let’s build movements, not clubhouses! “Efforts to build diverse, intergenerational movements will always generate conflict and discomfort. But the desire to shrink groups down to spaces of easy agreement is not conducive to movement building… 1/4

ps. some of the predictions of what causes the solutions to be possible in “ministry for the future” is already happening.

engaging in solar punk is a way to strengthen our imagination of positive practical futures and to counter our very well-practiced ability to embrace the doom. perhaps one — or all — of these books helps someone out there feel that a positive and practical future is actually possible.

solnit’s book is written in another moment of despair & feels like medicine for today. “ministry for the future” & “walkaway” are fiction, reflecting a genre called solar punk, which is like cyber punk, but instead of dystopia it finds solutions to the most pressing problems in the near future.

these three books have given me a lot of hope, and hope is what we are going to need to cultivate and share in the coming weeks and months and years…(more on why below.)

And if you are wondering what a cultural audit is and how it helps, here is a quick primer: medium.com/a-more-perfe...

Excited to share a cultural audit on housing, conducted with Laura Hughes from PolicyLink and Harmony Labs, where we explored storytelling opportunities on platforms like YouTube to shift the narrative around housing. Check out the full report here: www.policylink.org/resources-to...